The National Times - 'The fishing's terrible': Deforestation devastates C.Africa river

Felling trees to make charcoal for cooking or heating is a booming business in the forests around the southwestern town of Boali, where Senguemboli says he and his fellow fishermen are struggling to make a living.

Experts say deforestation is causing lower water levels on the river, making it muddier and reducing its oxygen content, which makes it more difficult for fish to breed.

"The fishing's terrible," Senguemboli said, after paddling out to pull in his long green nets through the river's brown water, only to find them nearly bare.

"Our main problem is all the trees being cut down," he told AFP.

"If there are no more trees here, the earth is going to burn, the water is going to dry up even more and soon there won't be any more fish."

Fishing is a precious source of income for many people in the Central African Republic, which sits in the Congo basin, the world's second-largest tropical rainforest, after the Amazon.

But sellers are having trouble finding fish for their stands at the local market in Boali.

- Fewer, smaller fish -

"Fish is becoming scarce while demand is growing. Buyers even come from Bangui to stock up. The result: even we, the residents of Boali don't have enough fish anymore," market seller Flore Ouagbele said.

"There's a real shortage. Fishermen are finding fewer and fewer of them in the waters and it has become a serious problem," she added.

Fishermen say the fish have also been getting smaller.

"In the past, we used to catch much bigger carp. With the heatwaves and climate change, the fish have become smaller," Senguemboli said.

With fish a key food source in the region, the impact is also felt on families' plates.

WWF, the nature conservation organisation, said in a report last year that Africa had the highest per capita annual catch of freshwater fish in the world, averaging 2.6 kilos.

"This has consequences for our living conditions. Starting in August, we often go through a dry spell: the sun is strong, it's very hot and the waters dry up," Saint-Cyr Gaba, a charcoal producer in the nearby village of Gbaho, said.

"We're struggling to meet our basic needs. For now, we have no choice but to produce charcoal to make a living," he added.

Elsewhere in the village lying near Boali, a man loaded up heavy sacks of charcoal for sale across the Central African Republic, one of the world's poorest countries, but particularly in the capital, Bangui, where demand for household energy is high.

- Loss of spawning grounds -

But charcoal production is an ever-growing threat to the fish of Mbali River.

Cutting down trees in the area surrounding the watercourse results in "increased water turbidity and reduced oxygen levels", as well as "the destruction of fish spawning grounds", Yves Kaengonza, an expert at the water and forestry ministry, said.

"When there isn't enough depth, the fish lose their refuge. They can't reproduce. As a result, the number of fish decreases," he added.

WWF said in its report that deforestation also affected flow patterns and temperatures, and increases sedimentation caused by soil erosion.

It highlighted that the risks weighing on fish were often invisible and ignored or neglected, whereas those for land-based African species were clearly visible.

Construction of dams and irrigation channels, the conversion of land and wetlands to agriculture, urbanisation and mining also harm African freshwater ecosystems, the NGO said.

Almost 200 countries at a UN biodiversity summit have been discussing the global battle against deforestation, pollution and overexploitation of natural resources, among other conservation challenges, in Armenia this week.

S.Ross--TNT