Aceh's fishermen at threat again -- this time from too much help
Aceh's fishermen at threat again -- this time from too much help
Sebastian Blanc, Agence France-Presse/Banda Aceh
Just eight weeks after December's tsunami turned their fleets
into firewood, the fishermen of Indonesia's Aceh province are
again facing a serious threat to their livelihood.
But this time, it is from the very hand that is supposed to be
feeding them.
Experts are warning that the type of help being offered by the
international community and the scale of the pledges risks
fundamentally transforming the delicate natural balance in the
local marine ecosystem.
Already the first boats have been offered, without local
consultation or preliminary studies and experts are warning that
mistakes are being made.
Oman donated 50 fibreglass boats with petrol engines, while
the fishermen here are used to dealing with wooden vessels and
diesel engines.
For the thousands of people who used to depend on the sea to
feed their families, the Dec. 26 tsunami robbed them not only of
a living but the means to feed their families.
"They can't repair these boats, which will end up being too
expensive for them," says Jean-Jacques Franc de Ferriere, Food
and Agriculture Organization coordinator for Aceh.
Some aid groups here have even said such vessels could be
dangerous, fearing they are not heavy enough to cope with the
Indian Ocean's swell.
"The fishermen have clearly said they want to get back to
their own type of boat," says Serge di Palma, mission head of the
non-governmental group Triangle, which is trying to use local
skills and materials to help the local fishermen rebuild their
fleets.
The traditional local boats are simple and cost around
US$1,300, according to Triangle. Around eight meters long and
crewed by two men, they are made of two or three types of wood
and use a Chinese-made inboard motor.
The tsunami destroyed an estimated 70 percent of such boats in
Aceh, either sinking them, smashing them to pieces or beaching
them hundreds of meters inland.
"You can't just turn the whole socioeconomic structure upside
down," says Ferriere, warning that trying to impose ideas from
outside risks doing long-term damage.
Some in the West have suggested giving Indonesia run-down
European fishing boats -- something that alarms di Palma.
Such a gesture, albeit well-intentioned, risks producing the
potential for overfishing and upsetting the delicate equilibrium
of the fish stocks -- in short, of "bringing the problem they
have in Europe over here."
The Acehnese don't use large nets, he explains, adding that
European trawlers do not meet the needs of the local fishermen.
Such needs are being assessed by agencies and foreign groups
here in minute detail. The Food and Agriculture Organization
recently published the results of a study for the less-devastated
east coast of the province.
The survey makes for some shocking reading, suggesting that
6,611 fishermen were either killed or are missing, presumed dead,
and 5,224 boats and 5,124 engines destroyed.
The west coast was even more badly affected and the full scale
of the destruction has yet to be assessed. But, if only because
so many fishermen were killed, it will not be necessary to
replace all the boats lost.
One step not to be underestimated is encouraging the fishermen
to regain sufficient confidence to put out to sea once again.
Many of them have been living in the hills and say they intend
to stay there. Experts have said the fishermen feel they can no
longer rely on their boats, which now sit washed up far from the
water's edge.
seb/jah/th
Asia-quake-Indonesia-fishing
AFP
GetAFP 2.10 -- FEB 21, 2005 10:47:46