- Officials broke ground last week on the Airport of the Pacific near the coastal town of La Unión, in eastern El Salvador, where mangrove ecosystems support wildlife and prevent coastal erosion.
- While the project could bring thousands of jobs to an undeveloped part of the country, it could also lead to massive development where coastal habitats currently protect drinking water for local communities.
- The airport is part of President Nayib Bukele’s plan to invest over a billion dollars into the eastern side of the country.
Construction has begun on a new international airport in El Salvador despite ongoing concerns that the project will lead to rapid development near vulnerable wetlands and other coastal ecosystems.
Officials broke ground February 25 on the Airport of the Pacific near the coastal town of La Unión, in eastern El Salvador, an area rich in mangrove ecosystems that support wildlife and prevent coastal erosion. Many communities in the area worry that the airport will spark a wave of unregulated development that could result in even more environmental damage.
“Even if deforestation seems minimal at first, in the long run, it has a major effect because we’re cutting into the ecological balance of these territories,” José Maria Argueta, program director for local NGO the Mangrove Association, told Mongabay.
The airport will be El Salvador’s first commercial international hub outside of the capital San Salvador, increasing connectivity with the less developed eastern departments like La Unión and San Miguel.
It will feature at least six jet bridge bridges capable of serving 80,000 passengers, creating an estimated 23,722 jobs during construction and 4,700 jobs once it begins operation, according to the country’s Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA).
Over the next decade, the project is expected to generate 50,000 direct and indirect jobs and boost the national GDP by 1.5%, according to President Nayib Bukele, who spoke at a press conference during the airport’s groundbreaking ceremony.
“The Airport of the Pacific is not just an air terminal,” Bukele said. “It’s a gateway to development, tourism, investment and economic development of the entire eastern region.”
This first phase of construction received $320 million from the Development Bank of Latin America and $16.4 million from the Spanish government, with another $50 million coming from the Salvadoran government.
Completion of the first phase is scheduled for 2027.
The project has been criticized by conservation groups concerned about the impact on mangroves, which prevent coastal soil erosion and have been found to capture significantly more carbon than terrestrial forests, a key factor in preventing climate change.
Mangroves also prevent saltwater from seeping into freshwater reserves, which local communities rely on for drinking water, Maria Argueta said. Numerous birds, mammals and reptiles will also lose their habitats, and breeding grounds for many fish could disappear, he said.
“When you undertake a project of this scale, it causes [habitat] fragmentation, which leads to other consequences — some species have to migrate, others will be confined to smaller areas,” he said.
But officials maintain that the project meets environmental standards and includes plans to correct the damage it will cause during construction. Some include installing barriers to control sediment and prevent water contamination, reforesting native species to make up for vegetation loss and monitoring air quality.
“We know there are people who are uncertain about access to water,” Bukele said at the press conference, “but it will be the other way around: people who live around the project and haven’t had decent access to water will have it today because this project brings the necessary funds to live well.”
Maria Argueta said the government always promises to reforest and manage other environmental risks, but that it doesn’t always happen.
“Degradation always happens regardless,” he said. “…Even if the government says they’re going to reforest certain areas, fragmentation will still occur.”
The airport is part of a larger $1.4 billion push by the Bukele government to develop the eastern departments of El Salvador. Spending in the region includes $400 million to expand La Unión port and $22.5 million for bridges in the towns of San Antonio and Carolina, both in the department of San Miguel.
There are also several road projects underway, such as the $41-million highway between Punta Mango, Usulután and San Miguel, and the $160-million Gerardo Barrios Ring Road in San Miguel.
The Bukele government reportedly hopes that increased development will attract the tech industry and reignite his plans to build Bitcoin City, a tax-free smart city at the base of Conchagua volcano in La Unión.
Bukele has said that geothermal energy from the volcano can produce 95 megawatts of energy — a claim met with skepticism by some experts.
In 2021, the government made Bitcoin legal tender alongside the US dollar, but it had to scale back its use this January during talks with the IMF about reducing economic risk. Developing the eastern part of El Salvador is supposed to grow the national economy and make it more stable, officials have said.
“What was required to bring development, economic growth, well-being and services to families in the east was investment and remembering these forgotten places in our country,” Bukele said during the press conference.
Banner image: Construction on the Airport of the Pacific. Photo courtesy of Casa Presidencial/X.
Citations:
Sodhi, N. S., Butler, R., Laurance, W. F., & Gibson, L. (2011). Conservation successes at micro, meso and macro scales. In Conservation Biology: Voices from the Tropics (pp. 13-17). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118679838.ch2
Cui, X., Liang, J., Lu, W., Chen, H., Liu, F., Lin, G., Xue, F., Luo, Y., & Lin, G. (2018). Stronger ecosystem carbon sequestration potential of mangrove wetlands with respect to terrestrial forests in subtropical China. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 248, 220-230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.11.019
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El Salvador reverses landmark mining ban, setting up clash with activists
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