Nerayo M. Habtezgi
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> From owner-dehai@ftp1.primenet.com Wed Jun 11 10:26:36 1997
> Message-Id: <199706111410.HAA14063@ftp1.primenet.com>
> Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 15:32:35 +0200
> To: dehai@primenet.com
> From: Tsehaie Yemane <Tsehaie.Yemane@pr.uninett.no>
> Subject: [DEHAI] Along Eritrea's Red Sea coast..
> Sender: owner-dehai@lists.primenet.com
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> Reply-To: Tsehaie Yemane <Tsehaie.Yemane@pr.uninett.no>
>
> (c) Earth Times News Service
> By LEYLA ALYANAK
> May 23, 1997
> Along Eritrea's Red Sea coast,some unexpected finds
>
>
> AHLAK ARCHIPELAGO, Eritrea -- After 30 years of war,scientists
> investigating Eritrea's Red Sea coast are finding things they
> never expected. The war may have ravaged the rest of the country,
> but it left coastal waters nearly untouched.
>
> "The war was a blessing in disguise for our coasts," said Kifle
> Woldeselassie, head of policy and planning for the ministry of marine
> resources. "The Red Sea along Eritrea was semi-closed for 30 years
> because of the war." That means no huge oil tankers near the shore, no
> gigantic freighters, no big wrecks.
>
> "We've been lucky so far but it could be just a question of time,"
> he said.
> Armed with the belief that prevention is better than cure, the
> country adopted its first coastal biodiversity plan to help it deal
> with eventual environmental emergencies or better yet, to avoid them
> altogether. The five-year US$5 million strategy, prepared by the
> United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and funded by the Global
> Environment Facility (GEF), is part of a wider blueprint to protect
> the biological diversity of the Red Sea, which has a greater variety
> of fish and coral life than any other ocean body on earth. The plan's
> goals are to encourage participation by local people in environmental
> protection, establish special protected areas, set up a marine resources
> information system, and raise awareness about the importance of biological
> diversity.
>
> There is little argument about the intrinsic or economic value of
> Eritrea's 1200-kilometer coastline. A number of the 210 Dahlak Islands,
> most of them uninhabited, are internationally important breeding sites
> for turtles and dugongs, as well as stopover points for migrating birds
> from Europe, Asia and the rest of Africa. Beneath the water's surface,
> healthy corals sway sensuously and multi-hued tropical fish dart around
> the sharks, barracudas and occasional divers intrepid enough to travel
> to spots still off the tourist map.
>
> But Eritrea is a poor country and it cannot just let its resources lie
> untouched. The country has a per capita GDP of under US$150, half the
> sub-Saharan average, and it emerged from war with a shattered economy
> and a dismantled infrastructure. The 73,000 people who live along the
> coastal plain cannot afford to slam the door on development, especially
> in an area blessed with deserted and unsullied beaches, plenty of fish,
> and the prospect of oil and gas.
>
> "We cannot ignore our environment in order to develop, but we cannot
> allow development at a cost to our marine environment," said Kifle.
>
> As the country searches for ways to generate badly-needed income,
> developers hungrily eye these virgin islands. Their appetites could clash
> with efforts to keep the area pristine, and the government is scrambling
> to declare the archipelago a marine reserve before any damage is done.
>
> Conservationists are in a tight place. The country does not have enough
> people to monitor tourism and enforce laws, and there are already occasional
> signs of litter along the coast. Eritreans simply have to look across the
> water to Saudi Arabia to see how development can go wrong.
> At least 40 percent of the Saudi coast has been turned over to oil
> production or housing, and landfill and oil contamination may have damaged
> some areas irreversibly.
>
> As oil tankers and shipping vessels ply the long, slender waterway, they
> carry with them the constant threat of a spill. The Red Sea is small and
> relatively self-contained, so it is particularly vulnerable.
>
> Population pressure is also a threat as people, unable to make a living in
> the overgrazed and overcultivated highlands, drift towards the ports of
> Massawa and Assab searching for jobs or onto the sparsely populated coastal
> plain looking for land to farm.
>
> The lack of commercial sea traffic for decades may have conserved
> Eritrea's marine diversity, but overfishing could be a threat. During the
> war foreign fishing vessels sailed into patrol-free Eritrean waters with
> their huge trawlers and floating canning factories and today, neighboring
> countries, having exhausted their own fishing grounds, covet Eritrea's
> well-stocked waters.
>
> But officials remain optimistic about their coastal environment because
> Eritrea takes its broader environmental commitments seriously. At
> independence in 1993 it promptly adhered to a number of international
> treaties, and it sees environmental conservation as a basic human right.
>
> "For the last three decades, people were deprived of the opportunity to
> protect their environment," said Tamirat Negash, the biodiversity project
> manager at the marine resources ministry. That opportunity is now being
> taken up.
>
> As in many developing economies, the challenge lies in striking a balance
> between the shorter-term needs of a struggling population and long-term
> requirements for sustainable development. Unlike many other developing
> communities, however, Eritrea may have a head start to meet the challenge.
> The country is virtually corruption-free, it has strict guidelines
> concerning foreign incursions into the economy, it has long-term vision,
> and Eritreans forged a strong national sense of purpose during years of
> fighting for independence.
>
> There is little excuse for war and rarely can its legacy be viewed in a
> positive light, but Eritrea sees itself as somewhat of an exception. It
> created independence through conflict, and in a more modest vein, its
> coast was preserved by the war, evidence perhaps that some good can be
> squeezed from the bad.
>
>
>
>