Somali Pirates – Improbable Conservationists
I recently met a South African who’d spent some time living with the locals on the coast of Kenya at Malindi. He’s a keen spear fisherman and likes to take time out from his stressful job (that sends him to all corners of our continent) to spend time with other Africans.
While in Kenya he listened to the native drums, which asserted that all along the Swahili coast, fish stocks were on the increase.
The upsurge in Somali piracy has had an unintended benefit, fish numbers have started to revive, as fewer foreign trawlers are willing to risk East African waters.
What a difference to the usual consequence of African lawlessness, where plummeting numbers are the norm when the human wheels fall off (e.g. DRC and Zimbabwe).
The critical question, of course, is who is the plunderer?
Outsider (regional and foreign) rapaciousness is the killer. Sensible and controlled temperance is clearly a relief to natural resources and, by consequence, to the humans who rely directly upon them.
I can’t help but ask how Asians and Westerners would feel if Africans started stripping their natural resources. Would this be the moment, then, for Africa to take heed of the history lessons, and save the planet?