News stories by Danilo Valladares* - Tierramérica

Shrimp farming, one of the most destructive industries for coastal ecosystems, may soon be endowed with a set of standards that would supposedly vouch for environmentally responsible production, through the efforts of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

'If they come here to extract iron from the beach, it will mean the destruction of our natural wealth and the end of tourism,' warned Leonel Palma, a hotel employee in Puerto de San José on Guatemala’s Pacific coast, where the government has granted mineral exploration licenses.

The debate is growing in Central America over the scope of industrial crops in forested areas or subsistence farming zones, and their impact on the source of food for the rural population.

'Many people still believe that water is a gift from God.' This statement from a Guatemalan scientist alludes to Central America's neglect of its water resources - - and the subsequent impact on agriculture.

'There are hardly any tourists now, and nearly all the hotels are empty,' says Rosa Rosales, who works at the Hotel Pa Muelle, on the shores of Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, a natural treasure that has been overcome by pollution.

The shortage of resources for law enforcement and high demand from the wealthy countries of the North have left the field wide open in Guatemala for trafficking of wild animals, many of which are endangered, warn experts and environmentalists.

'This place used to be beautiful. It was truly a mangrove forest. When the shrimp farmers arrived, we lost 60 percent of it because of the logging,' said Francisco Vásquez, manager of a hotel on the Pacific coast, in the southeastern Guatemalan department of Jutiapa.