Alternative species – Sea cucumber
used to daily returns: you go out, catch your fish and you have money at the end of the day. This is a new way of thinking.’ They derive an income in the meantime
because they continue fishing, although, as Fran says, ‘there are barely any wild sea cucumbers left in this area’. ‘The aim is, eventually, that this doesn’t just
become an additional livelihood but it becomes an alternative livelihood, so you reduce fishing pressure and then this income not only replaces income from fishing but increases it as well.’ There have been issues with poaching and
theft ‘because obviously sea cucumbers are very easy to steal’, says Fran, and they are highly valuable, but there is community-led legislation to deal with thieves and reimburse the victims. Another issue is the mobile collectors that can
just come into a village and get people to sell their sea cucumbers to them.
16
Above: Working on the farm. Right: Sea cucumber farming has provided employment opportunities for local women.
‘At the moment, the system is that the hatchery sells the juveniles at
a reduced price to the farmers – on credit – and when the farmers sell them back to the same hatchery, after nine months to one year, they get the increased price less the cost of the juveniles,’ says Fran. The temptation is to sell to the highest bidder for instant cash, but Blue
Ventures is trying to maintain people’s loyalty to the hatcheries. ‘To set up, farmers get a certain number of juveniles and materials for
free so they can run a farm for a year without having to worry about costs. Then they start working up to reimbursing more and more of the juveniles as their business grows.’ It’s slow progress but farmers get help from the technicians trained by Blue Ventures, and they also receive small business training. ‘That’s a large component because if we want to remove the funding then the farms have to be profitable and sustainable. ‘We’re getting people to think about how they’re going to replace old or
broken equipment in the future, and at the same time to form local sav- ings committees, as the nearest banks are a day’s sail away, and farmers’ associations. ‘And we’re empowering women to be involved in the project; more than 50 per cent of farmers are women, and close to 50 per cent have
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