Is it true that the mangrove forests at Rufiji are some of the last remaining large tracts?
Rufiji Delta actually has the largest integral mangrove forest in East Africa. It’s about 53,000 hectares of mangrove forest there. The original plan for the shrimp farm at Rufiji would have affected about 1/3 of those mangroves, clearing them out of the picture. Because of outside pressures and environmentalists’ concerns we’ve been able to at least get the industry to address the issue. We’ve interviewed another aquaculture expert who has consulted for the large shrimp farm interests in the Gulf of Manseca. He showed us satellite photos that seem to show that larger farms have taken care to locate in salt flats rather than in mangroves. And from these photographs it also appears that the smaller farms are the ones displacing the mangroves. He also said that the large farms are amongst the most sustainable in the world and he seemed to be quite proud of the fact that they are living up to the FAO Code of Best Practices criteria. Can you comment on that? For one, in Honduras there’s st
