building houses from the bottom up
friends of the earth mauritius
In Mauritius , an island state in the
Indian Ocean, poverty is both a consequence
and cause of environmental degradation. It
exacerbates the depletion of natural
resources by forcing people to till
marginal lands, over-harvest seas or
exploit natural resources in a desperate
struggle to survive.
Most of the 35,000 inhabitants of
Rodrigues Island , a dependent of Mauritius
, rely on fishing and agriculture for their
livelihoods. Nearly 40 percent of the
island's population live below the poverty
line. Coastal inhabitants have
traditionally built their homes from blocks
cut from coral deposits on the beaches.
Through the years this has caused
considerable damage to the coastline.
In 2002, the Mauritean government
abruptly prohibited inhabitants from using
the coral deposits as building material. As
a consequence, impoverished inhabitants
were forced to earn their livelihoods in
new ways including selling handicrafts,
fishing and animal husbandry. However,
those who had spent most of their lives
cutting coral blocks resisted. A local NGO
working on poverty alleviation assisted
them by establishing a basalt block-making
workshop in the same village, training and
employing those whose livelihoods had
depended on the coral. Basalt is abundant
on the island, and is thus a much more
sustainable choice of material for
housing.
This project is judged to have been a
success: the coral deposits that have been
built up over a period of millions of years
are protected, and those most dependent
upon them have found alternative, more
sustainable livelihoods.
