Nick Ashton-Jones, with Oronto Douglas and Susi Arnott

“ The threat comes from deep- sea fishing boats that are able, in Nigerian conditions, to ignore national or international standards and legislation. The losers, if stocks do start to decline, will be the local people who have no economic alternative. There is no local hard evidence of a decline, and although some fishermen complained that it was harder to get fish (this may be due to the increased number of fishermen as unemployed Sangana men return from Port Harcourt) and we saw the landing of some very impressive catches.
Erosion of the Akassa coastline is a natural hazard. ”

“ The modern threats are (not necessarily in order of importance) the oil industry, fishing, erosion and population growth.
The oil industry does not affect the Akassa people as much as it does people elsewhere in the Niger Delta. The Texaco oil-spill of 1980 was classed as the worst ever in Africa: it was devastating in the short term but there is no evidence of longterm damage.
The local fishermen of Akassa are not a threat to fish stocks on the area: their technology has barely changed in the last 100 years, although they now sometimes use nylon nets. ”

“ We assume that at some very early date, there were humans on the relatively accessible Sand Barrier Islands and like Botem-Tai it was with the advent of viable society in the area, at least 5000 years ago, that the natural ecosystem of Akassa would have begun to be substantially altered: the very accessibility of the Niger Delta estuaries and their abundance of fish would have made them especially attractive to human activity. ”

“ In addition to the Sangana Estuary, there is severe erosion on the Southeast point of the Brass Estuary and on the coastline between the Sangana and Fishtown estuaries.
Human population growth on Akassa is unlikely to be lower than other areas in the Niger Delta. However there appears to be substantial outward migration from the area as young men and increasingly young women go in search for employment, which reduces population pressure locally (but, of course, can only make matters worse in places like Port Harcourt) . ”

“ The biodiversity of the Akassa natural ecosystem is lower than the natural ecosystems beyond them and in some parts of the Niger Delta, not only because of its relative youth, but also because of the limitations on plant diversity caused by the high water tables. ”

“ The high demand for oil palm products up to 1960 was probably the greatest incentive that the Akassa people had ever had for changing their environment, but this was mitigated by the fact that the palm was growing naturally and because Akassa is not suitable for large-scale plantation agriculture. The present pattern of land-use is less intensive, now that people have returned to fishing, than it was in the 1950s. ”

“ Settlements favoured the East sides of the estuaries because the West sides have mangrove forest and the Atlantic coast is too windy.
The Sangana and other Akassa people have always been fishermen as opposed to farmers or even hunters. ”

“ The economic activity of Akassa is entirely dependent upon fishing: all other food is imported. Real incomes are probably above average and unlike many parts of Nigeria, there is no protein shortage. Nonetheless there is a capital shortage and it is difficult for young men to set up as captains of their own boats. ”

“ The society is run by men who make most of the decisions but as fishermen and unlike most rural Nigerian societies, they do not appear to have an easier life than the women who process the fish catches. ”

“ The soils collect material rather than lose it (thus despite forming on sandy deposits they have a higher silt and clay content than the ridge top soils) leaching is absent, being young they have only a single soil horizon, and because they are regularly or temporarily water-logged they are reduced. ”

“ As soon as viable people appeared, paths developed and useful canoe and building timber was removed. Settlements of convenience were established on the sandridges, and abandoned (and established again) leaving behind them the plants that humans find useful and which they favour. ”

“ These soils are shallow and (to a high water table) free draining with a pioneer humus surface horizon that may be only a few centimetres deep. They are classified as Inceptisols.
19.4 THE NATURAL ECOSYSTEM
The natural ecosystems of Akassa are alluvial tropical rainforests, youthful in relation to the lowland tropical rainforest beyond the Delta. The Sand Barrier Islands are an ecozone in their own right containing three major sub-ecozones: the brackish-water (mangrove) sub-ecozone, the fresh-water forest sub-ecozone, and the coastal strand sub-ecozone ”

“ Brass, for instance, has the Agip terminal at Twon that has created pollution, social upheavals and erosion by the construction of a canal, but which has brought electricity to the area, that the people see as a great benefit. ”