Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Socioeconomic investigations are increasingly being incorporated in
biological studies of tropical coastal i sheries (Sri Lanka - Dayaratne
et al., 1995; Fiji - Jennings and Polunin, 1996; Kenya - Juma, 1998),
as it has become apparent that ecological and socioeconomic aspects of
resource use must be considered together. Increasing emphasis is being
put on the role of user participation and the use of local knowledge in
the management and development of natural resource use in developing
countries (Chambers, 1997; Sillitoe, 1998). However, including an element
of 'indigenous knowledge' in natural resource projects is rare, with just 1.1
per cent of all projects funded by the UK Department for International
Development (DFID) in the past including such research (Sillitoe, 1998)
Fishing and other types of marine resource use are typically last resort
sources of food and employment for people who have no alternative
(McManus, 1993). In Mozambique half the population's protein intake
is estimated to be from i sh (Van der Elst et al., 2005). This is one of the
reasons that marine resources and particularly those that are easily acces-
sible on foot are put under such severe pressure in very poor, often highly
populous areas. Accessible sheltered areas such as reef l ats and seagrass
beds often support large numbers of very poor i shers who cannot af ord
boats (McManus, 1993). Seagrasses are therefore often more likely to be
intensely exploited than other habitats.
Study area
This study was conducted as part of the Frontier-Moçambique Quirimba
Archipelago Marine Research Programme. Much of the socioeconomic
data presented here were collected on Quirimba Island, one of the two
most densely populated islands in the Archipelago, during 13 months'
i eldwork over a period of two years (1996 and 1997). Quirimba Island
is 6km long by 2km wide. It is situated within a few kilometres of the
Mozambican mainland and is part of Ibo District in the province of Cabo
Delgado. At low spring tides it is possible to walk between the island and
the mainland and also to Ibo Island to the north and Sencar Island to the
south. Quirimba has 3000 inhabitants, most of whom live in Quirimba
village at the northern tip of the island. A few hundred people live outside
the village, the majority in the Kumilamba area in the south of the island.
The seagrass beds of the island have a high diversity of i sh with 249
species identii ed (Gell and Whittington, 2002), which is more than 10 per
cent of the total number of i sh species in the Western Indian Ocean.
The history of the Quirimbas
The Quirimba Archipelago has a long and colourful history, but there
are few existing historical records and the islands have been little studied
