The recent growth of fish and shrimp farming has had a major impact of coastal rainforests, especially mangroves.

Shrimp farmer clear mangrove forests, dig massive ponds filled with salt water and stock them with babies. The resulting shrimp-dense ponds eventually silt up with waste and salt, rendering them unusable. Companies abandon these ponds and move on to clear and dig up new areas.

This devastation, which can wipe out local fish populations (since the fish are dependent on the mangroves to spawn and grow to adulthood) is often at the expense of and in opposition to local fishers and indigenous groups.

In countries from Ecuador, Venezuela, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and Belize, aquaculture is expanding rapidly along rainforest coastlines.