Clad in old worn-out clothing, armed with a spear and trapping net, the local poacher descends onto the mangrove forest looking for whatever luck will hand him, whether a monitor lizard or meat bird. He does not know he is chopping off the very branch supporting him. That branch is the ecosystem of deltas and water, found where the mighty Godavari River meets the Bay of Bengal. But, like too many others, both men and women, the poacher persists year after year.
This is a reality in a place I call home, a unique habitation with endemic flora and fauna. Together with the abundant water, the eastern mountains or gaths, and the ever green mangrove forests, we have gained much from the ecosystem. It protects our lives, fields, flocks and property from the yearly cyclones. It provides lodging for the wildlife and a source of legitimate livelihoods to many. It is on this note that we should not chop the branch supporting us.
The challenges in this mangrove region go beyond the dedicated poachers to include illegal lumbering for construction timber, exploitative gathering of flock fodder and fuel wood, and deforestation to practice aquaculture.
I witnessed these injustices for more than two decades. Yet, for a long time, I did nothing. I failed to even take up the position of a humming bird, dropping water from its beak upon a wild fire, as Nobel laureate Wangari Maathi narrates.
Finally, driven by both guilt and pain, I sought alternatives for my community, and my searching led me to the Go4BioDiv International Youth Forum where I was greatly inspired. Yet, the question remained: across this rich and varied landscape, how could local people secure their livelihoods without sacrificing the ecosystem itself, and all its splendid diversity?
Poaching and deforestation had long been a source of income for the locals. Although ecologically unsustainable, poaching has been employment to most of the uneducated youth from certain tribes. In addition, multitudes of families in most villages directly benefit from such practices.
This paradox was evident on my first attempt to discourage poaching by a hunter who did not mince his words, “Noti kada kudu koteyaku?” he said, meaning, “Please don’t take away food that is almost in our mouth”. Nor could he afford to lose income from selling the monitor lizards, which were considered an aphrodisiac, and fetched a good price.
The poachers raised legitimate issues and I was immediately required to not only fight the darkness but also to provide light. Fortunately, as an agricultural graduate and messenger of Go4BioDiv, I was able to tailor several solutions for this community based on the existing resources. Firstly, together with the locals, we reinforced the fishing occupation, a tradition adopted from their ancestors and passed on through the generations. We also introduced poultry farming as an alternative source of income. Using money from my college scholarship fund, I donated a few hens and ducks, and a fishing net to each of the 26 families that responded positively.
The locals soon started earning money cooperatively by hiring out their ducks to rice farmers, who used the duck droppings to fertilize their rice fields and boost yields. At the start of each of the three planting seasons in a year, the ducks are moved from field to field as needed. And now the villagers have begun thinking of saving money to invest in other income generating activities like goat and sheep farming.
With each success, I slowly educated the local youth about the importance of conserving the biodiversity. With their help, we reached the public through awareness campaigns in schools and in markets, where we also demystified the lizard meat as an aphrodisiac.
Challenges still exist. The wildlife is still butchered and the mangroves are still illegally brought down. But poaching is no longer as acceptable as it once was. Village women and youth are actively involved in stopping the trade by informing the local authorities, and this, too, abates would be wrong doers. The reduced pressure on wildlife is laudable.
Finally and most fulfilling, is that following the success of sustainable income generation options, many other people are showing interest in adopting the “new crusade”. I am therefore grateful that a few more now work with me, and like the hummingbird, we have taken up our positions.
Blogpost based on input by Sabbithi Pavan (India)
Edited by Bee Wuetrich (Landesa & Focus on Land in Africa)
Picture: Sabbithi Pavan from Go4BioDiv talking to villagers
