3. TRENDS IN THE NUMBER OF COASTAL FISHERS VIS-À-VIS THE STATUS OF FISHERIES RESOURCES AND THE COASTAL ENVIRONMENT (Contd.)

Table 15 - Average size of households in Bangladesh, 1981–1995 ¹²

a= 1989/90
b= 1994

Fisheries

The fisheries sector accounts for about three percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bangladesh, nine percent of its export earnings and nearly ten percent of total employment. About three quarters of the nation's animal protein consumption comes from fish (Nuruzzaman, 1994: 76). In 1993/94, the number of marine fishers was about 566 000 out of a total of 1.3 million fishers in the country. The fishing fleet consisted of about 60 000 traditional fishing boats, nearly 4 000 motorized boats and more than 50 trawlers (ibid.:14).

The fisheries sector can be broadly divided into four sub-sectors: (a) inland capture fisheries (rivers, estuaries and flood plane fisheries); (b) aquaculture (primarily pond fishery and coastal aquaculture); (c) marine industrial (large-scale) capture fisheries; and (d) marine artisanal (small-scale) fisheries.

Small-scale fisheries play a very significant role in Bangladesh fisheries. Prior to the introduction of mechanized boats, the entire marine fish catch of the country came from this sector. Even now, it generates more than 80 percent of all marine fish landings and all inland fish production.

Trends in the number of fishers, fisheries resources and the coastal environment

Table 16 shows changes in the number of fishers and in fishing areas available per fishers.

¹² Table compiled from information contained in: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (1996b) and in Huq (1986).

Table 16 - Marine fishers and fishing areas in Bangladesh, 1984–1994 ¹³

The total number of marine fishers increased by 26 percent during the period 1984–1994. This increase was faster than that in the total number of fishers (including inland fishers). As the marine fishing area is constant, the result was that fishing area per fisherman decreased by about 22 percent during the period.

The total fish production in Bangladesh in 1993/94 was about 1.1 million tonnes, out of which 76 percent was from inland fisheries, and the rest from marine fisheries. Regarding inland fisheries, 68 percent of the catch came from the open water capture fisheries, and the rest from closed water culture fisheries, i.e. from ponds, “baors” (closed-off river branches) and coastal aquaculture. Table 17 shows the annual increase in catch from different sources of fisheries.

Table 17 - Fish production: relative share and growth rate for different types of fisheries in Bangladesh, 1984–1994 ¹⁴

Table 17 shows that during the period 1984–1994 total fish production increased by 41 percent. The increase in the production of inland culture fisheries was much more rapid than in other sectors.

As shown in Table 18, however, per capita supply increased by only 17 percent because of a 20 percent increase in population.

¹³ Table based on information contained in Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (1996b: 168) and in Rezaul & Hossain (1996a:4.7).
¹⁴ Table based on information contained in Department of Fisheries of Bangladesh fish catch annual reports and in Rezaul & Hossain (1996b).

Table 18 - Per capita fish catch: Bangladesh, 1984–1994 ¹⁵

Table 19 deals with marine fish catch per fisher, i.e. productivity of labour in the sector. It indicates that, while total marine fish catch increased by 35 percent during the decade, the catch per fisherman increased by only eight percent as the number of fishers increased by 25 percent.

Table 19 - Catch per fisher in Bangladesh, 1984–1994 ¹⁶

It may be concluded that despite various difficulties, the total catch per fisherman and per capita for the nation as a whole has slowly increased. However, considering that fish alone meets nearly three quarters of the nation's total animal protein consumption, a per capita fish catch of 9.2 kg corresponds to a very low per capita consumption of animal protein.

The other significant trend shown in the above table relates to the fact that for the last eight years, the catch per fisher has been stationary at about 450 kg. There seems to be a strong possibility that in future that productivity keep stagnating or even start declining under the effect of increasing numbers of fishers and limited resources.

There are strong indications of a decline in stocks of different fish and prawn species in Bangladesh. This can possibly be attributed to the combined or synergistic effects of environmental change, degradation of water quality because of pollution, fish epidemics caused by ulcerative disease and heavy fishing. The dramatic expansion of coastal shrimp culture yielding significant foreign exchange earnings (about 11 billion Taka in 1995/96) has now raised a number of problems such as environmental degradation, disease and destruction of fisheries during wild shrimp fry collection.

¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ See Rezaul & Hossain (1996b).

India ¹⁷

General demographic trends

India is the second most populous country in the world, with its estimated 1995 population of 934 million, projected at 1 013 million in 2000 (United Nations, 1999). Its growth rate is currently estimated at about 1.6 percent, meaning a net increase of about 16 million persons annually.¹⁸

The total fertility rate has been halved since 1950, from about six live births per woman to three.¹⁹ Because survival was undergoing rapid improvements, however, at first the net reproduction rate (i.e. the average number of surviving daughters replacing a woman at childbearing age) increased till about 1970. It has now been reduced to about 1.3 - which still implies a substantial expansion in numbers from one generation to the next.

Indeed, mortality has been much reduced during the second half of the century. The infant mortality rate, for instance, declined by 62 percent (from 190 to 72 per 1000). Life expectancies rose by 58 percent for males (to 62.3 years) and by 66 percent for females (to 63 years), reversing a heretofore marked pattern of excess female mortality. Nevertheless, the sex distribution is still characterized by a greater number of males than of females (the sex ratio is about 107), due to the said past mortality differential.

An original feature of India is its rather slow pace of urbanization as compared with other developing countries: for instance, the percentage urban increases more slowly than in Asia as a whole (+1.2 percent vs. +1.6 percent) and the percentage rural decreases more slowly (-0.5 percent vs. -0.9 percent). As a result, India remains a predominantly rural country: 27 percent only of its population lives in urban areas, compared to 37 percent for Asia as a whole.

Fisheries

Fisheries is an important sector in the economy of India: 5.9 million people were directly or indirectly involved in fishing, fish processing, marketing or other related activities in 1997/98. In the late 1980s, fisheries accounted for 1.3 percent of the GDP of India and for 4.1 percent of the GDP generated in the agricultural sector (Government of India, 1990: 3, 10). With a total fish production of 5 388 million tonnes in 1997/98, India occupied the seventh position in the world.

India has a coastline of 8 041 kilometers, with an EEZ of 2 million sq.km. Marine fisheries potential within the Indian EEZ is 3 921 million tonnes, out of which the pelagic resource potential is 1 742 million tonnes, excluding oceanic pelagic fishes, which are not currently exploited (India Ministry of Agriculture, 1996).

The Indian fishing fleet comprising traditional as well as mechanized boats and offshore shrimp trawlers operate mainly within inshore areas, particularly for demersal species, although some vessels go beyond these areas when fishing for other species. Barring a few tuna vessels, there were practically no other deep sea fishing vessels engaged in fishing in the EEZ, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

¹⁷ This section is largely based on Tewari, Acharya & Singh (1997).
¹⁸ As India's population growth rates is expected to remain higher than that of China in the coming decades, India is projected to become the most populous country before 2050, at around 1.5 billion inhabitants.
¹⁹ Indications on current characteristics refer to the 1995–2000 period (United Nations, 1999).

In 1995, about 238 000 small fishing craft exploited the fisheries to land their catches in about 2 300 marine landing centres along the coast. Besides these, there were about 150 fishing boats of 22–28 metres in total length and approximately 400 boats of 15–17 metres in total length. There were also eight tuna longliners operating in this area.

Overall, the number of mechanized fishing boats almost doubled between 1987 and 1995, from about 24 000 to 47 000. The increase in the number of mechanized boats was particularly steep in the first half of the nineties. During the same period the number of traditional fishing craft increased much more slowly.²⁰

Table 20 indicates the contribution of different types of fishing vessels to total landings, for four broad regions within India in 1993. Balan et al. (1995) report that in the same year, mechanized boats contributed about 60 percent of total landings for the whole country. The table shows that traditional fishing craft accounts for a minor share of the landings in all regions except the northeast.

Table 20 -Percentage contribution to marine landings by type of boat in different regions of India, 1993

Trends in the number of fishers

Fishing as an occupation in India is traditionally confined to fishing communities in 3 726 villages scattered along the coast. An analysis of census data from 1977 to 1987 reveals that over this period the total fisherfolk population (comprising all household members of full-time and part-time marine and inland fisherfolk households) increased by 36 percent, from 6.1 to 8.3 million. The statistics unfortunately do not distinguish between marine and inland fisherfolk.

According to the same data, the number of economically active fisherfolk including fishers, as well as those involved in fish processing and marketing, increased by 155 percent between 1977 and 1994. This large increase, however, seems mainly due to a change in statistical classification: apparently, since 1992, fisherfolk involved in fish marketing and processing, boat building, net making, etc. are included in the statistics, which they were not before.

Table 21 - Economically active fisherfolk population in India, 1977–1994

²⁰ (14 percent only during 1977–1994.)

As can be seen from Table 21, the number of economically active fisherfolk was still increasing during the first half of the recently concluded decade. Again, the census figures do not distinguish between marine and inland fisherfolk.

For the State of Maharashtra, where the household survey and focus group discussions were carried out, census reports of the Department of Fisheries do show the figures for the marine fisheries sector separately (Table 22). These figures shows that the number of marine fisherfolk households, marine fishers and those involved in fish marketing, processing, net-making and other fisheries related activities has steadily increased over the years. The figures also suggest that the majority of fisherfolk in Maharashtra still follow the traditional occupation of fishing. The vast majority of marine fishers were involved full-time in their traditional occupation.

Table 22 - Marine fisherfolk population trend in Maharashtra and involvement of fisherfolk in various economic activities

A considerable number of household members were involved in non-fisheries economic activities. This shows that multiple survival strategies were being followed in view of rising costs of living and declining catches that had forced fisherfolk to look for alternative sources of income. The trend to occupational mobility, however, as shown by the household survey presented further below seems to be mostly limited to areas close to cities. The overall involvement in non-fisheries related activities has even declined over the last two decades.

Tanzania²¹

General demographic trends

Population growth in Tanzania has been quite rapid (around 3 percent annually) since the 1960s: see Table 23, which assembles data from the last three censuses. The population in 1995 was estimated at 29.9 million by the United Nations (1999), with an average growth rate of 2.6 percent since 1990.

Table 23 - Intercensal population growth in Tanzania, 1967–1988

²¹ This section is largely based on Maghimbi (1997).

Fertility is high: for the period 1990–95, the United Nations (ibid.) estimated the total fertility rate at 5.9 live births per woman, corresponding to a gross reproduction rate (female births per woman) of 2.9 and a net reproduction rate (daughters surviving to childbearing age) of 2.2.

As suggested by the difference between gross and net reproduction rates, mortality also is high, however. Life expectancy at birth in 1990–95 was estimated at 50.8 years for females and 48.1 for males (i.e. below the averages for sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries) and infant mortality at 87 per 1000 (United Nations, 1999). According to the same source, life expectancies have been declining since 1985–1990.

The high fertility appears to be largely wanted, according to surveys taken during the 1990s. The 1991/92 DHS for instance indicated that, for women between 15 and 49 on Tanzania mainland, the average number of children wanted was 5.6, while the actual total fertility rate was 6.25. The positive attitudes towards having many children go hand in hand with the inadequate use of contraceptives. According to the KAP survey of 1994, only 17 percent of couples used contraceptives, out of whom 11 percent employed modern methods. Another factor contributing to low fertility rates and population growth was early marriage. According to the 1991/1992 DHS, the median age at which women then aged 20–49 had first married was 18.3 years.

Fertility in the coastal regions of Tanzania seems to be lower than in the rest of the country: according to the 1991/92 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the total fertility rate of women from ages 15–49 was 5.7 in coastal areas and 6.3 at national level. The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Survey carried out in 1994 suggested a slight decline in the above indicators, but showed that fertility rates were still high. The total fertility rate was found to be 4.9 in the coastal regions and 5.6 in the country as a whole.²² Of course, it is to be remembered that the coastal regions include the capital and other urban centers, and that fertility usually is significantly lower in urban areas.

Literacy levels are low in rural Tanzania (including in the coastal regions): 67.2 percent for males and 48.2 for females aged ten and over. Levels of educational achievement are also low.

Trends in the number of fishers

Demographic data on fisherfolk cannot be extracted from national population censuses because for the past two decades fishing is no longer included as a separate economic activity. Similarly, neither the DHS of 1991/1992 and 1996 nor the KAP Survey of 1994 had fishers as a category.

Statistics on the number of fishers, however, are collected and published by the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment in their annual statistics reports. The figures refer to full-time fishers and do not include part-time and occasional fishers. While the statistics do not distinguish between artisanal and industrial fishers, it can be assumed that the vast majority of them were artisanal fishers. Table 24 is based for some years on these statistics and for others on figures reported to FAO. It shows the dramatic increase of the number of fishers from 1980 to 1981. The number peaked in 1991 and started to decline in 1995.

²² The median number of children ever born to women aged 15–49 was 6 and 6.7 respectively.

Table 24 - Number of fishers in coastal marine fisheries in Tanzania, 1980–1997 ²³

Migration in and out of fisheries is part of the rapid social, economic and demographic dynamics that the coastal belt of Tanzania has been experiencing. Migration to coastal fisheries during the 1980s should be seen in the general macro-economic and political context of the country. The Tanzanian economy performed badly in the 1970s and 1980s. The policy of creating communal villages disrupted farming activities and led many peasants to abandon their established farms of permanent crops such as cashew nuts and coconuts and turn to fishing. Particularly in times of crisis and instability, fishing for many people seems to be more remunerative, or safer, than farming - fishing generates food almost daily, while the farmer has to wait for months before a crop can be harvested.

During the 1990s, it seems that the trend was reversed: people started to migrate out of fisheries to urban centres that offered a wider range of employment and income, in the wake of declining catches and income probably due to the overexploitation of fisheries resources.

Fisheries resources and the coastal environment

The main indicators of growing pressure on the coastal fisheries resources of Tanzania have been the increasing use of dynamite for fishing; and the destruction of mangrove areas. The use of dynamite and mangrove destruction seem to be related to the increase in the number of fishers and declining productivity of work on traditional fishing grounds. These difficulties were compounded by the growing presence of trawlers in fishing grounds traditionally fished by artisanal fishers, most of those intruders being foreign and not licensed to fish in Tanzanian waters.

Fishery officers and fishers see dynamite fishing as a cause of decline in fish production. Dynamite fishing was increasingly adopted in the 1970s and 1980s when the number of fishers was rising rapidly and the supply of fishing gear was declining, because of the lack of foreign exchange for its importation. The production of local manufacturers was also declining owing to the lack of imported raw materials.

The destruction of mangrove areas close to the fisherfolk settlements is a problem along the entire coast of Tanzania. The wood of mangrove trees is used for boat building, smoking of fish, furniture, house construction, firewood and charcoal making. Mangrove poles were also exported to Middle East countries. There has also been massive clearing of mangrove areas to make way for new settlements (Chachage, 1988). This seriously threatens fisheries resources, because mangrove habitats serve as nursery grounds for a large number of fish species and crustaceans (Siegel, 1986).

²³Source: FAO (1999) and compilation based on reports by Ministry of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment, Fisheries Division, of Tanzania.

Senegal ²⁴

General demographic trends

Like many other developing countries, Senegal experienced substantial population growth since 1960. From 3.2 million at that date, the population increased to about 8.3 million in 1995 (United Nations, 1999; see Table 25), at an average rate of 2.8 percent. Its population in 2000 is estimated at 9.5 million persons, projected to reach more than 15 million in 2020.

Table 25 - Population growth in Senegal, 1960–2000

Seventy percent of the population of Senegal lives in the coastal provinces (Dakar, Thiès, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Louga, Fatick and Kaolack), as shown in Table 26.

Table 26 - Distribution of the population in Senegal by province, 1976–1995 (%)

Generally, most provinces are gradually losing demographic weight as migration favours the area of Dakar. This reflects, to a large extent, the rising differences in the development of the various regions and concentration of social services, infrastructures and employment opportunities or expectations in the capital. It also reflects the growing difficulties in the agriculture sector in Senegal in structural adjustment processes, and a reduced role of the Government (including in financial assistance to agriculture). In the new centres of development, i.e. mainly the coastal regions of Dakar and Thiès, the fisheries sector played an increasingly important economic role and continued to attract people from other parts of the country, and other sectors of the rural economy who were in search of income and employment.

²⁴ This section is largely based on Gueye (1997).

Fertility is still high. The total fertility rate is estimated at 6.06 for 1990–95 (United Nations, 1999), which is consistent with the figure reported for 1992 in Table 27. A decline is underway, mainly related to an increase in age at marriage. The use of contraception is not an important factor yet as prevalence is still at low levels.²⁵ Table 27 also shows that a significant gap between urban and rural fertility levels is developing as fertility declined earlier and faster in urban areas - whereas in rural areas the average number of births per women was still close to seven in 1992, that number had come down to about five in urban areas. Figures by region confirm this in that the western region (which includes Dakar and other coastal cities) had significantly lower fertility than the others.

Table 27 - Total fertility rate in different regions of Senegal, 1978–1992

Mortality is relatively high. Life expectancy at birth in 1990–95 is estimated at 52.6 for females and 48.3 for males, which is a little better than the average for sub-Saharan Africa but markedly worse (by about ten years) than the average for developing regions (United Nations, 1999).

Table 28 presents additional data on infant and child mortality for regions within Senegal and the country as a whole. Whereas declines in these indicators are visible, both are still high.

Regarding geographical differences, the situation is much better in urban areas, where these mortality indices for the early years are about half those of rural areas. Some progress seems to be underway in reducing the gap of infant mortality, however. It is clear that regional differences are substantial too - infant mortality in the Northeast, for instance, is just double that in the West.

Table 28 - Infant and child mortality rates in different regions of Senegal, 1978–1992

²⁵ Differences and trends in polygamy are irrelevant to explaining these changes. It is worth noting that, contrary to popular belief, fertility is lower (other things being equal) under a polygamy regime: women in polygamous unions have on average less children than women of the same age in monogamous marriages.

Fisheries

Fishing is carried out in seven of the ten regions of Senegal: Dakar, Thiès, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Fatick, Kaolack and Louga. Fisheries occupy a substantial place in the Senegalese economy, playing a leading role in terms of exports and foreign exchange earnings and were a significant provider of employment and income, particularly in rural areas. Moreover, fisheries contributed 2.4 percent to the GDP of Senegal, and 11.3 percent of the value-added created in the primary sector of the Senegalese economy.

Marine fish production more than tripled between 1960 and 1976. Following the peak of 1976, production declined, and only in 1995 again reached and slightly surpassed the level of production attained in 1976. In 1995, the artisanal fisheries sector and the industrial sector contributed 65 percent and 35 percent, respectively, to the total production. Table 29 shows production statistics for selected years from 1960 to 1995.

Table 29 - Total and per capita fish production in Senegal, 1960–1995

Until 1976, the increase of fish production had resulted in higher per capita production rates. Because of a temporary drop and stagnation of production, however, and owing to continuing population growth, the per capita availability of fish has declined in Senegal since 1976. The increase in fish production in Senegal was brought about by an increasing number of fishing units, both in artisanal and industrial fisheries. The trend is shown in tables 30–31.

In artisanal fisheries, the number of non-motorized fishing units stagnated and declined from 1991 on. The number of motorized pirogues, however, kept increasing notwithstanding a temporary decline in 1994. As for the number of licensed industrial fishing vessels, it seemed roughly stable around 250 in the mid-1990s.

Table 30 - Number of artisanal fishing vessels in Senegal, 1987–1995

Table 31 - Number of industrial fishing vessels in Senegal, 1993–1995

Taken together with the information on fish production, the figures show that the catch per unit of fishing effort declined, suggesting that the resources were overfished. The catch per fisher has also declined since 1976, as shown in Table 32.

Table 32 - Catch per fisher in Senegal, 1960–1995

Trend in the number of fishers

The number of fishers more than doubled between 1960 and 1983, and reached its peak in 1994. Thereafter, the number of fishers started to decline and dropped to a level last seen in 1986. The trend is summarized in Table 33 below. One sees that, even before reaching its peak in absolute numbers, the category started declining as a percentage of the total population of Senegal.

Table 33 - Fishers in Senegal: number and share of total population, 1960–1997

²⁶ Source: FAO (1999a).

Fisheries resources and the coastal environment

Table 32 shows that, although the number of fishers in Senegal has started declining, the catch per fisher is declining. This seems to indicate overfishing of the resources. In effect, resource assessment studies recently carried out in Senegal confirm that offshore as well as coastal pelagic and demersal fisheries resources were fully and overexploited. In order to conserve and rehabilitate fisheries resources in Senegal, there is an urgent need to limit and reduce fishing effort, along with the number of fishers who exploit the fisheries resources.

Conclusions

Regarding general demographic trends in the Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Tanzania and Senegal, population growth and fertility rates were still high. There are, however, noticeable differences between these countries. In the four Asian countries, population growth and fertility have long begun to decline, and a demographic transition is under way. This is not so in Tanzania and Senegal, where there are only very slight indications of declining fertility and population growth rates.

Regarding quantitative trends in fishing communities, the studies show that, contrary to the global trend, the number of coastal fishers has actually started to decline or stagnate in four of the six countries studied, namely the Philippines, Malaysia, Tanzania and Senegal, while it is still increasing, although to a much lesser extent than in previous decades, in India and Bangladesh.

A probable explanation for these changes might be that in many countries, in the context of declining catches and income per fishers on one hand, and economic growth and rising levels of education on the other, alternative and more economically rewarding employment opportunities had developed outside the fisheries sector, facilitating vocational mobility. Government policies aiming at a reduction and limitation of fishing effort, conservation, and the rehabilitation of fisheries resources could also have played a role in forcing fisherfolk out of their traditional occupation.

The findings of the macro-level studies carried out in the framework of the Project show that in most of the countries studied, fisheries resources were being fully or overexploited, and the state of the coastal environment has deteriorated. The following chapters based on the findings of the household sample survey and focus group discussions carried out by the Project, will examine the above factors and developments in greater detail.