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