The Mozambicans paving the way for conservation and empowerment

Women spearhead the conservation and responsible tourism movement in the African country by using plastic and glass litter to make paver blocks in a marine national park

By Khursheed Dinshaw

Published: Mar 12, 2024 01:04:33 PM IST

Updated: Mar 12, 2024 01:36:35 PM IST

Thirty-three-year-old Fauzia Vilanculos is one of the waste collectors on the island of Benguerra in Mozambique. Image: Khursheed Dinshaw

Behind a sand dune, in the shade of a tree, a woman is busy segregating litter. She has worn gloves and is putting a plastic potato chips wrapper into a big bag that is made from fibre. Thirty-three-year-old Fauzia Vilanculos is one of the waste collectors on the island of Benguerra in Mozambique. She has been segregating litter of plastic, glass, fabric, metal and paper. Marine litter tends to be plastic and fabric, often washed hundreds of kilometres from other continents.

Twenty-four-year-old Judite Huo is also a waste collector. She was previously working in a resort on the island but was laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was not alone. A number of women lost their jobs during the pandemic. Unemployed, and with no means to support themselves, they were in a precarious situation. It was then that Bazaruto Archipelago National Park initiated a clean-up programme to help alleviate Covid-induced unemployment and poverty. This became formally established as Basisa Bazaruto.

Basisa Bazaruto, which means ‘clean Bazaruto’, was started to empower indigenous women as well as tackle the excessive trash problem on the inhabited islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park. The park encompasses an archipelago that includes the five islands of Bazaruto, Benguerra, Santa Carolina, Magaruque and Banque. Three of these islands, namely Bazaruto, Benguerra and Magaruque, are inhabited by about 6,850 people, according to the 2022 survey.

Basisa employs 63 Mozambicans, 53 of whom are islanders. Working for 8 hours, there are 50 collectors on the islands. Of these 46 are women who had never worked full-time before or were fisherwomen or had lost their jobs during the pandemic. The dual goals of women empowerment and providing an alternative source of income for the women on the islands are being achieved under the initiative.

The women gather trash that is washed ashore from other countries, from shops and from local people. Each collector fills five bags and gets them to their respective waste segregation centre where the litter is segregated into paper, metal, fabric, glass and plastic.

Rebecca Banze and Judite Huo at work: 39-year-old (R) Rebecca Banze is chopping a discarded plastic container into smaller pieces using a machete. Image: Khursheed Dinshaw

Next to Vilanculos and Huo, 39-year-old Rebecca Banze is chopping a discarded plastic container into smaller pieces using a machete. A broken plastic bucket is the next item that Banze will cut. Both women proudly wear their uniform of T-shirts, which have ‘Bazaruto Archipelago National Park’ embossed on them. A colourful wrap-around skirt completes their outfit.

“I am making a difference. The whole process of recycling is interesting. Our beaches are clean, our marine life is safer and I have an alternative livelihood and gender equality,” says Huo. Banze also worked at a resort on Benguerra. To supplement her income, she was also a fisherwoman. She joined Basisa in 2021 after losing her job at the resort.

“Instead of heading out to sea, which is risky and there is no certainty of catching fish, to have a reliable income is a blessing. I am able to provide food and pay the school fees for my children. I have five kids and all of them go to school. There is joy in being financially independent. I can afford uniforms, books and pencils for my children with my salary from Basisa. My quality of life has improved,” adds Banze as she takes a break from chopping the big plastic container. It is necessary to cut the container into smaller pieces which can then be put into the plastic crushing machine.

Vilanculos adds that after working at Basisa Bazaruto, as she is earning a fixed income, her opinion on family matters is considered. Previously she had no say in family decisions. Bags made from eco-friendly fibers are used for collecting and putting the segregated waste. Previous collection bags were made from plastic rice sacks that broke down into micro plastics in the marine environment. This contributed to the pollution problem.

Also read: The ever-growing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans

There are 10 collection points on the islands of Bazaruto, Benguerra and Magaruque. Daily reports of the amount of waste collected on each island are sent to the mainland. Since the initiation of trash collection in August 2020, over 540 tonnes of trash has been collected and removed from the archipelago.

Community awareness projects are regularly organised by Basisa employees. This has helped to create awareness among the islanders of what constitutes marine waste and its dangers. Thirty-five-year-old Otavia Nhalingue feels more confident after she joined Basisa. As part of her job profile, she speaks to many of the local people on her island of Benguerra and educates them about marine litter.

“I have an identity. People don’t look at me as a dirty person because I collect thrash. Instead, I am the one keeping their homes and the environment clean. Piled up rubbish can lead to diseases. There can be malaria. Also the plastic is a threat to our turtles and dugongs. The islanders understand that. Interacting with so many people on a daily basis is good for me too. It is an opportunity to learn a lot,” opines Nhalingue, who was a fisherwoman before she joined Basisa in 2021.

The pathways made using plastic and glass pavers. Image: Khursheed Dinshaw

From the collection points on the islands, the segregated waste is taken to the mainland, to the town of Vilanculos or Vilankulo in Inhambane Province of Mozambique. The boat used is called Lundo. Lundo in the local language refers to parrotfish, which is crucial for cleaning algae from reef-building corals. The boat is manned by three skippers. The recycling plant is located on Vilanculos. The women employees at the recycling plant play varied roles instead of being allocated specific duties.

The waste is offloaded and transported to the plant. The trash is further segregated into what can be used at the plant and what can be sent for recycling to Sombra Matsinhe, who is the partner of the National Park. Sombra Matsinhe transports the waste to their recycling plant in Maputo for recycling. The Basisa Project plant uses crushed glass and hard plastic in a mix to produce paving blocks. These paving blocks are used in the park, creating a small circular economy.

Hard plastic arrives at the plant in the form of cut plastic, which the waste pickers have cut on the islands. Glass is got from glass bottles. The plastic is run through a plastic crusher machine. Basisa Bazaruto has been supported by The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a non-governmental organisation aimed at improving plastic waste management. The project has also recently started to receive support from the Tui Care Foundation, under their Tui Sea the Change Program.

Basisa Bazaruto has recently acquired two new crushers that have tremendously increased the manufacturing capacity. In the crusher, the plastic is converted into smaller plastic bits. The glass is crushed in a glass crushing machine and turned into sand. The mix for the pavers is made from this crushed plastic and glass, sand and a bit of cement and water.

The pavers line the pathways of the outpost of the national park. Formerly, the scorching sun heated the sand on which the rangers walked during their patrol duties at the outpost. Now they walk on these pavers. So far 53,784 pavers have been made and laid out,” adds Neima Mathe (R), project coordinator of Basisa Bazaruto. Image: Khursheed Dinshaw

This mixture is further put into the hydraform machine that compresses it into paver blocks. Each cycle of the machine produces eight paver blocks. In a day, the machine has a capacity of manufacturing about 1,500 blocks, provided there is enough dedicated labour. At Basisa Bazaruto, the paver blocks are an eco-friendly alternative to tiles or bricks.

Also see: A sea change in our outlook, and not a changing tide, will determine the future of oceanic resources

“The pavers line the pathways of the outpost of the national park. Formerly, the scorching sun heated the sand on which the rangers walked during their patrol duties at the outpost. Now they walk on these pavers. So far 53,784 pavers have been made and laid out,” adds Neima Mathe, project coordinator of Basisa Bazaruto.

The Bazaruto Archipelago National Park is under a co-management partnership, between the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) and African Parks (AP). ANAC is a Mozambican government entity responsible for the management of 25 percent of the territory which the government declared as protected areas. African Parks is an NGO responsible for the rehabilitation and restoration of protected areas across the continent in partnership with governments and local communities.

A clean beach of Benguerra Island. Image: Khursheed Dinshaw

The park is home to 2,000 marine species including whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles. The conservation initiatives of the park have been commendable for the largest population of dugongs on the eastern coast of the continent.

The durable pavers are a way of ensuring that marine plastic litter does not go back into the oceans or into a municipality dump. While trash was segregated on the mainland, it was not the case on the islands. “From the environment perspective, from the point of view of health and from the need of collecting marine and community litter, plastic posed a big health risk. Floating plastic islands and contaminated plastic waste washes ashore from far off places. Also with tourism being a big income generator for the islanders, dirty and unhygienic beaches are a complete no-no. Basisa Bazaruto is the waste management solution,” explains Veronica Bower, the special projects manager of Bazaruto Archipelago National Park.

Future plans include redoubling efforts to collect solid waste and gaining more international visibility in order to obtain more funding. Looking forward, the park also plans to increase collaborations with tourism partners to imrove the reach and scale of both collection and recycling. Trash collection is a vital management tool for the park as it impacts all park activities. The work is hard but the Basisa group has developed a strong sense of team spirit. The park infrastructure has increased enormously in the last few years. With the construction of the new operational office in Vilanculos this year, the Basisa paving blocks will be in high demand.