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Venezuela Fishing and Forestry
The fishing subsector as a whole provided over
one-tenth of
the total output of the agricultural sector by the late
1980s.
For a country with a 2,800-kilometer coastline, a shallow
continental shelf of some 9,000 square kilometers, and a
network
of more than 1,000 rivers, Venezuela was slow to exploit
its
coastal and inland waterway resources. It was not until
the mid1980s that a minor fishing boom took place. In 1975 the
government established a National Fishing Enterprise to
upgrade
the traditionally undercapitalized fishing industry.
During this
period, the growth of domestic shipbuilding and a general
industrial expansion benefited fishermen. From 1983 to
1988, the
catch of the nation's anglers grew by 54 percent, reaching
354,185 tons. A 300 percent increase in the tuna catch
ranked
Venezuela as the world's fourth largest producer. Most
tuna,
however, was sold at sea and did not reach local markets,
where
meat was still the dietary preference. By contrast, river
fishing
remained underdeveloped.
Forests covered an estimated 34 percent of Venezuela's
land
area. During the 1980s, the timber industry modernized and
consolidated; from a collection of small saw mills, it
developed
into several large integrated wood pulp and newsprint
plants,
especially in the Guayana region. Joint ventures with
foreign
companies sought to harvest several hardwood species for
wood
products and chemical derivatives. The government's forest
protection service wielded little regulatory authority,
prompting
some concern over the pace of deforestation.
Data as of December 1990
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