Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.
The price of i sh and the value of seagrass
beds: socioeconomic aspects of the
seagrass i shery on Quirimba Island,
Mozambique
1
Fiona R. Gell
Introduction
Marine resource use is an important component of the local economy
in many tropical coastal areas. The importance of marine resources to
a community depends on the geographic and economic situation of the
area: the level of development, the role of tourism and the availability of
alternative sources of income (Ruddle, 1996a). In areas near international
airports and large cities, marine resources can be exported to an interna-
tional market or sold to tourists and can fetch high prices. In more isolated
places without a developed transport infrastructure, marine resources may
only be used on a subsistence level in the immediate local area and thus
have a much lower economic value (White et al., 1994; Lindén and Lundin,
1996; Birkeland, 1997). However, in such isolated places the local value of
marine resources is high because they are often the most important source
of income and animal protein.
To manage marine resources it is important to assess the ecological
status of the habitats and organisms that are being exploited. It is also
important to assess how local people use marine resources and their role
in the local economy. As the socioeconomic structures of coastal com-
munities develop and change, the intensity with which marine resources
are exploited also changes. In the past this generally happened on a local
or perhaps national level. However, at the beginning of the twenty-i rst
century, the phenomenon of 'globalization' means that few places really
are remote or inaccessible any longer. Economic growth and social change
in one place can af ect the extent to which marine resources are exploited
in other parts of the same country, in other countries and even in other
continents. For instance, rapid economic growth in Asia has had a direct
impact on the sustainable use of marine resources throughout the Pacii c,
from Taiwan to the Galapagos, with large Asian companies buying live
reef i sh, sea cucumbers and other marine products to supply the growing
Far Eastern markets (Birkeland, 1997).
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