Spectacularly beautiful islands along Tanzania's coast of the tropical western Indian Ocean include Mafia, Mbudya, Zanzibar, Mnemba and Pemba. These coastal waters are characterised by exceptionally high marine biodiversity, with magnificent coral reefs and other biotopes.
Coastal villagers are the custodians of these ecosystems, utilising the resources for their own food security and incomes. Their traditional wisdom and stewardship are key aspects of ecological and social sustainability.
In recent years, this exceptional marine biodiversity has attracted growing numbers of tourists, conservationists and researchers from all over the world. Tourism and conservation may have beneficial effects, however, if practiced badly, they can cause hardships and severely negative impacts on the livelihoods and rights of villagers and small-scale fishers. Researchers too may contribute to villagers' well-being and increase understanding of their circumstances with accurate analyses and constructive suggestions, whilst some researchers may promote unfairly negative images and narratives.
Industrial fisheries, especially trawling in inshore waters, and tuna fleets in offshore waters within Tanzania’s EEZ, are additional threats to sustainability and environmental justice.
In this documentary, many villagers from several different islands explain their experiences with, and express their views on, the practices of conservation and tourism.
Research evidence also shows that some marine parks and tourist hotels share benefits with coastal villagers, whilst in other cases they violate the rights of local communities and dispossess them of their lands and natural resources: constituting a form of "blue grabbing". This documentary elucidates the social and ecological processes, and highlights the courageous struggles of coastal peoples for their livelihoods and rights.
Filming was carried out in 2018 and 2019, in careful dialogue with coastal villagers and other persons appearing in the film. Their informed consent was requested and assured in all cases. The villagers were not asked any questions; they chose their own topics and statements, and they have reviewed the documentary themselves before its publication.
The camera used on land was a Sony FDR-AX53, while underwater filming was with a GoPro 5 and a Canon Powershot D30, and aerial filming was with a DJI Spark. All editing was carried out in iMovie on a MacBook Pro.
All video scenes were filmed, and all still photos were taken, by Ian Bryceson with the following exceptions:
the photo at 00:51 was taken by Chris Maina Peter;
the map and brochure shown at 1:15 and 8:41 are products of Mafia Island Marine Park;
two photos at 27:15 and 27:19 were taken by Erlend Moksness;
one photo at 32:06 was taken by Mohammed Ngope of the Zanzibar Legal Services Centre;
and one photo at 34:42 (a picture-in-picture) is from Masindenews.
Heartfelt acknowledgements and sincere thanks go to:
- the people of Mafia, Mbudya and Zanzibar for their wisdom and active role in shaping this documentary, and for their courage in speaking about difficult and complex issues;
- important individuals who kindly agreed to take part in this documentary;
- Derek Bryceson, who made the maps and advised me on aesthetics and design throughout;
- many dear friends who gave me excellent and professional advice, only some of which I have been capable of incorporating;
- to my colleagues at the University of Dar es Salaam, the State University of Zanzibar, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, since I made this documentary in parallel with our research collaboration between 2005 and 2019;
- to the Norwegian Programme for Development, Research and Education (NUFU) and the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED) for funding of the research collaboration.
Music was obtained from the RU-vid Audio Library:
"A Good Day on the African Plains" by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions,
"The Coldest Shoulder" by The 126ers,
"Bubinga" by Quincas Moreira.
5 сен 2024
