Socio-Economic Status and Living Conditions of Coastal Communities: Impacts on the Mangrove Ecosystems in the Scarcies Estuaries, Sierra Leone, West Africa

This research was conducted between the periods of March 2015 to December 2015 in the Scarcies Estuary, Sierra Leone. Participatory methods such as Focused Group Discussion (FGD), Interviews and ranking exercises were used for the assessment. The objective of this study is to assess the social and economic constraints of coastal communities, and how such constraints have influenced mangrove loss in the area. Knowledge on those is scarce for this region. The study will contribute to improving sustainable management agenda for mangrove forests in the Scarcies Estuaries. Results show a more active and productive age range of respondents (31-40 years), capable enough to make decisions that could influence resource use. A Student’s t-test showed no significant difference in sex at (P>0.05) for male (70%) and female (30%) mangrove dependents. In addition, of the various mangroves related economic activities, oyster collection and farming remained the most important with income above One Million Leones (>115USD) per week and per farming season respectively. Further, key constraints in the communities included inadequate health centers, educational facilities and lack of basic material assets. Multiple households in a dwelling unit are also a common residential arrangement in these areas. Such living conditions are in the context of the definition of poverty with such outcomes as deprived resources such as money and assets, poor health and illiteracy. Hence, it is increasingly evident that the conservation of mangroves in this region cannot be done without considering the varying impacts of poverty, gender roles and resource utilisation patterns. Introduction Mangroves live at the interface between land and sea in tropical and subtropical latitudes [1– 4]. However, mangroves are dependent on the coast, for which humans also have a preference [5]. Nearly 120 million people will live within 10km of the remaining large mangrove habitats by 2015 [5]. This ecosystem is key for enormous abiotic and biological resources and offers a mixture of ecosystem services from which humanity benefits [6–8]. These services can be categorized into provisioning, supporting and regulating, and cultural [9–10]. Provisioning services include (i) fisheries production [11–15]; (ii) production of timber and wood [1, 16]; (iii) Medicinal purposes [17]. Supporting and regulating services include (i) carbon sequestration [2, 18, 19]; (ii) climate regulation [5, 20-22]; (iii) shoreline stabilization and coastal protection [23–25]; (iv) water filtration [26] and pollution regulation [27–29]; Mangroves also provide a suite of cultural and aesthetic services, which include: (i) recreation and tourism [30]; (ii) educational opportunities [5, 31, 32]; (iii) aesthetic and cultural values [32–33]. Cumulatively, the ecosystem services contribute to the socioeconomic wellbeing of coastal communities [5, 34, 35]. [36] had also shown that the majority of people living in mangrove areas globally are fishermen, deriving their livelihood from fishing and related activities. In addition, [5] argued that the way mangroves are valued by people around the world differ greatly and are influenced by culture, heritage and the level of dependence on mangroves for local livelihoods and well-being. Notwithstanding, despite widespread knowledge of their value, the distribution of mangroves has decreased globally. Some 2,260 nationally designated and 285 internationally recognized sites worldwide contain about 41% of the world’s remaining mangroves [5]. One-third of global mangroves have been lost over a 50-year period due to anthropogenic activities [37]. Studies have International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Submitted: 2019-01-28 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 88, pp 1-14 Revised: 2019-03-20 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.88.1 Accepted: 2019-04-3