Contenu du sommaire

Exploitation and Management of the Mangrove Coasts of West Africa.- The study strives to show the great complexity of the mangrove coasts of West Africa, which are influenced by the combined actions of climate, ocean and continental forces. Exploitation and management of the mangrove shore by a multitude of ethnical groups has attained a true perfection and indicates a remarkable mastery of a difficult space. But today the traditional economy of the region, which is based on self-sufficiency, seems to be threatened as much by demographic growth as by the penetration of the modern world into these spaces preserved up to now.

Traditional Activities in a Tropical Coastal Space : The Tsiribihina Delta, Madagascar.-Along the coast of Madagascar, the delta of the Tsiribihina River forms a salient of about 500 sq. km. The landscape is marked by large stretches of mangrove forests and by bare, oversalted soils -the «tannes» -intersected by old sand ridges. At the beginning of the century, Antaisaka and Betsileo immigrants joined the Sakalava population that was already settled in the region. The present activities are all oriented towards self-sufficiency ; rice growing is the most recent of them. It is undertaken after the mangroves are cleared, according to local land-clearing methods. On the sand ridges, where the homes are built, there are coconut groves and herds of zebus. Fishing is a speciality in some villages.

The Impact of Drought in the Sertâo of Sergipe, Brazil.-In the small state of Sergipe, Brazil, the drought of the years 1981-84 had had consequences that were all the more serious because the sertâo was undergoing a vast land clearing program and fodder crops were planted that were ill-adapted to the region, the new farmers, who had come from cities, poorly informed as to the semi-arid ecosystem of the brazilian Northeast. A certain turbulence in real estate prices marked those years of climatic catastrophy, especially in towns situated farthest from the capital, where exogenous investment had declined. Although still eschewing use of the Sâo Francisco River for irrigation of the fertile lands of the sertâo, the Federal government is today showing an active interest and encouraging a reafforestation of the area with leguminous species that are well-adapted to the region which should considerably improve the exploitation conditions of the semi-arid sector of Sergipe.