Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

Coastal region and small island papers 12

2. Nature of the conflicts (continued)
beginning of the chapter

Coastal conflicts in non-urban areas

Conflicts in non-urban areas are in many cases similar, although different in scale, to those that exist in urban coastal centres. Conflicts related to the movement of large groups of people into coastal areas in Uruguay and out of coastal areas in Latvia are discussed (see papers by Piriz & Couto and Pulina & Ernsteins). These may be compared with those already discussed at Omisalij and ASSBY, although in each case the specifics of the particular conflict are different. Other case studies focus on conflicts that exist between different groups of resource users: between a local fishing community and developers in Mozambique; between tourists and fishers in the Seychelles (see paper by De Comarmond & Payet); and between different groups involved in aquaculture in Russia (see paper by Shilin). Changes in political regimes in Russia and Latvia influence the nature of the conflict and the way it is resolved, and may be compared to the Kotor case study already discussed.

	Fishers at  Playa  Blancas,  Uruguay,  Rio de la  Plata,  May 2001
Erosion at Neptunia, Rio de la Plata,  Uruguay, May 2001

In Uruguay, 69% of the population lives along the coast of the Rio de la Plata, while most industries and intensive agriculture are also located in this part of the country. The width of the Uruguayan coast of the Rio de la Plata, from its origin on the Uruguay River to the Atlantic outlet at Punta del Este, varies between a few hundred metres to 15 km on the terrestrial side and between 4 and 13 km on the aquatic side (see paper by Piriz & Couto). 

As in Omisalj and ASSBY, there has been a considerable increase in human pressure on the coastal area as a result of intensive internal migration during the last decade, e.g. in the Rio de la Plata coastal area, some localities tripled their population between 1985 and 1996. This has resulted in several serious problems, including: beach and ravine erosion; sand extraction; urbanization of coastal and river mouth areas causing damage to private property, disrupting natural processes, and endangering human safety; increased solid wastes; poor water quality.

Another conflict situation related to the movement of large groups of people in coastal areas, exists in Latvia. Here, past policies regarding the coastal area have caused a different set of problems. During the 50 years of Soviet occupation, the coast was considered a frontier zone and a restricted area. A large part of the population was moved away from the coast towards Siberia, and commercial and recreational activity was restricted.

Partly as a result of this policy, the coast is now home to many picturesque fishing villages. These villages were originally settled by the Livs, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe. This region, along the coast of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga, has a very low population, only about 10,000 inhabitants. The main industries are forestry, fishing and fish processing. As a result of the strained economic situation, many of the historic buildings are in disrepair. Owners, because of their poor financial situation, are unable to carry out the necessary repair and restoration work. New featureless buildings are beginning to appear reducing the historic character of the villages.

As a result of a weak planning and institutional structure, particularly at the local government level, there is a very poorly regulated land market. A small number of prosperous people are exploiting this situation and consolidating large land purchases and developments in the coastal zone. Unfortunately the local administrative bodies are unable to respond and plan effectively for the new development.

At the beginning of the transition period, during the early 1990s, when there was a changeover from communism to a more democratic form of government, people were very optimistic. However, this attitude has not been maintained; now people are unwilling to accept new ideas, good projects are often blocked, and public relations are poor. The communist style is still evident in institutions and people’s thinking. There is a need to change attitudes and develop a more positive approach. This pessimistic way of thinking among inhabitants of the Latvian coast can be compared to the isolation problem already discussed in Kotor, Yugoslavia (Montenegro). The psychological aspects are similar; there is a lack of local initiative and a need for confidence building in both areas. (See paper by Pulina & Ernsteins)

During the workshop, participants visited a coastal fishing village a few kilometres outside Maputo, in Mozambique, where they discussed with the community problems relating to land ownership and future development. The Costa do Sol village is a traditional fishing community, and the majority of the inhabitants depend on the sea for their livelihood. Some families have been there for at least one hundred years. The villagers have recently formed a fishing association. The village is threatened by coastal erosion, and the nearby coastal highway has had to be protected with a boulder revetment. During the meeting, the community said that their greatest concern was for future tourism development.

The earliest residents only have traditional titles to their land; however, such titles are recognized under the current land law in Mozambique. Some of the more recent residents have proper title deeds. However, all land in Mozambique belongs to the State, so the land title only gives the right to use the land; the State has the right of compulsory purchase.

Most of the residents want to stay in the area and continue their way of life. However, they fear that in the case of tourism development, this right of access to the sea might be lost. They recognize that while they remain united, their position is strong. However, if developers approach land-owners on an individual basis, offering money for their land titles, their position may well be weakened.

During a visit to the Incomati Estuary in Mozambique, the workshop participants had the opportunity to see a tourism development endangered by erosion. The Incomati River mouth is diverted to the south by a long spit of sand extending about 12 km. On one of the very narrow sections of the spit, Macaneta Beach, a tourism development was built. During the floods of 2000, the river cut through the spit to the sea at Macaneta Beach. Although the break through the spit was filled in after the 2000 floods, the hotel restaurant, which in 1997 was about 70 m from the riverbank, was only 7 m from the riverbank in 2001. The owners are very concerned about the situation and are considering various soft and hard engineering options to protect the property. These include restoring the mangroves and constructing a gabion mattress to slow down the river flow. However, costs may prove prohibitive, and in view of the size of the river, such measures may be ineffective. In addition, the owners wish to expand their business and build more tourism accommodation close to the riverbank.

		Traditional fishing boat,  Macaneta Peninsula,  Mozambique, 2001
Tourism development, Macaneta  Peninsula, Mozambique, 2001
Site where the River Incomati broke  through the dunes in the year 2000  floods, Macaneta Peninsula,  Mozambique, 2001

Conflicts between tourists and fishers were described in the Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. At Beau Vallon, one of the most important tourism beaches in Mahé, recreational divers have complained that overfishing diminishes the diving experience. Incidents of divers cutting fish traps free and releasing sharks caught using long lines, have been recorded. In this case, each user group sees the other as a threat to their survival. (See paper by De Comarmond & Payet).

The shipment and offloading of oil at  Belomorskaya (top), conflicts with  ecotourism and conservation in the  Kandalaksha State Reserve (bottom),  White Sea, Russia, 2002

The coastal zone in Russia’s Murmansk region (White Sea/Barents Sea) is heavily utilized for ports, a tidal power plant dam, oil and gas production, fishing, aquaculture and forestry. In the post-communist era, it is recognized that while aquaculture is a sustainable business in this coastal area, it also causes a number of problems. The most pervasive issue facing aquaculture is the establishment of clear property rights to land, water and fish used in the culture. Even though the Barents Sea is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, there is a marketing problem. First there was a private fishery, then a government fishery; but now the fishery is in crisis and aquaculture is seen as a type of holding pattern to try and give something to the small stakeholder.

The problems with aquaculture include theft, damage by boats and oil leakages, attacks by seals and sea birds. Direct conflicts exist between fish-farmers and the owners of the fishing boats, and between fish-farmers and the Kandalaksha State Reserve. Eutrophication was also noted, thereby dispelling the myth of the ecological safety of aquaculture (see paper by Shilin).

The coastal conflicts described in this section cover a wide variety of problems, ranging from coastal erosion to land speculation, and from changes in traditional ways of life to the psychological aspects of new political regimes. Ways in which individuals and communities can begin ‘to manage change’ is fundamental to all these case studies. Unfortunately the wish of the Chief at the Costa do Sol fishing village in Mozambique, namely for his village to be left alone, is something that many communities might desire, but few will experience.

Coastal conflicts in protected areas

Coastal areas with special protection status due to their physical, biological, cultural and/or historical attributes, experience their own special problems. In many cases this is because local communities are viewed as secondary in importance to the environmental protection ethic. The plight of local farming communities and their future in coastal areas in the northeastern part of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa, was discussed in the context of the long-term conservation plans for the area. Other conflict situations involving fishers in protected areas were discussed in Chumbe Island, Tanzania, and in the Saloum Delta Biosphere Reserve, Senegal. The extraction of building materials from archaeological shell-midden sites in the Saloum Delta is another case study.

Maputaland, which straddles the three countries of Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland, is a world-renowned centre of endemism with high biodiversity. A special protocol, the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, has been developed which aims to reduce poverty in the area and promote ecotourism.

Within this area, South Africa plans to develop a coastal reserve stretching from Kosi Bay to Lake St. Lucia. However, many of the communities in this area, with 30–40% of the population employed in agriculture, are among the poorest in South Africa. Many farmers are moving to the cities thereby adding to urbanization problems. Investment potential is inhibited by a lack of coastal roads, little environmental awareness, and conflicts between traditional tribal leadership and new municipal governments.

The most agriculturally productive soils are to the west, not near the coast. However, during the apartheid era, many communities were forced to move towards the coast away from the good soil areas, which then became the domain of commercial farmers. Now with small-scale agriculture being the main means of employment in many of the communities near the coast, there is a conflict between agriculture and conservation.

The excessive use of monoculture, with cashcrops like eucalyptus and sugar cane, which have little money-making potential at present because of international market factors, results in low incomes for the small-scale farmers. Monoculture also results in environmental pollution and degradation. Soils tend to lose their fertility, and large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers are required. The widespread burning of sugar cane before harvest also destabilizes the soil and reduces biodiversity.

One suggestion has been to develop a different type of agriculture in the coastal areas, such as organic farming, and the production of industrial crops such as sunflowers.

In the long term, the Conservation Service wishes to roll back agriculture out of the coastal reserve. However, the local communities, where people are very poor, are dependent on agriculture, and somewhat disillusioned with promises of new ecotourism development, which has not happened. The conflicts are complicated by the scale implications: the short term versus the long term, the community level versus the larger-scale protected area/park level. (See papers by Jury, Govender & Mthembu and Vannozzi & Baldini).

In another protected area in the Seychelles, the conflict is between tourism development and conservation. The government recently approved the construction of a five star hotel on St. Anne Island, which is part of the St. Anne Marine Park, the most popular marine park in the Seychelles. The Seychelles Marine Parks Authority was based on the island and had to be relocated because of the project. St. Anne Island is important historically because it is the site of the first settlement in the Seychelles in 1770. Concern has been expressed whether such a tourism development was appropriate, in a place of environmental, historical and cultural importance. (See paper by De Comarmond & Payet).

Turning now to a protected area in Tanzania, a similar conflict has emerged between conservation and fishing. Over the past decades, destructive fishing practices, such as over-fishing and dynamite fishing, together with pollution and sedimentation, have led to the deterioration of coral reefs and declining fish landings along the coast of Tanzania. There is little public awareness about the need for coral reef management, and indeed the national language, Kiswahili, traditionally has no common word for corals.

While several marine parks were designated along the coast in the 1970s, these remain on paper only. Chumbe Island is a small, uninhabited island near Zanzibar. On its western shores there is a coral reef of exceptional biodiversity that harbours around 90% of the reef-building coral species recorded in the region. The Chumbe Island Coral Park was established in 1991 as a private conservation project, where ecotourism supports conservation and educational excursions for local school children. The island and part of the fringing coral reef were gazetted as a protected area in 1994.

However, with the advent of liberalization in the early 1990s, challenges to the marine protected area increased as the project was implemented. As the tourism industry created a growing market for marine products, fishing became an attractive occupation for urban youths who could afford modern propulsion and fishing gear and had little respect for traditional fishing grounds and the more conservative traditional fishing practices. Infringements of park regulations reached a peak in 1994/95 when groups of up to 15 fishing boats challenged the park rangers by simultaneously dropping anchor and fishing in the protected area, sometimes threatening violence. Management agreements oblige Government to assist the Chumbe Park with enforcement, but government support was weak, and enforcement was left to the park rangers who do not carry arms and have limited powers of enforcement.

The palm-thatched Visitors' Centre and eco-bungalows on Chumbe Island, 2001,  popular with Zanzibari schoolchildren and ecotourists alike

Further examples of conflicts involving fishers in a protected area can be seen at the Saloum Delta Biosphere Reserve, located in the western central part of Senegal. The reserve is a wetland area of international status and a Ramsar site (List of Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention of 1975). It consists of a wide expanse of coastal ecosystems with high biodiversity. Diversification of human activities in the area has led to competition for the control of space. Several types of conflicts occur: such as those within and between resource-user groups – farmers, breeders, fishers, shell-midden operators; between various State services – Sub-prefecture, National Parks, Forestry Department, Fisheries Department; and between decentralized authorities – Rural Council, Village Chiefdoms, Centre for Rural Development.

Fishing is the main economic activity for the island populations in the Saloum Delta. In many villages, daily conflicts arise due to incompatible fishing gears, the high density of fishers, fishing intensity, and the behaviour of stakeholders.

Different, and often incompatible techniques are used in artisanal fishing and industrial fishing. Artisanal fishers use standing gear (surface and bottom-set gillnets), while industrial fishers use mobile gear (gill nets, beach seines, cast nets, lines, shrimp nets). On many islands, fishers using standing nets leave their nets across passes blocking access to those using mobile gear, who may then destroy the standing nets and rob them of their catches. According to those using free gear, the sea belongs to everybody and nobody is allowed to impede others from fishing. Clashes between these fishers may lead to fights taking place at the fishing grounds.

The fishing grounds are zoned so that the Delta area, up to 6 km offshore, is for artisanal fishing only. Beyond this limit, the fishing grounds are open to both industrial and artisanal fishers (provided their boats are suitable). Sometimes industrial fishers, whose boats and catches are much larger, enter the 6 km nearshore restricted zone and destroy artisanal fishing gear. There are also conflicts between different groups of fishers e.g. the Lebous restrict other villagers from fishing in the channels between islands.

		Exploitation  of cultural  heritage: human skeleton exhumed  from shell-midden
	site, Guior Island, Senegal,  June 2001
	Shell-midden site, Guior Island  (Saloum Delta Biosphere Reserve),  Senegal, July 2002

Another conflict relates to shell middens, these are archaeological sites dating back to Neolithic and Iron Age cultures. The middens consist of broken shells, the remains of fish and mammals eaten by the fishers-gatherers, hearths, pottery shards, weapons and human bones. Three groups of operators target these resources: quarry companies (private and government) to extract the building material; local people who use the shells to make bricks; and the State of Senegal which is attempting to preserve these mounds as part of its cultural heritage. Conflicts exist between the different groups. On the one hand, there are those who take over shell quarries, building ovens in the immediate vicinity and setting up exclusion zones. On the other hand, there are those who collect the shells for ornamentation or construction using light equipment, such as sieves, spades and pickaxes. In addition, operators living in villages where shell middens are located, such as in Beteni, forbid access to competitors from surrounding villages, hence clashes occur between villages.

There are also conflicts related to the economic versus the archaeological value of the shell middens. In Thioupane, for example, shell middens have a very high market value locally. However, the middens are also classified as part of the National Cultural Heritage. The government has identified which middens are of most archaeological value.

The debate about permitting extractive industries in conservation areas has been ongoing for many years. There is no simple or universal answer; for each case the middle ground or compromise has to be determined. One of the first steps is to understand the nature and causes of the conflict. (See paper by Kane, Fall & Kandji).

Concluding comments

Dune-mining by Richards Bay Minerals,  north of Mnzingasi Village, Maputaland,  South Africa, November 2001

The case studies presented in this chapter present many interesting lessons, and perhaps one of the most important is the linkages that emerge. The movement of large groups of people into coastal areas, as seen in Omisalj (Croatia), Rio de la Plata (Uruguay) and ASSBY (India), creates a range of problems from an identity split between two different populations (Omisalj) to the depletion of basic resources such as drinking water (ASSBY). These contrast with the conflicts that exist when large groups of people move out of coastal areas, as seen in Latvia, leaving a population diminished in numbers and income, and land and property ripe for speculation by outsiders.

The psychological scars left in coastal populations by wars (Kotor, Yugoslavia/Montenegro) and by certain political regimes (Latvia) may result in a loss of initiative on the part of local inhabitants, and a sense of isolation. As was mentioned in the case of Kotor, another result of the post-war situation was the dependency on donor aid and the absence of proper in-country screening of such aid. This matter of donor aid was intensely debated at the workshop and is further discussed in Chapter 5.

The case studies dealing with extractive industries in protected areas also present interesting scenarios, which centre around local communities using the resources of the conservation areas.

Another idea that emerges from the discussion of these case studies is that communities working on their own are not always able to envision the wider implications of certain actions beyond their immediate locale. It is here that scientists, researchers and other professionals can often help, by contributing their view of the larger picture, and an understanding of why there is a conflict situation.

Perhaps the essence of the whole discussion on conflict prevention and resolution revolves around the Village Chief’s comment in Costa do Sol:

‘ALL WE WANT IS TO BE LEFT ALONE AND HAVE THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO THE SEA, OTHER DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE ELSEWHERE’

Unfortunately for the villagers, and many others, the reality is that change is inevitable. Accepting this reality, and finding ways ‘to manage change effectively’ lie at the heart of conflict prevention and resolution.

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