Population, consumption and environmental degradation in a mangrove ecosystem in El Salvador

'This paper summarizes those factors that have precipitated the loss of environmental capital and contributed to the degradation of the mangroves in El Salvador. Current patterns of extraction and conversion in the mangrove ecosystem in El Salvador can be viewed through an entitlement lens that confers property rights upon some actors and denies them to others. A hierarchy of activities contribute to environmental degradation in the mangroves reflecting the different demands upon and entitlements to that ecosystem. Ecosystem goods and services are undermined by direct conversion to aquaculture and salt ponds; post-larvae collection that reduces the stock of juveniles in the estuary; pollution and runoff from the discharge of solid waste and agricultural chemicals; siltation and sedimentation from upstream deforestation; and the loss of mangrove stands to logging and fuelwood gathering. Exploring the multiplicity of these demands upon the ecosystem and those factors that accentuate or ameliorate the degradation of the mangroves provides information about how this degradation can be redressed. '(excerpt from author's introduction)