Blue Carbon Financing of Mangrove Conservation in the Abidjan Convention Region: A Feasibility Study

Table 5: Multitude of uses of mangroves in West, Central and Southern Africa

Uses

Species used

All kind of species, with various quality, but mainly Rhizophora spp.

Fuel: firewood, charcoal (domestic cooking, smoking of fish and oysters, heating of brine in salt manufacturing, burning oyster shells to produce lime fertilizer), alcohol Construction material: timber: poles, wood for housebuilding, furniture, dykes and dams (piles, stilts); canoes, boats and paddles; farm and household tools (sleeves, round handles, shuttle for looms, ploughshare); kitchen utensils (mortar, pestle, drumstick) Fishing gear: fish-fences, bow net, traps and fishing baskets Artefacts and domestic use: fencing, roofing, shuttle for loom, matting, wall dressings*, paper, glue Consumption: animal feed, pasture, fermented drinks, alcohol, vinegar, herb tea, condiments, vegetables Medicinal uses: plaster, decoction Malaria (external usages), body odour.* Measles, gonorrhoea, malaria, stomach illness.* Consumption: honey and wax from bees (Apis mellifera), alcohol Fishing gear: floaters for fishing nets Medicinal uses and cosmetic: beauty mask/ face pack Domestic use: decoration of house roofs* Artefacts and domestic use: tanning and dyes Medicinal uses: malaria treatment (external usages), stopping of external haemorrhages, stomach illness (ingurgitation), tooth decay treatment in Ghana** Stalks: fencing for vegetables Collection and trapping of crabs Collection of cockles at low tide in the mud or on sandbanks Oyster and clam gathering Fishing: shrimping, fish ponds and fish culture Agriculture: Lime (used as fertilizer) Construction material: Construction of dykes and paths with shells Consumption: Solar salt winning or manufacturing by boiling using mangroves

Tree: wood and roots

Rhizophora spp *

All kind of species

Tree: leaves

Avicennia, Sonneratia

Avicennia germinans* Laguncularia racemosa*

Ceriops, A. marina

Tree: flowers and fruit

Nypa fruticans*

Rhizophora spp., Bruguiera spp. et Ceriops tagal Rhizophora spp*

Tree: bark

Acrostichum aureum

Scylla serrata Anadara senilis, Galatea paradoxa, Murex hoplites, Murex cornutus, Orbicularia orbiculat, Pugilina morio, Cymbium spp., Cultellus tenuis, Crassostrea gazar Macrobrachium rosenbergii, Epinephelus spp., Lates spp. etc. Penaeus spp. Tilapia, Chano

Fishery

Shells (oysters, cockles)

Mineral products

Sources: Bandaranayake (1998); Dahdouh-Guebas et al., (2000); Rollet (1975); Saenger & Bellan (1995); Saenger et al., (1983); Cormier-Salem (1999, 2003, 2014) *Nfotabong-Atheull et al. (2011) **Abarike, E. D et al. (2015)

Drying, smoking or frying are the major food-processing methods used, depending on the type of fish. Mangrove wood is used in all of these processes, either as charcoal or directly as firewood. In Ghana, the trees for fuelwood use have been valued from US$ 340 per ha (Ajonin et al., 2009) to US$ 2,765 per ha (Ajonina, 2011). Rhizophora spp. is especially favoured as the wood burns hotter and slower than the other species, and the rich tannins from burning the stilt roots impart a shiny reddish-brown colour to the smoked fish, which is prized by consumers.

value chain that follows. In the mangroves of the Volta estuary, all species (with the exception of Periophthalmus papilo, Tetraodon lineatus, Seserma species and Goniopsis species) are of high food value (Dankwa and Gordon, 2002). Active fishing is primarily performed bymen, while the processing and marketing is the domain of women, althoughwomen handpick the clam Galatea paradoxa, while children and the elderly pick the gastropod Tympanotonus sp. Since the 1970s and 1980s, with droughts and the crisis in farming systems, more andmore artisanal fishermen are entering the marine environment.

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