Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the nearest school is in Quirimba village. Most households on the island
have a
chamba
, a piece of land, where they grow sweet potatoes, cassava,
papaya, corn and beans. The land tenure system was informal and slightly
vague at the time of study and appears to be entering a process of mod-
ernization and formalization. Many families have plots that their family
had farmed for years, which they think of as their own but have no legal
documentation. Others have cleared bush and scrub by slash and burn to
claim the newly cleared land as their own.
A large area of the middle section of the island is covered in a coconut plan-
tation owned by farmers of German origin whose family have had a planta-
tion on the island since the beginning of the century. The plantation provides
jobs for about 80 people as labourers, guards and processing workers. The
coconuts are produced for the copra market. The plantation owners rear
cattle to sell in Pemba. There is also a local herd of cattle owned by a number
of people in the village. The cattle graze in the coconut plantation.
Although people on Quirimba are fairly self-sui cient in terms of
everyday requirements such as food, water and building materials, many
people make the trip to Pemba, the provincial capital, to sell produce for
a small cash income, to pay for medical treatment and to buy household
goods such as cooking pots and clothes. Three motor boats sporadically
provide transport for the day-long journey from Quirimba to Pemba. It is
also possible to go to Quissanga on the mainland on the other side of the
Montpuez Bay by dhow then go by road to Pemba, but this often takes
even longer and is more expensive.
Types of marine resource use
The main i shing methods on Quirimba Island are seine netting and
marema
trapping (woven bamboo i sh traps) in the subtidal seagrass beds,
the collection of invertebrates from the intertidal seagrass beds and a
variety of smaller-scale i sheries and resource collection on the coral reefs
and in the mangroves. The marine resources captured by these methods
can be put into three categories based on their use (see also Table 8.1):
Locally consumed resources
The majority of i sh caught locally are con-
sumed locally by i shers and their families or by other local people who
trade goods or services for them.
Locally sold resources
Some fresh i sh and shelli sh are sold locally.
There is no i sh or seafood market in the village as such - buyers usually
go to the beach where i sh or shelli sh that have been collected that day are
landed. Dried produce is occasionally sold between Quirimba residents on
a casual basis.
