Zanzibar Is Seeing A Seaweed Boom. Can The Women Collecting It Cash In? - Beritaja

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — The women wade pinch baskets adjacent the beaches, their colorful dresses a magnet for tourer cameras. Sunscreen worn by the holidaymakers whitethorn moreover incorporate the merchandise the women are collecting: Zanzibar’s seaweed.

An eco-friendly section manufacture that employs thousands of women, the seaweed farming looks for illustration a image postcard — moreover if the reality of the activity is grimmer than what meets the eye.

“I acquisition symptom successful my back, waist and thorax owed to the labour successful the sea. There are besides risks of being stung aliases bitten,” said 1 farmer, Mwanaisha Makame Simai. “Sometimes beardown waves expanse you away. I person personally witnessed 3 cases of group drowning.”

Growing world demand

Seaweed has been farmed disconnected Zanzibar, portion of Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast, for decades but location is simply a caller roar underway arsenic world request increases.

Seaweed is chiefly exported to the world food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, which extract their thickening and stabilizing agents.

In Zanzibar, backstage finance and philanthropist dollars person been increasing. Seaweed is the 3rd largest contributor to the section system aft tourism and spices.

“Ten years ago, group thought you were crazy for moving successful seaweed,” said Klara Schade, head astatine Mwani Zanzibar, which describes itself arsenic a boutique seaweed workplace and mill successful the colony of Paje. “Now it’s go a buzzword.”

Mwani moreover runs seaweed tours successful Paje to present the work.

For the authorities of the semi-autonomous archipelago, seaweed is astatine the bosom of its “blue economy” inaugural to thrust maturation from sustainable marine and coastal resources.

Cargill, 1 of the world’s largest commodity trading firms, invested an unspecified magnitude successful Zanzibari seaweed successful 2020 successful a business pinch The Nature Conservancy, pinch a position to improving yields and farmers’ incomes.

Other nongovernmental organizations person stepped up funding, including the Global Seaweed Coalition, which oversees the information and sustainability of the assemblage arsenic it scales up.

Most of Zanzibar’s 25,000 seaweed farmers are women, notable successful a nine wherever less than half of women are employed, according to a authorities census taken successful 2021.

Sun exposure, stings and drowning

The Associated Press said pinch 5 of the women, who described sometimes harsh moving conditions successful the manual labor. The immense mostly of seaweed farmers activity independently aliases successful collectives, trading to section middlemen. There are fewer if immoderate protections.

Long days are spent wading nether the equatorial sun. Back aches and tegument irritation could result, pinch stings from oversea urchins aliases different creatures being different worry.

“There are wellness and information challenges successful this work,” said Simai, an independent husbandman who said she makes about $50 per period to thief support her mini family of two. The activity whitethorn beryllium much challenging for those pinch larger families, she said.

“It’s not an easy job, it’s tiresome,” said Pili Khalid Pandu, 43, who useful for Mwani, doing rotations betwixt its mill and collecting successful the sea.

A caller consequence has travel successful caller years from rising oversea temperatures.

“Climate alteration is forcing women to spell into deeper water” for optimal collection, said Mhando Waziri, task head for bluish system initiatives astatine the nonprofit Milele Zanzibar Foundation.

Milele’s programs see school women seaweed farmers to swim, successful bid to combat what Waziri called a increasing drowning crisis.

Local women activity much benefit

The dream for the sector, arsenic pinch galore earthy assets industries successful Africa, is making much of the proviso concatenation local. This is the extremity astatine Mwani Zanzibar, wherever Schade has focused connected training seaweed farmers successful cosmetics manufacturing.

Workers astatine Mwani walk much of their clip successful its Paje shop and little successful the sea. Schade said Mwani’s high-end cosmetics — a vessel of its “face and assemblage tegument superfood” sells online for $140 — mean its workers make acold much than the mean seaweed farmer. She would not springiness details.

“Empowerment is giving them the intends and the options to proceed further,” Schade said.

Fauzia Abdalla Khamis, 45, said she has progressed from workplace worker to supervisor successful the mill during much than a decade.

Milele besides has programs to thief women create products retired of seaweed, mostly cosmetics. Waziri estimated they could fetch 10 times arsenic overmuch money locally arsenic the raw, unprocessed product.

“A batch of partners want to prosecute much successful seaweed,” Waziri said. “But group raise the challenge: ‘If a programme comes here, really will it use farmers?'”

Simai expressed interest that seaweed farmers for illustration her are excessively acold down the worth concatenation to use from the caller investments successful the section industry.

“Most of the money ends up pinch those who person agency jobs, alternatively than the hardworking farmers,” she said.

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For much connected Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

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The Associated Press receives financial support for world wellness and improvement sum successful Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for each content. Find AP’s standards for moving pinch philanthropies, a database of supporters and funded sum areas astatine AP.org.

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