Meet Kimwabi traditional fishermen in DRC who live on streets paved with shells

Record ID: 1663229

  • Title: Meet Kimwabi traditional fishermen in DRC who live on streets paved with shells
  • Date: 9th March 2022
  • Summary: KIMWABI ISLAND, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (RECENT) (Reuters) CLAM-DIVER STEPHANE NZUZI NDEKA DIVES INTO WATER NZUZI EMERGES FROM WATER NZUZI THROWS CLAMS INTO DUGOUR CANOE NZUZI DIVES INTO WATER NZUZI EMERGES FROM WATER AND THROWS CLAMS INTO BOAT CLAMS IN BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (Lingala) CLAM-DIVER, STEPHANE NZUZI NDEKA SAYING: “Many people have died fishing for clams. Some
  • Embargoed: 23rd March 2022 10:47
  • Keywords: DRC Nature africa conservation environment fishing
  • Location: KIMWABI ISLAND, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • City: KIMWABI ISLAND, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  • Topics: Africa,Environment,Nature/Wildlife
  • Reuters ID: LVA001317808032022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Stephane Nzuzi Ndeka slipped into the coffee-coloured water and emerged, around 30 seconds later, gasping for breath with a fistful of "bibwati", clams that grow in the maze of waterways that make up Democratic Republic of Congo's mangrove forest.
    “Many people have died fishing for clams. Sometimes people encounter crocodiles in the water and but more often it’s the result of somebody casting a spell or curse. When you make this curse, they go to the river and don’t come back. It’s not that frequent, but it happens.,” Nzuzi said.
    Nzuzi belongs to the Assolongo ethnic group, a community that has special permission to live and fish in Congo's Mangrove Marine Park, a protected reserve where the Congo River meets the Atlantic Ocean. After cooking, the spent clam shells are used to pave the alleyways between the bamboo shacks, bleaching white in the sun and clinking under foot.
    Whether filling his dugout canoe with bibwati, shrimps or fish, Nzuzi is able to feed his family and have enough left over to sell in the nearby town of Moanda, he said, earning between $40 and $100 per month.
    While relations with the eco-guards tasked with protecting the park were friendly, many in Kimwabi said the pay-off from selfie-snapping tourists was yet to exceed the restrictions that come with conservation.
    But mangroves are disappearing three to five times faster than overall global forest losses.
    The eco-guards have banned making charcoal from the mangroves and the consumption of manatee, an endangered aquatic mammal also known as the "sea cow".
    Construction of a promised cold-storage facility, school and hotel is yet to begin.
    "The manatee tastes good, but these days with all these restrictions we can't do it any more. If you try, you go to jail," said Nzuzi, adding “When we discovered clams, it pushed people to come here. At the beginning it was a forest of bamboo here and when created a camp. Only the small place with the church was grass, everywhere else was bamboo. When people began fishing for clams and stay here they threw the shells everywhere and that’s why you see so many shells on the ground.”
    Mangroves act as a form of natural coastal defence against storm surges, tsunamis, rising sea levels and erosion, while extracting up to five times more carbon from the atmosphere than forests on land, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
    (Production : Hereward Holland, Elodie Toto)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register