Having been involved with Ecuador for over 30 years as Boncur has been I often get a bit sentimental about what Ecuador was like 30 years ago. 30 years ago I met a few expats who had come to Ecuador even in the 30's when you did not need a passport.
One of my favorite recollections was the infamous mangroves that at that time had been severely damaged or destroyed to make way for shrimp farms that popped up in the 70's and made a lot of people rich. They were beautiful, magestic, and haunting. No doubt their destruction has impacted the coast.
A few years ago I read often in the paper about huge chunks of the coast dropping off into the ocean and some peoples homes being swallowed up especially in the island areas in Machala.
In December at the World Conference on Climatic Change in Cancun, two esperts on the subject spoke with a reporte at El Comercio: The news was not good and they reported the coast of Ecuador receding at least 2 meters every ten years. The story gets even worse with production estimates of crops ect.
I highly recommend a book which I believe was written in the 1980's called Walking the Beaches of Ecuador - a very good study. It is out of print and hard to get.
You can see some of the esperts opinions about the coastline of Ecuador at:
http://latinamericacurrentevents.com/ecuador-coastline-erosion-warning/
One of my favorite recollections was the infamous mangroves that at that time had been severely damaged or destroyed to make way for shrimp farms that popped up in the 70's and made a lot of people rich. They were beautiful, magestic, and haunting. No doubt their destruction has impacted the coast.
A few years ago I read often in the paper about huge chunks of the coast dropping off into the ocean and some peoples homes being swallowed up especially in the island areas in Machala.
In December at the World Conference on Climatic Change in Cancun, two esperts on the subject spoke with a reporte at El Comercio: The news was not good and they reported the coast of Ecuador receding at least 2 meters every ten years. The story gets even worse with production estimates of crops ect.
I highly recommend a book which I believe was written in the 1980's called Walking the Beaches of Ecuador - a very good study. It is out of print and hard to get.
You can see some of the esperts opinions about the coastline of Ecuador at:
http://latinamericacurrentevents.com/ecuador-coastline-erosion-warning/
