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INSIDE THE MANGROVES

This sections includes a wide variety of situations in mangrove areas throughout the tropics. Some describe the problems while others focus more on struggles. While there are clear similarities in some aspects, it is also true that every article adds new issues or perspectives, thus enabling the reader to reach a deeper understanding - article after article - about the issue.

AFRICA

Kenya

Mangroves threatened by Canadian mining company

The Kenyan coast is estimated to hold more than 10% of the world's unexplored deposits of titanium, a metal used in the pigment industry, and increasingly in the manufacture of many objects of modern life. A drilling recently performed in the Kwale area delineated a reserve of 150 million tons of sands containing rutile, ilmenite and zircon, the minerals used to make titanium.

This is very bad news for local communities living along the mangrove coast nearby Mombasa, such as those of Tsunza village, which are being threatened by a planned massive titanium mining development by a Canadian firm. The possible transformation of thousands of acres of farms and forests on the Kenyan coast into a titanium mine has sparked criticism among local community leaders. Since foreign companies operating in the mining sector in the South do not adhere to the same business and environmental standards as in their home countries, it is feared that the project will cause the rapid destruction of this valuable ecosystem. The Canadian mining industry in particular has expanded significantly overseas during the past decade provoking severe impacts both on forests and forest peoples. (WRM Bulletin Nº 38, September 2000).

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Madagascar

Mangrove importance and threats

Located to the East of Africa, Madagascar is the largest island in the Indian Ocean and its fauna and flora are highly endemic. Mangrove forests cover an area of 327,000 hectares, composed of seven tree species accompanied by an extremely diverse fauna.

The Baly Bay case is useful to understand the situation of mangroves in this country. The Baly Bay is located to the West coast of Madagascar. In 1997, 69,350 hectares were classified as a National Park, but including less than 500 hectares of mangroves, which in the region comprise a total of 7,200 hectares. Many species of animals use this habitat as nesting, roosting and feeding areas. Among the nine threatened and endemic Madagascar waterbirds species, five are recorded inside the mangrove (Ardea humbloti, Anas bernieri, Threskiornis bernieri, Haliaeetus vociferoides and Charadrius thoracicus). For mammals, two species are recorded inside the bay as the Madagascar bat Pteropus rufus, roosting on mangrove trees and Delphinus sp. In addition, mangroves constitute an important habitat for invertebrates. The most economically important is the crab Scylla serrata and two shrimp species: Penaeus indicus and P. monodon.

Those mangroves are an important source of income, not only for the country but also for the local population. The mangrove trees are used in building and to a lesser extent as firewood. The traditional and industrial fishing activities are practised inside the bay mainly based on the two shrimp species. The collection of crabs is carried out all year round to feed the local needs. The local population has for many years been involved in these activities, which have resulted in very low impacts on the ecosystem.

In recent years, shrimp has become one of Madagascar's main exported sea products. As a result, the Baly Bay region has become involved in this new tendency by establishing 600 hectares of a semi-intensive shrimp farming industry since 1998.

Compared to others ecosystem types (e.g. forests, lakes), mangroves are one of the less studied habitats in Madagascar, while the increase of the communities' needs and especially the development of shrimp farming are at a critical level. Although the impacts of these activies on mangroves are still difficult to identify due to lack of information, fishermen using traditional methods recorded that the proportion of catches of the two shrimp species (Penaeus monodon and P. indicus) jumped from less than 1/ 10 before 1998 to 1/ 4 in 2000. The causes of this change and other unexpected effects need to be identified and addressed to limit their impacts on biodiversity.

In Madagascar, the exploitation of mangroves for shrimp farming has increased considerably during the last ten years. At the same time, the strong demographic growth in the Malagasy western area may accentuate the ecosystem's degradation, thus simultaneously threatening biodiversity and the riparian community's livelihoods. Studies should be conducted to improve understanding of the relationship between exploitation and biodiversity conservation in order to avoid ecological disasters. Actions such as the ecological monitoring carried out in the Baly Bay region in 2000, require strong collaboration between the company, local communities, academia and relevant authorities, in order to achieve the conservation and sustainable use of resources. The reinforcement of the applied Malagasy decree related to the compatibility of investments with the environment (MECIE-Mise en compatibilité des investissements avec l'environment), followed by the implementation of ecological monitoring in areas under strong exploitation are essential. In addition, the priorisation of research programmes should be focused on understanding the ecosystem's functioning as the starting point to achieve conservation. (By: Rabarisoa Rivo, WRM Bulletin Nº 51, October 2001)

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Nigeria

Threatened mangroves

Thousands of hectares of mangrove forest and fresh water swamps of the Niger Delta, in the Cross River State, will be destroyed by ongoing oil exploitation activities. Responsible for the situation are the companies Moni Polu Nigeria Limited, that in early 1998 started its oil prospections in the area, and Nobles Drilling, which was contracted to start drilling oil wells. By December 1998 about 8 oil wells had been sunk. A 1000 km long pipeline, that will pass through over 25 communities, has also been programmed. In spite of the letters of protest sent by Nigerian environmental NGOs to the firms involved and to the national authorities, the new phase of the project will start without the accomplishment of the required Environmental Impact Assessment.

Oil prospection and exploitation are known worldwide for their negative environmental and social impact at the local level: loss of indigenous peoples' or peasants' lands, health problems, destruction of rainforests, pollution of water sources and air. At a global level, more extraction means more fuel consumption and liberation of CO2 to the atmosphere, the most relevant gas causing global warming. In the specific case of Nigeria, the military intimidate local populations, burn their houses and even kill the villagers that resist oil related activities in their lands. Several cases of human rights abuses have been denounced, as testified by the long struggle of the Ogoni people against Shell in Ogoniland and the most recent facts involving Chevron in the Delta State.

Oil industry is a very important factor of mangrove destruction in Nigeria, but not the only one. The Federal Government is suspected of having recently awarded a contract for the dredging of the upper River Niger from Warri to Baro, in the northern region of the country. Since mangroves are fragile forest ecosystems highly dependent on continuous water feeding, this project could gravely affect them, which could bring about the loss of livelihoods for their inhabitants. It is feared that the Niger Delta area, situated downstream of the location of the dredging project, and which has suffered for years much environmental degradation and social conflicts due to the activities of the oil industry, is further compounded with the works to be undertaken.

Nigeria has lost between 70 and 80% of its original forests and nowadays the area of its territory occupied by forests is reduced to 12% even if the entire country is located in the humid tropics. Having the largest population in Africa (115,000,000 inhabitants in 1996) it registers levels of 40% of illiteracy, while GNP per capita is only US$ 240. The authorities seem to ignore this reality and prefer to devote funds and efforts to megaprojects as the above referred, regardless of the real needs and aspirations of local communities. (WRM Bulletin Nº 22, April 1999).

Oil and violence

Oil exploitation is responsible for the destruction of mangroves, local community displacement and suffering, as well as environmental degradation of water sources and soil in Nigeria. This depredation is usually accompanied by brutal actions against local community members and activists, during which armed corps constitute the executive arm of the companies. The Niger Delta is an area where oil prospection and exploitation are especially active. Environmental destruction and human rights abuses in this region to the hands of Shell and Chevron have been repeatedly denounced.

On April 1999 the Ekebiri communities of the Southern Ijau Local Government Area of Bayelsa were victims of the violence displayed by a group of soldiers, under the control and direction of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC). Ekebiri is a clan of three communities - Ekibiri I, II, and Opuadoma - with 32 other satellite villages, with an estimated population of about 10,000 people. NAOC has been responsible for several human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. The company has even been accused by several of its host communities for instigating ethnic clashes amongst them as a way of weakening their resistance.

The events leading to the blood-bath started when the communities demanded from NAOC a compensation for the incessant spillages that have occurred in their territories, since 1969, the last being in 1997, and in which the company refused to pay. At the beginning of 1999 the company went into discussion with the communities but refused to pay the demanded sum. The discussions then broke down and the communities took steps on April 17 to enforce their demand by closing down the company's 2 manifolds in their communities. The following day NAOC took a military escort and reopened the shut manifolds, what was resisted by the villagers. The soldiers then opened fire into two boats, filled with unarmed youths and chiefs of Ekebiri I and II, who where on their way to a meeting with the Commissioner of Police of Bayelsa State. Eyewitnesses said that the shooting lasted for about 40 minutes and the soldiers shot the fleeing youths and chiefs until they landed on their community waterfront. Some were shot dead right on the community water bank while scrambling to run into their community. On hearing the gun shots, the entire villagers ran for their safety and deserted the village. As a result of this brutal action eight people were killed, two chiefs arrested and the boats seized.

The Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd. has produced crude oil in this region since 1969, but despite these two decades of oil exploration and generation of huge benefits for the company, the local population has remained poor. And their environment destroyed.

The Niger Delta Human and Environmental Rescue Organization (ND-HERO) is worried over the extent of impunity of Agip in dealing with oil producing communities. Agip is considered the worst company ever regarding environmental degradation and human rights abuses, seconded only by Elf Aquitaine.

ND-HERO demanded government to take urgent steps to bring Agip and the soldiers involved in these atrocities to justice and for Agip to abandon the use of the military in suppressing communities, and the instigation of ethnic struggles amongst the Niger Delta communities. (WRM Bulletin Nº 23, May 1999).

Nigeria: People protect mangroves against shrimp farming

The Nigerian area of saline mangrove swamps stretches through the coastal states with 504,800 hectares in the Niger Delta and 95,000 hectares in Cross River State. The mangrove forests of Nigeria rank as the largest in Africa and as the third largest in the world.

The Niger Delta has provided the best conditions for the thriving of vegetation on the Nigerian coast. Many of these areas are truly representative of untouched mangrove forests, as well as being reserves that protect unique and threatened valuable species. By some estimates, over 60% of fishes caught between the Gulf of Guinea and Angola breed in the mangrove belt of the Niger Delta.

Typically, these are fragile ecosystems which can be easily destroyed by unsustainable human interventions such as oil exploration, exploitation and transportation processes.

The inhabitants of historical settlements in the Niger Delta depend on fish and other mangrove resources for their livelihood. Mangrove wood is still a multi-purpose resource for fish stakes, fish traps, boat building, boat paddles, yam stakes, fencing, carvings, building timber and fuel.

Although there is an institutional framework for the management of forests and wildlife, existing legislation is either obsolete or ineffectively enforced. Some areas have been proposed for wetland conservation but none of the proposals have been implemented.

Current problems for mangrove conservation include urban development, coastal erosion, oil pollution, gas flaring as well as the replacement of native mangroves by the exotic palm Nypa fruticans, which has been identified as an ecological disaster deserving urgent attention.

Now, a new menace looms on the Nigerian horizon: industrial shrimp farming. Sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a branch of the World Bank, the Shell Petroleum Company of Nigeria Contractors will receive funds to develop this activity with the support of the Nigerian President.

The Mangrove Forest Conservation Society of Nigeria, together with other NGOs and CBOs - Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Eni-Owei _OU-Degema, ECO-out reach, Agape is a birth right, Niger Delta Project for Environment, Human rights and Development (NDPEHRD), Civil Liberty organization, Ijaw Council for Human Right (ICHR), Niger Delta Protect League (NDPL), Okoloma Forum and Kalio-Ama Ecological Foundation - are opposing the project and propose a rejection/moratorium on the IFC Credit Loan facilities to Shell Contractors without consultation. They will also draw up a programme to reverse presidential or any other support for shrimp farming. (WRM Bulletin Nº 51, October 2001).

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Tanzania

Mangroves menaced by aquaculture project

The Rufiji Delta in South Eastern Tanzania is one of the largest blocks of mangrove forests in East and Southern Africa. It covers an area of about 53,255 hectares of unspoiled mangrove forest, that support a large number of people, and is rich in aquatic as well as terrestrial biodiversity. The delta is linked to the interior of the river system by an extensive flood plain covering about 130 km long and up to 20 km wide. It is also linked to a system of ocean currents and coral reefs surrounding Mafia Island in the East and it influences fisheries production in the island through the northerly flow of marine currents.

Mangrove forests of the Rufiji Delta also stabilise the coastline by preventing coastal erosion, build land through accumulation of silt and the production of detritus, preserve the purity of water by absorbing pollutants from upstream sources and serve as windbreaks for the hinterland.

The Rufiji communities that rely on fish, mangrove poles and rice farming have made an ancestral sustainable use of this area. A proposed industrial prawn project by the African Fishing Company purported to use semi-intensive production methods would privatise one third of the Rufiji Delta. From experiences in other parts of the world, on average, semi-intensive prawn farms fail after about ten years. This eventually will therefore threaten the lives of thousands of local farmers and fishermen living in the delta; with severe environmental implications to the ecology and irreparable damage.

A proposal to establish the same by Coastal Aquaculture at the Tana delta in Kenya - an area with ecological features similar to those of Rufiji Delta - is still unresolved since mid 1992. The company purchased 10,000 hectares of land for this purpose. Later the land allocation was nullified by the Kenyan government through a presidential directive declaring the Tana Delta a wetland of international importance. However the Coastal Aquaculture company challenged this decision in court after which the high court ruled in their favour in 1996, meaning that the company may proceed to develop the 10,000 hectares for prawn farming.

In spite of their sustainable use of natural resources and adequate management of the environment, local communities are usually left out when resource management plans are being made. That is why more than 2000 Rufiji Delta residents filed a chamber application with the Tanzanian High Court seeking for permission to sue the government for endorsing the prawn farm project which will affect their economic well being. They argue that this aquaculture project will deny them access; through plans that are underway to fence off the prawn project area; to the natural resources including prawns, fish and other marine resources with which they have coexisted from time immemorial. They further state that the decision to allow the project to go ahead was taken without taking into account the environmental hazards the project will cause to the area. Furthermore the decision to undertake this "development" project was taken without their consent and involvement.

Local NGOs JET (Journalists Environment Association of Tanzania) and LEAT (Lawyers' Environmental Action Team), have been and still are the mainstay NGOs in Tanzania openly opposing this project. There was recently a meeting between EAWLS (East African Wild Life Society), JET, and other NGOs in Tanzania regarding the Rufiji Delta. Plans were being made to hold a 2nd East African Regional Workshop which will highlight present concerns regarding both Rufiji Delta in Tanzania and Tana Delta in Kenya. (WRM Bulletin Nº 12, May 1998).

Impasse on commercial shrimp farming at Rufiji Delta mangroves

On April 1999, Tanzanian NGOs were able to secure an interim order staying plans of the African Fishing Company's 10,000 hectare shrimp farm project at Rufiji Delta. Would the project have been implemented, one third of the whole Rufiji Delta would have ended up in the hands of the company for a period of no less than ten years, thus threatening the livelihoods of thousands of local farmers and fisherfolk living in the delta, and causing severe environmental impacts that would have put at risk the future of the region.

The panel of three judges chosen to hear and dictate on the case disintegrated when one of its members retired and another one was transferred. The case has not yet been assigned to another panel and it appears that at present there are not enough judges to constitute a new one. In the meantime, the company is said to be facing severe financial constraints which would have even forced it to sell part of its assets. Although the situation is not yet clear, it seems that the efforts carried out by concerned citizens and organizations have managed to save -- at least for the time being -- the mangroves and local peoples' livelihoods. (WRM Bulletin Nº 40, November 2000).

The death of the Rufiji Delta Prawn Project

The plans to build the world's largest shrimp aquaculture facility in the Rufiji Delta of Tanzania have encountered strong opposition from local people.

The Rufiji Delta, located about 150 km South of Dar es Salaam, contains the largest continuous block of mangrove forest in East Africa, comprising some 53,000 hectares. The Delta supports the most important fishery in Tanzania's coastline, accounting for about 80% of all wild-shrimp catches in the country. The Delta is home to approximately 41,000 people, many of whom are small farmers and traditional fishers. It provides important habitat for endangered animals and plants.

In 1997, the government approved a proposal by the African Fishing Company (AFC) to establish almost 20,000 hectares of shrimp farms there. The AFC wanted to use "public" land in the Delta to create shrimp ponds, hatchery, a processing plant, and a feed mill. Thirty-five percent of these facilities would be located within a "mangrove forest reserve", and the hatchery would be located on Bwejuu Island, which is part of the Mafia Island Marine Park.

The driving force behind the proposed project was the harvest of 6,210 kilograms of prawns per hectare per year which would be expected from the farm, with most exports going to Europe and Japan. The business would allegedly produce US$ 500 million a year in export profits, but social and environmental experts said the damage to the environment would far outweigh the profit.

The National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) - the environmental advisory body of the Tanzanian government - urged the government to reject the project on the grounds that it would have considerable negative impact on forestry, fisheries and marine environment, land use, water resources, as well as agriculture and wildlife. It would destroy 1,200 hectares of mangroves, including rare species such as Rhizophora and threaten habitats of a variety of endangered species. The proposed aquaculture operations would generate substantial pollution which would cause increased eutrophication, toxicity, and acidification of surrounding water resources.

In spite of NEMC's recommendation and over the objections of Tanzanian and international NGOs and agencies, the Tanzanian Cabinet approved the project. John R. Nolan, the majority shareholder of AFC, had also wanted to set up (in the Rufiji Delta) a fish mill and a fish processing factory all aimed at the Japanese, European and North American markets.

The project was strongly opposed by Tanzanian environmentalists, most notably the Journalist Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET), international environmental organisations, and local residents. From July 1997 to date, JET members have led the discussion on the negative impacts of shrimp aquaculture. Recently, 2,000 Rufiji Delta villagers filed an application with the Tanzanian High Court for permission to sue the Government to challenge the approval of the AFC project, and there is also another case pending in Court, filed by over 2,000 former employees of the company.

Finally, it seems that all those years of resistance to a damaging project have borne fruit. On August 15, 2001, it was announced in the press that the fishing vessels of AFC were to be sold through a tender team supervised by the High Court of Tanzania, apparently to offset part of the company's huge debt, accumulated over the years by the Rufiji Delta Prawn Project as a result of the opposition of local people to its implementation. The liquidation of the company implies that the project has been halted, thus ensuring the survival of Tanzanian mangroves and preservation of their social, economic and environmental services. (WRM Bulletin Nº 51, October 2001).

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