Dynamite fishing, coral mining, and farm runoff take a toll

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Like Kenya and Tanzania, Mozambique has well-developed patch and fringing reefs afflicted with similar human-caused problems—mining, blast fishing, agricultural runoff—and some unique ones too. In December 1996 Mozambique granted American gold trader James Blanchard a 50-year lease on 583,000 acres of forests, lakes, beaches, and coral reefsÑessentially the entire coast south of the capital, Maputo, to the South Africa border. Blanchard, a Louisianan, plans to build four Club Med-ish "holiday resorts, nine 'beach resorts,' two holiday villages, 350 private holiday homes, a railway line, two casinos and a yacht marina," reports the Economist. "To top it off, Mr. Blanchard...plans to float a Mississippi paddle steamer in the bay." Incredibly, Blanchard originally planned to build a "Bushman village" but that scheme, the Economist notes drily, has been "quietly dropped: the nearest Bush-men live some...620 miles away." As of March 1998, Blanchard Mozambique Enterprises had invested just $4 million of the projected $780 million the eager government anticipates, mainly for fencing and the restocking of 40 animals.