Wetlands and People

The featured photo above is part of a project on Wetlands and People I'm yet to publish. I have been documenting wetlands and forest fringe communities in both urban and non-urban landscapes since August 2020. The Tropics are in Trouble Tropical wetlands are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0301-1 But they are under increasing stresses from anthropogenic modifications, overexploitation, and climate changehttps://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/#:~:textfrom%20GlobalGoalsUN&textThe%20Report%20finds%20that%20around,20%25%2C%20mostly%20since%201900.. This has contributed to the loss of key ecosystem services and functions. The women in the photographs below are at the front line of this unprecedented ecological change. Wetlands and people in distress. Copyright © 2021 Muntaka Chasant One of my main research questions is this: how are these trends shaping the community livelihoods of the people who rely on resources from tropical wetlands as a source of jobs and food? Several forest fringe communities in the Western Region of Ghana are of great interest to my research. A Wetland Conversation Rural poverty in Ghana: Having so little to eat, the woman (on the left) sheds tears. Copyright © 2021 Muntaka Chasant Up early doing some work near the Amanzule Lake, the women in the photo above — from the Nzulezo stilt village nearby — suddenly appeared through the fog, paddling towards me. A dialogue ensued between us in the middle of the creek. Theresa, 37 years old, on the left (above), suddenly lowered her head slightly and clamped a hand over her face to stop the tears. Was she crying? "The stress from this level of poverty is too much. We don't know what happened, but everything has changed. There are no longer fish resources in the lake. The palm trees are no longer productive," anxious Theresa let it out. How heartbreaking. This hit me right in the face. I didn't have the moment to commiserate... "What to eat is a challenge from day to day," Catherine (in her mid-50s) on the right (above), cut Theresa and started. "No one knows we are here. We don't even have a medical facility at Nzulezo. People come, violate our privacy, and go. Please, tell the Government to visit us when you go back to the city. We need help!" "Let me show you something," Catherine then pulled out a black polythene bag to show me her meal for the day — a steamed fermented corn dough (Fante Kenkey) and a few days old lightly roasted tilapia. Rural poor woman shows her meal for the day as she heads to the farm — steamed fermented corn known and a few days old lightly roasted tilapia. Copyright © 2021 Muntaka ChasantFante Kenkey (steamed fermented corn dough) and a lightly roasted tilapia. Copyright © 2021 Muntaka Chasant Pointing the food at me, she added: "This is what I'll eat the entire day until I return from the farm." "We have nothing now. Everything is gone. What are we going to do?" Asked Catherine. I did not have an answer. But this was one of the most profound encounters I have had in the course of this project. Here, when they poled into the fog (for the YouTube thumbnail below): Wetlands and people. Copyright © 2021 Muntaka Chasant For cinematic curiosity, I have put together a 1.5 min video of a woman paddling a dugout canoe on the creek purposely for this post — to picture us in the middle of the narrow waterway: https://youtu.be/T9bwiIdZR8I I can't put any timeline to it, but I hope to publish the Wetlands and People project in the coming months. Copyrights © 2021 Muntaka Chasant

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