3. RESULTS 3.1 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey (KAP) · 3.1 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey (KAP) The respondents were asked 15 questions on fish resource management,

10 IDAF Technical Report N°60

3. RESULTS 3.1 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey (KAP)

The respondents were asked 15 questions on fish resource management, to which they could reply with: "yes, I agree", "no, I don't agree" or "I don't know" (Table 1). The responses to these questions can not always be defined as "correct" or "incorrect". However, a favourable answer (favourable to fish resource management) was defined beforehand, marked by X in Table 1. It is this favourable answer that is referred to when speaking of "correct" responses in the analysis.

Table 1 The KAP survey STATEMENT OR QUESTION YES, I

AGREE NO, I DON'T AGREE

I DON'T KNOW

1.K The amount of fish in the sea, what we call the fish

resource, is limited.

X

1.A Our fishing community is able to take care of its

fishery resource itself.

X

1.P Our community is currently doing something to

regulate fishing activities in this community.

X

2.K There is always enough fish in the sea for every

fisherman to have a good catch.

X

2.A If we are not careful now about how much fish we

catch, later our children might not catch enough fish to be able to make a living out of it.

X

2.P Do you allow new fishermen to start fishing here in

your fishing grounds?

X

3.K When the fish you catch is getting smaller in size, it

means that the fish resource is being overfished.

X

3.A The fishery resource can sustain itself without any

help.

X

3.P Are you doing something to prevent the fishery

resource from being overfished?

X

4.K The government has created fisheries institutions

that are represented in our community by the fisheries extension officer.

X

4.A The fishery extension officer can help us to solve the

problems that occur in our fishery

X

IDAF Technical Report N°60 11

4.P Do you ask the government representative for help when you have a problem in your fishery business?

X

5.K There are laws made by the government of this

country, to regulate fishing activities.

X

5.A The government laws on fishery activities are of no

use to artisanal fishery activities.

X

5.P When you fish, do you always make sure you follow

government regulations?

X

First we will take a look at the four groups of respondents. Then the responses to the

questions will be analyzed in three groups: knowledge-, attitude- and practice questions. This is in disrespect of the original sequence of the survey, where questions were grouped in 5 subjects (see Table 1). Each of the five subjects consisted of three questions and the order in which they were asked was always the same: first the knowledge question, then the attitude question, and finally the practice question. This was done to make the questions more comprehensive for the respondents, although it might have biased the responses, in case the respondents were aware of the answer the investigators favoured. However, as we will show, the results seem to deny this in most cases. 3.1.1 The four groups of respondents

Figure 1 shows the total responses to all questions of the four groups of respondents for the three different answering categories. The youth groups are young people of below 20 years of age and minimum 12 years of age. The adult groups are over 20 years of age.

Female adults have the lowest percentage of incorrect answers and the highest percentage of the "I don't know" answers. This might indicate that although the women are not very knowledgable, they might be the most reliable respondents in the sense that if they do not know the answer, they will admit to it easily.

Male adults show the highest percentage of correct answers.This indicates that the male adults are the most knowledgable group and relatively reliable, taken into account their reasonable amount of no answers. The female groups in general seem to be less knowledgable than the males.

Female youth is the group with the highest percentage of incorrect answers and the lowest of correct answers. Male youth had least of the no answers. This lack of "I don't know" answers in the group of the male youths suggests that they are probably not very reliable respondents, since

Figure 1 Total responses on all KAP questions by group


their answers are nicely distributed over the two remaining categories: the correct and incorrect responses.

3.1.2 Knowledge on fish resource management

Figure 2 shows the total responses to the 5 knowledge questions. There were a little bit more incorrect answers than correct ones, and a considerable amount of no-answer responses, particularly in the female adults group, where correct knowledge was also lowest.

Looking at the responses to the three knowledge questions on the fish resource (K1, K2 and K3), we can deduce the following observations. None of the men and only a quarter of the women realize that the amount of fish in the sea is limited (K1). But, when asked whether "there is always enough fish in the sea for every fisherman to have a good catch" (K2), 38 out of the total of 42 respondents answers correctly no. For the youth group this response numbered 100%. This seems to prove that the respondents are very much aware of the limited nature of the fish resource. But the majority of respondents does not realize that "when the fish you catch is getting smaller in size, it means that the fish resource is being overfished (K3)." Only 17% of the adults gave the correct answer and no one in the youth groups.

The responses to the two remaining knowledge questions on government authority (K4 and K5) are even harder to interpret. Only 3 out of 10 male adults acknowledge that "the government has created fisheries institutions that are represented in our community by the fisheries extension officer (Figure 3)." For the rest of the three groups, the correct answers number 75%. But, none of the females know that "there are laws made by the government of this country, to regulate fishing activities (Figure 4)."

Figure 3 K4 responses by group Figure 4 K5 responses by group

Figure 2 Knowledge on fish resource management, total responses by group


Almost 80% of both female groups gave the 'I don't know' answer. In the male groups on the contrary we find 61% correct responses. Their relationships with government authority and the extension officer based in the village, appear to be a very sensitive issue. 3.1.3 Attitude towards fish resource management

In the attitude responses the 'no answer' category increases to a total of 15%. The male youth group shows the most positive attitude (58%), followed by the male adults (46%), leaving the female groups (adults 22% and youth 30%) somewhat behind them (Figure 5). Again the female groups score high in the 'no answer' category (adults 32%). The young females gave 60% of unfavourable (incorrect) responses.

Concerning the responses to the questions referring to attitude towards the fish resource (A1, A2 and A3), the following observations can be made. 63% of the two youth groups agree, that "if we are not careful now about how much fish we catch, later our children might not catch enough fish to be able to make a living out of it (A2)." In the adult group this favourable answer numbers only 35%, due to the 78% of ''I don't know' answers in the female adult group and 50% unfavourable answers in the male adult group (Figure 6). This seems to indicate that the youth groups are aware that their future and the future of their children in fisheries, might be endangered.

The female groups think that "the fishery

resource can sustain itself without any help (A3)". Only 21% give the favourable answer. In the male groups we find 74% of favourable answers. Especially the young males think that the resource needs help to sustain itself (85%), which reinforces the findings of A2.

When we look at the questions on attitude towards authority (A4 and A5), we can see that about 50% of the fisherfolk feel that "the fishery extension

officer can help us to solve the problems that occur in our fishery (A4)", males (61%) more than females (37%) and youth (58%) more than adults (43%). Responses on A5, "the government laws on fishery activities are of no use to artisanal fishery activities", vary strongly. Of the female responses only 5% says 'no', which is the favourable response, and almost 80% gives the 'I don't know' answers. The male groups are equally divided over favourable and non-favourable answers (43%-43%).

Figure 5 Attitude on fish resource management,Total resposes by group

Figure 6 A2 responses by group


Women do not actively fish, which might partly explain their disinterest in fisheries legislation. It is harder to explain the ambiguous response of the male groups. They seem to be very much in disagreement on the subject. 3.1.4 Practice on fish resource management

The responses to the practice questions on fish resource management show an important negative result for the youth groups. This is surprising, especially for the young females, since they are the least active group in fishing activities and still score very low on 'I don't know' answers (3%). In the case of the male youth group, this negative result is disquieting, since this group of young men between the age of 12 to 20 is probably most actively involved in the fishing activity itself (Figure 7).

Almost half of the respondents agreed that "our community is currently doing something to regulate fishing activities in this community (P1)." Female adults are most aware of this (77%) and youth in general far less (26%) than adults (65%).

The responses to P2, "do you allow new fishermen to start fishing here in your fishing grounds?" also vary strongly. Male adults deny access to new fishermen up to 80%, whereas in the other three groups only between 10 to 20% would deny access to new fishermen. Of these groups, male adults are the most powerful, if not always the most actively involved in fishing activities: they stand to loose most if they have to share the resource with too many new fishermen. Young males on the contrary are still fighting for their own place in the fishing sector and the possibility of limiting access to the resource might be threatening.

Of all the respondents, 70% are not doing anything "to prevent the fishery resource from being overfished (P3, Figure 8)." The female adults group is the only one with a majority of positive and favourable answers (54%), which is surprising because women are not actively involved in fishing. This may indicate that their response here is for some reason unreliable. The other groups stay behind with only 10 to 20% of positive answers. This result is not surprising : the responses to K3 already showed a lack of correct knowledge on the signs of an overfished resource. If there are any conservationist

Figure 7 practice on fish resource management, total responses by group

Figure 8 P3 responses by group


actions being undertaken, the majority of the community is unaware of it or these actions are not recognised as such.

The practice questions on government authority again show a confusing picture, illustrating the sensitive nature of the relationship between the community and the official authorities. To P4 or "do you ask the government representative for help when you have a problem in your fishery business?", the adult males gave 60% of positive answers (Figure 9). In general adults are more positive (52%) towards the government representative present in their community, than the youth groups (21%).

The responses to P5 draw a similar picture: 60% of male adults claim they follow government regulations when fishing, while only 15% of the male youth claim to follow the law. As in the responses to A5, this ambiguous result emphasizes once again the sensitive nature of the issue at stake. 3.1.5 KAP conclusions

It is no surprise that the fisherfolk can not accept that "all the fish in all the seas might one day be finished". But they do realize it is not always there for them to catch. It might also be very difficult for these fisherfolk to admit that their fish resource is overfished, since they depend completely on it for their livelihood. That there is some realisation that the fish resource is a fragile and limited resource, can be deducted from the concern for the future of fishing activities, especially amongst the youth groups. This is confirmed by the awareness of the young males that action is needed to sustain the resource. On resource management practice, more awareness is found amongst the adult groups, confirming their status of experienced councillors and financial agents, to the young and more active fishermen.

The relationship with the authorities is clearly a very sensitive issue. There is little correct knowledge on the government representative or "fish-doctor", all the more surprising since he is well known and very much present in the community. The attitude on and the practice of consulting the fish-doctor and applying government regulations is rather negative and calls for concern. The very dispersed distribution of responses of the groups over the different answering categories, may indicate that the results are sometimes slightly distorted by the social acceptability of the responses. However, it is clear that the relationship between the Mabeta fisherfolk and the official authorities is a problematic one.

Figure 9 P4 responses by group


3.2 Village Map and Transect

Mabeta is located in the Bimbia Creeks (Map 2, p.ii). It can be reached by car only from Limbé, the Divisional Headquarters of Fako. The road is about 12 km long, but due to its extreme bad condition, it takes more than 1 hour to reach Mabeta by car. Besides the motor road, there are two foot paths: one leading to Tiko, the other to Limbé (Map 3).

Mabeta is situated directly on the shore, completely surrounded by hills and enclaved by the rubber plantation of the Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC). There is no space left to expand the village or cultivate vegetables or practice any other form of agriculture.

The coastal base of Mabeta is approximately 700 meters wide, with mangrove trees along the beach towards the west end, consciously preserved to protect the houses closely built to the waterfront from the regularly rough weather conditions (Map 4). The water table around the west end at low tide is 30 cm. At high tide the sea rises up to the level of the foundation of the houses nearest to the beach and sometimes the rooms overflow. Mabeta is divided into two main parts by a foot bridge: the west end of the settlement from CDC Camp 1 bridge to the river is known as "Small Kombo", the part across the river is known as "Big Kombo".

Housing conditions in Mabeta are poor: small wooden buildings with roofs of corrugated sheet. Very few floors are cemented. The only modern building in Mabeta is the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries' (MINEPIA) fishing post, where water and electricity were installed but are now out of order. The market area consists of several covered stalls, constructed by the Limbé Urban Council. In the waterfront area there are several bigger buildings containing the "banda" smoking ovens.

The beach is narrow and littered with debris. On the far east side of the village a bunch of rocks scattered into the water serve as public latrine. These latrines are close to the area where the catch is washed, which constitutes a considerable health risk. There is only one water source, located in the northern part of Mabeta. It is inadequate and unhygienic.

There are three CDC camps on the outskirts of Mabeta, now largely abandoned due to the reduction of its activities and workers during the last few years. The nursery school is not in use and the CDC health post is as good as closed down. The only health provisions in Mabeta for the moment are traditional healers who visit the village with irregular intervals.

The government provided a primary school for the CDC Camps, on the outskirts of Mabeta (Map 3). This school is also attended by Mabeta schoolchildren. However, school attendance is rather low. The children prefer to hang around in Mabeta and perform small carrying jobs to earn some pocket money, especially during market days. After primary school the Cameroonians may send their children to Limbé or Douala to follow further schooling and some Nigerians send their children back to Nigeria. This, however, concerns only a minority of the fisherfolk and the children that do get schooling, receive this schooling with the clear intention that afterwards they will try to find work outside the fishery sector.


Map 3 Mabeta village map


Soil Vegeta-tion Activi- ties Housing Problems

Clayey Vegetation cleared to give way for settlement Social-cultural & religious activities Commercial: market area Little cultivation Wooden houses with zinc roofs A few block buildings Poor hygienic state of water supply Not enough alternative employment No land for cultivation

Clayey River bed clayey with stones/ contains crabs mudskippers Idem Idem on smaller scale Wooden houses with zinc roofs Idem Bad state of footbridge

Sandy on top Clayey below Idem Idem Selling & smoking of shrimps and fish off-loading and splitting of fire wood Idem Idem

Clayey Mangrove Fishing Transport

/

Map 4 Transect of Mabeta


3.3 Mabeta's time-line

There is no recorded history of the area; for the purpose of this study the history of

Mabeta was reconstructed with the help of a time-line and trend lines on various subjects. The dates on the time-line are indicative (Box 1).

Mabeta evolved and grew together with the CDC Camps. It is dependent on the camps for some important provisions: schooling, health facilities and transport. Now that the CDC is limiting its activities in the neighbourhood, these provisions might be at risk. The health post is already closed and the road which was built for the CDC Camps, is in a very bad condition and needs urgent attention.

Though Mabeta was founded almost a century ago by Nigerians, who came to fish crayfish, the community of Mabeta after all these years still looks like and is a temporary camp. The fishermen have not integrated at all in the surrounding Cameroonian society. All their savings go back to Nigeria, where they build houses and invest in their retirement. This makes Mabeta a professional village, where roles and activities are sharply defined. In their limited contact with Cameroonians, roles and activities are also mutually sharply defined and no exchange of knowledge or techniques where the fishing of crayfish is concerned, occurs. If the relationship between Nigerians and Cameroonians is marked on both sides by prejudice, the relationship of the Nigerian fisherfolk with the Cameroonian authorities is clearly problematic. The incidents mentioned in the time-line serve as a witness for this. The constant harassments have created an insecure situation, that has become the dominant life condition for the Mabeta fisherfolk


1900 Arrival of first settler, Mr. EKWEYONG, coming fromNigeria Establishment of the banana plantation by the Germans

1914 Arrival of second settler, Mr. Essien, a retired Britishsoldier, coming from Nigeria

1961 The catholic mission takes over the school built by theGermans

1965 1972

First big fire destroys the wooden houses of Mabeta First Apostolic Church built

1974 The government takes over the primary school from theCatholic mission

1974/75 Road/public transport is introduced from Limbé, up to the CDC Camp

1975

End of barter trade

1976 Building of the present market and introduction ofmodern trade

1978 Road comes into Mabeta 1978/79 First engine boat, first motor saw for firewood

A temporary bridge to link the two parts of Mabeta is built

1981 Rubber plantation is established by CDC, to replace thebanana plantation

1982 Full Gospel church is established Illegal raids by off-duty gendarmes (continues to 1993)

1986 Second big fire destroying most of the houses: as a result corrugated iron sheets are introduced as roofs

1988 Establishment of fishery post 1989 Big (legal) raid by cameroonian authorities to control taxes

and immigration 1993 Mass exodus because of the new regularization of

foreigners Big (legal) raid by cameroonian authorities to controlgasoline and outboard engines Last incident: a resident dies after clashes with patrollinggendarmes Establishment of temporary army post to put an end to theillegal raids

1994 Mass exodus because of the Nigeria/Cameroon borderproblem

Box 1 Mabeta’s Time line


3.4 Diagram and seasonal calendar

The diagram (Figure 10) identifies all the activities and all existing social, economic and cultural groups in Mabeta:

Figure 10 Diagram

The activities observed in Mabeta can be split in three large domains: the first domain is that of fishing and fish processing activities; the second concerns the marketing of fish products and trading activities in other goods; and the third domain includes all activities of a non-economical nature, socio-cultural and religious activities. 3.4.1 Fishing and related activities in Mabeta

Fishing in Mabeta is an exclusively male occupation. Like the founding fathers and early settlers, contemporary fishermen in Mabeta are still mainly fishing for crayfish. Two kinds of gear are used for "shrimping". "Ngotto" fishing uses high poles with round nets on top, that are


pinned down in the surf. The other kind of fishing uses drag nets. Besides the shrimp fisheries, some gill-nets and hook and lines are used to fish for other species, not on a commercial basis however. The hand-pulled boats normally undertake fishing within the settlement area. The engine-powered boats travel between 15 to 20 kilometres, each trip lasts about 18 hours. An expedition consists on average of 4 to 5 fishermen. All members of the expedition provide fuel for the engine. The boat owner traditionally owns the highest number of nets and his nets must be pitched first after it has been tested and proved that shrimps are available on the location in question. The catch is divided proportionally according to the number of nets owned by each fisherman. Fishermen complained about the high costs of fuel and gear. The fishermen have their own occasional groups to save money to be able to buy new gear.

During the months from September to December there is a high catch (Figure 11). The catch can be so large that some of the shrimps caught are buried by the shore due to lack of smoking space. Between the months of March to June, there's little crayfish. The catch is a mixture of Penaues species and juveniles of various species of fish that dominate the 'Njanga' population. The fishermen have noticed that "...when the leaves of the rubber trees fall off, there's no shrimp, but as the new leaves start to shoot, shrimps start coming again" and "...during the farming season there's no crayfish, but during the non-farming season, there is crayfish". The slow fishing seasons are used for thorough repairs of boats and nets. During the dry season malaria and cholera are rampant.

Figure 11 Seasonal calendar


The smoking of the crayfish is performed by the fishermen, assisted by their wives, on large "banda" ovens. The banda ovens are built in large huts and are basically open fires covered by large drying racks on which the shrimps are spread out during smoking. The operators of the ovens remain unprotected from excessive heat and smoke. The facilities available in Mabeta are inadequate in the main season (September to December), which results in severe post-harvest losses. Excess shrimps are buried by the shore.

Fetching firewood and fish-smoking is also a task performed by the men. The women take the firewood from the boats to the smoking places, occasionally assist the men during the ±18 hours smoking process and sell the smoked crayfish to the market women. The wood used for smoking is zhisophora, locally known as "matanda", and is found only in the distant creeks. The trees are felled and stumped with axes and cutlasses. The collection of firewood seems to be a dangerous occupation. Serious and sometimes deadly accidents occur. The engine saws used in the past have become too expensive and are easily damaged by the salt water. 3.4.2 Marketing channels in and out Mabeta

The marketing of the fish is completely in the hands of a few well organised groups of market women. There are three distinctive groups of market women in Mabeta: ! the 'Douala' market women: this is a legalised group of ±50 women, buying crayfish in

Mabeta and selling it in Douala; ! the 'Limbé' market women: a group of ±20 women who buy crayfish in Mabeta and sell

it on the Limbé market. They buy basic products in Limbé to sell them in Mabeta, where they become petty traders;

! the 'Mabeta' market women: buy crayfish in Mabeta and sell it on the Mabeta market to the women from Kumba and Limbé, with a licence to buy on the Mabeta market.

The groups' organisation is based on the place where the fish will be sold. A group of commercial traders, trading in consumption goods other than crayfish, are also trying to get a legalised status. This status clearly is desirable: it provides the group with a means to control membership, activities and prices.

All these groups, from the small petty traders to the professional 'Douala' market women, are involved in different saving groups. There are two kinds of saving groups, rotating savings associations ('tontines') and thrift meetings, and they are very well organised:

! Thrift meetings: these are legalised groups, that operate like a bank, membership is open but the large majority are women (in one group of 40 members there were 4 men who were not fishermen). They save money, the amount is not fixed, during meetings held once a week on a market day, when the market activities are finished. Members receive interest on their savings and can apply for a loan to the meeting.

! Njangi groups (tontines): there are many Njangi groups in Mabeta, they form spontaneously and are not legalised. A group consists averagely of about 20 members


market women and young traders, not fishermen) that gather twice a week on the market

days in Mabeta and save a fixed amount (2x2000=4000CFAF weekly). Each member receives the total in turn. Sometimes thrift meetings and 'tontines' are held at the same time to encourage the 'tontine' "winner" to save his money in the thrift meeting. They take place on market days when the bulk of the commercial activities has ended. Very often the two different kinds of saving groups are integrated in the same meeting, with the purpose to encourage the members to invest the gains from one group immediately in the other.

Strong interrelations exist within the large and differentiated group of trading and

marketing groups. This group is occupationally and geographically separated from the group of fishermen (Map 4, p.19). Besides the market women, we find young men and girls in the trading and savings groups, but never fishermen. They don't take part in the different saving groups, but form loose groups on a temporary basis, that assemble about once a month to gather contributions (±50.000CFAF) and spend that money immediately on new gear for one of the fishermen in need.

In the commercial activities, some outside groups exist, which play an important role in the marketing sector in Mabeta. There is a fixed group of 10 taxi drivers assuring the transport between Mabeta and Limbé. They live in Limbé, but they stay in Mabeta on the eve of important market days. This is the only kind of public transport available. On market days they bring in the outside buyers, mostly women from Limbé and Kumba, a group of ±50, with a permit to come to the Mabeta market and buy crayfish. The taxi drivers also take out the market women from Mabeta who sell their crayfish in Douala or Limbé. 3.4.3 Socio-cultural and religious activities in Mabeta

The third and last group of activities consists of all other non-economic socio-cultural and religious activities.

Mabeta has a very rich religious life. There are seven different denominations present in Mabeta. In order of importance they are: the apostolic church, the catholic church, the presbyterians, full gospel, deeper life, Jehovah witnesses, and the obu brotherhood, preaching traditional beliefs and dabbling in magic and witchcraft. These last two churches are mobile churches that have no fixed location, but the other five denominations have a church and organise religious and social activities. There seem to be no conflicts between the different denominations and they are said not to be involved in village politics.

Besides the churches there are a certain amount of spontaneously formed age groups that organise social and sportive activities. There is one traditional closed society that organises social events.


3.4.4 Authority and enforcement in Mabeta

The village chief represents traditional authority. The present chief is a Cameroonian who

inherited the title of Chief by succession. He lives in Limbé. He appoints the quarter heads, and receives royalties from the fishermen. The quarter heads are the local representatives of the official authorities. There are three in total: two of Cameroonian nationality and one of Nigerian nationality. They receive and announce administrative orders from their District Officer in Limbé. They also function as intermediary between the villagers and the Cameroonian authorities based in Limbé, solve problems in the village that can not be solved by the family concerned and they call in the gendarmes in serious cases of dissension. In practice it is especially the Cameroonian senior quarter head that is the judge and problem solver of Mabeta. He has more time and more authority than the Nigerian quarter head. His authority is strengthened by people's fear that he will call in the gendarmes. The village council does not function. Since its instalment it has only functioned for a very short time.

Problem solving and sanctioning is the responsibility of in first instance the concerned parties and their family groups, in second instance the quarter heads. Disputes are settled as much as possible internally, to avoid involvement of Cameroonian authorities. Sanctioning of offenses and crimes and the administration of punitive measures therefore normally take place in the village itself. Individuals found guilty of crimes may be given a beating, have their heads shaved and painted black and in severe cases are forcefully repatriated to Nigeria.

The Cameroonian authorities are represented in Mabeta by the MINEPIA extension agent or as he is locally called: "the fish doctor". He gathers the statistics of production; does the veterinary inspection of the processed crayfish; collects taxes from the fishermen; issues certificates for crayfish to be taken out of Mabeta; issues authorization to trade in fish products; and is also supposed to advise Mabeta on matters of community development. The quarter heads may involve him in the settling of disputes. However, since a different agent is being appointed to this post every few years, a relationship of trust is hard to establish. Since he is alone and his office is located more or less apart, he is easily avoided.

When the government really wants to exert control over Mabeta, they send in a large party of police or military personnel. They check everybody for immigration and tax purposes. The nature of this control is irregular, unpredictable and hazardous, strengthening the insecure life conditions that stimulate the distrustful relationship between Mabeta and the authorities.

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3. RESULTS 3.1 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey (KAP) · 3.1 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey (KAP) The respondents were asked 15 questions on fish resource management,