Mangroves in Colombia: an example of the Tragedy of the Commons

 Hi, Everyone: 

The Tragedy of the Commons (coined by Garrett Hardin in his 1968 article in the Journal Science, citing the William Forster Lloyd essay of 1833) is a parable that illustrates why common resources are used, more than is desirable from the standpoint of society as a whole. Hardin argued that in the absence of private property rights or strict government regulation, shared resources will be depleted (i.e., the commons), because individuals tend to act selfishly, rushing to harvest as many resources as they can from the commons (the shared resource will be completely exhausted as a result of its non-sustainable overexploitation).

In this order, often, but not always, we see certain kinds of limited natural resources (i.e. common-pool resources) shared by communities, because there are significant challenges to establishing and enforcing private property rights. Good examples are fish, forests, and water, often managed by local communities with or without some government regulation. Apart from the unregulated grazing in a common land case described by Hardin, documented examples of the Tragedy of the Commons are overfishing (like the Grand Banks fishery) and deforestation, light pollution, over-extraction of groundwater, and wasting water due to over-irrigation (Tschakert, Zimmerer, King, Baum & Chang, n.d.; Farooq, 2020).

Hardin argues that to prevent the overuse, overexploitation, and final depletion of the common resource, there should be some restrictions to the amount of usage, like affixing property rights. This is an interesting reflection in the times of Covid-19, studying the effects of stocking of food, toilet paper, and other supplies, the shortages of medical supplies (face masks, mechanical respirators, operation rooms, and intensive care units) or the eventual effects of massive vaccination on the herd immunity (Cocke, 2020; Farooq, 2020; Gordon, 2020; Ling,2020; Marco; 2020; Poulose, 2020).

In this scenario, I would like to propose an example of the Tragedy of the Commons in the Colombian context. For this purpose, I will talk about the situation of mangroves in Colombia.

A mangrove (mangle, in Spanish) is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water, and the tropical coastal vegetation (manglar) consisting of such species. Mangroves occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics, and Colombia is one of the top 20 mangrove habitat countries (with 1672 Km2 in mangrove forests, and 6236 Km2 in mangrove biome). Of the 70 species of mangroves in the world, 11 are on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. As of 2010, IUCN found that more than one in six mangrove species is in danger of extinction (Rico, 2020).

Mangrove ecosystems (with mangrove trees as the main protagonist) depends on saline and sweet water from tides and surface runoffs. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees (halophytes), adapted to life in harsh coastal conditions (included low oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud), containing a complex salt filtration and root system to cope with salt-water immersion and wave action.

Mangroves are a strategic ecosystem unique and irreplaceable, for their great biodiversity and the ecosystemic services that they provide, like regulation (coastal line stabilization, erosion control, carbon sink, air, and water purification), provisioning (wood, colorants, tannins, artisanal and industrial fishing), support (productivity, nutrient cycle, soil formation), and cultural (recreation, landscaping, and spirituality). Taking also into consideration that Colombian mangroves are part of ancestral territories of indigenous and afro-descendant communities, existing strong relationship between these communities and this ecosystem (SIDAP, n.d.).

According to the 2010 update of the World Mangrove Atlas, one-fifth of the world’s mangrove ecosystems have been lost since 1980, although this rapid loss rate appears to have decreased since 2000 with global losses estimated at between 0.16% and 0.39 annually between 2000 and 2012. Shrimp farming (an aquaculture business that exists in either a marine or a freshwater environment, producing shrimp or prawns for human consumption) causes approximately a quarter of the destruction of mangrove forests.

Mangroves in Colombia are threatened by indiscriminate logging, poorly planned infrastructure, and expansion of the agricultural frontier, which conveys to overexploitation of the resource with loss of the ecosystem infrastructure, and changes in the composition of this forest and reducing their associated hydro-biological resources (SIDAP, n.d).

In the Caribbean coastline of Colombia, there are 90.160,58 Ha of mangroves and 194.880 Ha in the Pacific coastal strip. On the Caribbean side (where the ecosystems most affected are located), approximately 40000 Ha have a high state of degradation, including altered forest (with damages ranging from 20% to 80%), and deteriorated areas, with hyper-salinization of soil, biome loss, the disappearance of habitats and niches, and loss of trees of 80% or more. The rest of them have a low intervention, with a loss of trees of about 20% (Casas-Monroy, 2000; Sánchez, 2002; Minambiente, n.d.). The causes of this problem are as follows:

1) The hydrological deficit because rainfall in several sectors is lower than the potential evaporation rate.

2) Non-sustainable civil engineering (roads, docks, and installations for shrimp production).

3) Unplanned expansion of the urban, industrial, and agricultural frontiers into the mangrove forest.

4) Indiscriminate lodging of mangroves, for subsequent filling of terrains with the purpose of building tourism infrastructure; and unsustainable overexploitation of the forestry with no consideration of offer against restoration capacity (sale of wood of great durability and low price, especially for construction of houses and ships, leaves for roof housing, and for firewood, because its great heat power with a scarce production of ashes).

5) Obstruction of natural water channels and building of platforms, sidehill cuts, and embankments that impedes the free flow of sweet water and interrupts the flux between swamps and the open sea.

6) Sedimentation of mangrove ecosystems, because of poor management of the highlands of river basins. Also erosion, because of strong sea currents, hurricanes and the action of screw-mollusks.

7) Contamination of hydrocarbons and plastic waste.

On the Caribbean coast, there are cases of serious damage tomangroves. In Salamanca Island, and the big swamp (Ciénaga Grande) of Santa Marta, many mangrove hectares as a result of obstruction of sweet water channels and consequent interruption of hydrological flux between the swamp and the sea. This situation occurred because of the construction of the Ciénaga-Barranquilla and Palermo-Sitio Nuevo road; the draining of flood plains and the construction of embankments to prevent flooding of cattle ranches (haciendas).

In the case of the Canal del Dique Channel (that connects Cartagena Bay to the Magdalena River), the disappearance of mangroves was due to inappropriate forestry and shrimp management. The same occurred because of the construction of the Tolu-Coveñas highway and the Cartagena-Barranquilla ring road; oil contamination and thermic waste in San Andrés; the construction of hotels between Tolú and Coveñas, the Baru islands, the Rosario archipelago, and between the Cartagena airport and The Boquilla sector. Finally, in the Cartagena bay, because of activities in the industrial zone of Mamonal, and the La Virgen and Cesca swamp, and the construction of the Cartagena-Barranquilla ring road (Sánchez, 2002).

Between 1958 and 1977 (when INDERENA, the national environmental authority of the times decided to suspend industrial forestry of mangroves), approximately 29400 tons of mangrove from the Ciénaga Grande of Santa Marta and the Canal del Dique Channel were logged. On the Pacific coast, tannins production was the base for mangrove forestry, using only the barks and leaving the trunks to rotten in the woods.

In response, regulations in 1995 – 1997 (Resolution 1602 of 1195, 20 of 1996, and also, Resolutions 257 and 924 of 1997), demanded forestry renovation plans to users as required by the Autonomous Regional Corporations (CAR). In 2002, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development issued the National Program for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Mangrove Ecosystems, currently in effect (Puentes & Bellon, n.d.).

Current challenges facing for protection of mangroves are the following:

1) Creating awareness about the importance of mangroves for local communities. Mangroves have been the source for their economic subsistence on small scale, extracting wood, and alcohol, paper for wrapping cigarettes, tannins, synthetic fibers, incense, phosphorous sticks, and glue. Thousands of families earn their living from artisan fishing, shrimps and other mollusks collection, wood, and medicinal plants, sustaining the diet of ancient coastal cultures.

2) Creating conscience about the environmental importance of mangroves. They are irreplaceable and unique ecosystems, with astonishing biodiversity, considered as one of the five more productive ecological units of the world, with more primary productivity levels than many agricultural systems.

3) Mangroves protect many organisms in their trunks, roots, and the mud beneath them, which act in the decomposition of organic material and convert toxic materials into sulfur, purifying water arriving at the sea. Mangroves prevent flooding and act as a filter, purifying the air that runs into agricultural soil, retaining salt particles from the marine breeze, sediments and mineral salts.

4) They favor many marine species, which spawn in the estuaries and even pass some period of their growth and development into this ecosystem in search of food and protection (about 80% of marine species depend on mangrove ecosystems, thus their destruction is transcendental in the depletion of fishing banks, artisan and industrial).

5) Mangroves serve also to reduce the impact of tides accumulating mud and forming marshes where the organisms rest. Moreover, they serve as stabilizers of the coastline, helping in erosion control, and serving as a natural buffering system for hurricanes and tidal winds (windbreakers). Finally, mangroves retain four times more carbon than other kinds of forests, being key actors in climate change mitigation (Casas, 2020).

6) Empowering local communities. This has been possible with more effectiveness on the Pacific coast because many mangrove forests are located in areas under the jurisdiction of the Communitarian Councils of Afro-descendants and Indigenous communities. Nowadays there is successful zoning of about 66% of mangrove areas in categories of recuperation, preservation, and sustainable use (Minambiente, n.d.).

7) Promoting ecotourism, especially in the Pacific coast (WWF, 2020), supporting productive projects for local communities (Sánchez-Páez, Álvarez-León, Guevara-Mancera & Ulloa-Delgado, 2000), and avoiding to use this areas as dumpsites (Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, 2018; Greenpeace, 2019).

8) Promoting sustainable consumption of gold (whose extraction not only uses a lot of water but also contaminates the rivers affluent to mangroves) and cattle (a key responsibility of mangrove degradation in the Caribbean coast is illegal forestry due to extensive stock farming).

9) Supporting collective actions against urbanistic, hotels and harbor projects that threaten these ecosystems and consuming fishing products from sustainable practices of the communities designated as guardians of mangroves (Semana, 2020; Linares, 2016).

10) Promoting reforestation, rehabilitation, and restoration of mangrove forest in exchange of rational exploitaition (Canas, n.d.).

References:

Álvarez-León, R. (2003) Los manglares de Colombia y la recuperación de sus áreas degradadas: revisión bibliográfica y nuevas experiencias. Madera y Bosques. 9 (1) (Spring 2003). Retrieved from: https://myb.ojs.inecol.mx/index.php/myb/article/view/1286

Canas, P. (n.d.) Los manglares se resisten a la extinción. Retrieved from: https://www.elheraldo.co/tendencias/los-manglares-se-resisten-la-extincion-207766

Casas, P. (2020, August 12). En Colombia están los manglares más altos y conservados de América. In El Espectador. Retrieved from: https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/en-colombia-estan-los-manglares-mas-altos-y-conservados-de-america/

Casas-Monroy, O. (2000) Estado de los manglares en Colombia año 2000. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras INVEMAR. Retrieved from: http://www.invemar.org.co/redcostera1/invemar/docs/EAMC_2000/INVEMAR_INF_EAMC_2000_06.pdf

Cocke, G. (2020, April 6) Reflecting on the tragedy of the commons during COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://www.utdallas.edu/sustainability/news/20200406a/

Farooq, A. (2020, August 23) The tragedy of the commons. In The News. Retrieved from: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/704363-the-tragedy-of-the-commons

Gordon, E. (2020, December 8) As COVID-19 vaccines roll out, does the world face “tragedy of the commons”? In The World. Retrieved from: https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-12-08/covid-19-vaccines-roll-out-does-world-face-tragedy-commons

Greenpeace (2019, July 26) “La contaminación plástica pone en riesgo a los manglares”. Retrieved from: https://www.greenpeace.org/colombia/noticia/issues/contaminacion/la-contaminacion-plastica-pone-en-riesgo-a-los-manglares/

Guevara, L. (2018, July 26) Iniciativas para proteger las 284.000 hectáreas de manglares del país. In La República. Retrieved from: https://www.larepublica.co/responsabilidad-social/iniciativas-para-proteger-las-284000-hectareas-de-manglares-del-pais-2753429

Linares, A. (2016, June 10) Colombia ha perdido más del 50 por ciento de manglares. In El Tiempo. Retrieved from: https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-16617206

Ling, T. (2020, June 22) What Elinor Ostrom teaches us about avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons in delivering the public interest in the post COVID-19 world. Rand Corporation. Retrieved from: https://www.rand.org/blog/2020/06/what-elinor-ostrom-teaches-us-about-avoiding-the-tragedy.html

Marco, A. (2020, May 4) Anesthesiology, the Tragedy of the Commons, and Coronavirus Disease 2019. In Anesthesia & Analgesia (July 2020). 131 (1), 120 – 123. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7202107/

Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible – Minambiente (n.d.). Manglares. Retrieved from: https://www.minambiente.gov.co/index.php/component/content/article?id=412:plantilla-bosques-biodiversidad-y-servicios-ecosistematicos-14

Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia (2018, July 23) En Día Internacional por la Defensa del Manglar, homenaje póstumo a su gran defensor: Heliodoro Sánchez. Retrieved from: https://www.parquesnacionales.gov.co/portal/es/en-el-dia-internacional-por-la-defensa-del-manglar-haremos-homenaje-postumo-a-su-defensor-por-excelencia-heliodoro-sanchez/

Poulose, B. (2020, August 25) Our health care tragedy of the commons. In Generalsurgerynews. Retrieved from: https://www.generalsurgerynews.com/In-the-News/Article/08-20/Our-Health-Care-Tragedy-of-the-Commons/59277

Puentes, V., & Bellon, D. (n.d.) Los manglares de Colombia: un ecosistema estratégico. Retrieved from: https://www.limcol.org/TimoneraMagazinePdfLM/11/timonera11Los%20manglares%20de%20Colombia.pdf

Rico, J. (2020, October 1) Mujeres que protegen los manglares colombianos. In Open Democracy. Retrieved from: https://www.opendemocracy.net/es/democraciaabierta-es/mujeres-protegen-manglares-colombianos/

Sánchez-Páez, H., Álvarez-León, R., Guevara-Mancera, R., & Ulloa-Delgado, G. (2000, August) Lineamientos estratégicos para la conservación y uso sostenible de los manglares de Colombia. Propuesta técnica para análisis. Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, Acofore, OIMT. Retrieved from: http://www.itto.int/files/user/pdf/publications/PD171%2091/pd171-91-p2-s2-2%20rev2(F)%20s.pdf

Sánchez, H. (2002, December 23). Un problema por abordar. Los manglares del Caribe colombiano. In revista Semillas, Edition 16/ 17. Corporación Grupo Semillas. Retrieved from: https://www.semillas.org.co/es/un-problema-por-abordar-los-manglares-del-caribe-colombiano

Semana (2020, July 7) Diez cosas que debería conocer sobre los manglares. Retrieved from: https://sostenibilidad.semana.com/actualidad/articulo/expertos-de-wwf-hablan-sobre-la-conservacion-de-los-manglares/53336

Sistema Departamental de Áreas Protegidas del Valle del Cauca – SIDAP (n.d.) Ecosistema manglar. Retrieved from: https://sidap.cvc.gov.co/es/node/166

Tschakert, P., Zimmerer, K., King, B., Baum, S., & Wang, Ch. (n.d.) The Tragedy of the Commons. Retrieved from: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog30/node/343

Villalba, J. (n.d.) Los manglares en el mundo y en Colombia – Estudio descriptivo básico –. Sociedad Geografica de Colombia. Academia de Ciencias Geográficas. Retrieved from: https://www.sogeocol.edu.co/documentos/Manglares.pdf

WWF (2020, July 26) 10 preguntas que deberíamos hacernos de los manglares. Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.org.co/sala_redaccion/noticias/?uNewsID=364411