Figure 2

Photographs illustrating ethnobiological relationships and impacts on the mangrove. (a) House construction of a kutcha (roughly meaning 'low class'). (b) House construction of a pucca (roughly meaning 'high class'). (c) Traditional use of mangroves as fuelwood. (d) Fishermen holding a tray with pieces of Ceriops decandra bark used for dyeing fishing nets. They also show two freshly dyed nets and in the background previously dyed nets are hung to dry. (e) Herdsman milking his feral water buffalo that is consuming Avicennia alba twigs. (f) Sorting of Avicennia spp. seedlings in a mangrove nursery. (g) Although the cause of the destruction of the mangroves on the foreground is natural (cyclone 07B), the irony of this photograph is that in the background fishermen are fishing for species that are dependent on the mangrove otherwise functioning as breeding, spawning, hatching and nursery grounds. (h) Shrimp farm ponds established along Kakinada Road near Gadimoga (Zone 1) at the expense of mangrove forest. (i) Publicity in favour of shrimp farming, showing the (short-term) economic gains that may result from this activity (golden bracelet). (Photographs by Sarah Collin, Deirdre Vrancken and Nico Koedam).