Fishermen were catching so many blue swimming crabs that there started to be fewer of them left in the sea.Then, someone came up with a clever idea. That was to start a bank that makes money from selling crabs but only after they have had babies, which are put back into the sea.All fishermen need to do to get help from this bank is to hand over five of the crabs they catch that can have babies and then be sold by the bank.Now, the fishermen are getting money to help their businesses and there are also more crabs in the water for them to catch. It’s a win-win situation.
To protect the crabs, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Kien Giang Province - home to Phu Quoc - set up the bank in 2011. - Photo phuquoctv
HCM CITY (VNS) – A blue swimming crab bank set up in Phu Quoc has helped fishermen improve their incomes while also conserving the species, a speciality of the island.
Because of huge demand for the crabs, fishermen have been catching more and more of them, causing a decline in their population.
To protect them, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Kien Giang Province – home to Phu Quoc – set up the bank in 2011.
The bank, sponsored by the Wetlands Alliance Programme and having an initial capital of VND30 million (US$1,400), provides loans worth VND3 million to people who catch, breed, or sell the crabs, and as interest they have to “pay” five egg-carrying blue swimming crabs every month from their catch.
The bank has also set up a floating craft with four cages to breed egg-carrying blue swimming crabs. After the eggs hatch, the babies are released into the sea and the mother crabs are sold.
Money from the sales is used to maintain the craft, buy food for the crabs in the cages, and provide the loans.
Nguyen Ngoc Huong of Bai Bon hamlet on the island said the loan helped her buy nets and other tools to catch crabs.
“The payment in the form of crabs was easy for me compared to normal payment,” she said.
Fishermen who borrowed have increased their incomes and pay interest in time, bank statisticsreveal.
According to Bui Ngoc Huan, head of the Bai Bon Hamlet Fisheries Resources Protection Team, which manages the craft, the bank hopes to improve fishermen’s awareness of the need to protect blue swimming crabs.
But the bank’s capital is small and it is difficult to increase lending.
Bai Bon has a population of 1,600 and 70 per cent of them earn a living from fishing. Around 60 per cent of the fishermen catch blue swimming crabs.
The department has called on companies exporting the crab variety to invest in the bank so that more people can get loans.
Companies investing in the bank will benefit from having a sustainable source of crabs. – VNS
GLOSSARY
A blue swimming crab bank set up in Phu Quoc has helped fishermen improve their incomes while also conserving the species, a speciality of the island.
Your income is the money that you earn.To conserve the crab means to protect it from vanishing.A species of crab is a type of crab.
Because of huge demand for the crabs, fishermen have been catching more and more of them, causing a decline in their population.
If there is a demand for something, many people want it and often they are willing to pay for it.If there is a decline in the crab population, then their numbers are getting smaller because more are dying than are being born.
The bank, sponsored by the Wetlands Alliance Programme and having an initial capital of VND30 million (US$1,400), provides loans worth VND3 million to people who catch, breed, or sell the crabs, and as interest they have to “pay” five egg-carrying blue swimming crabs every month from their catch.
If a project is sponsored, someone gives it money so that it can keep going.The bank’s initial capital was the first batch of money it had to get started.
The bank has also set up a floating craft with four cages to breed egg-carrying blue swimming crabs.
A craft is a boat.
Money from the sales is used to maintain the craft, buy food for the crabs in the cages, and provide the loans.
To maintain something means to keep it going.A loan is something, like money, that you borrow from someone, like the crab bank, which lends it to you.
Nguyen Ngoc Huong of Bai Bon hamlet on the island said the loan helped her buy nets and other tools to catch crabs.
A hamlet is a group of houses that is not big enough to call a village.
Fishermen who borrowed have increased their incomes and pay interest in time, bank statisticsreveal.
To reveal means to show.Statistics are figures that are collected.
The department has called on companies exporting the crab variety to invest in the bank so that more people can get loans.
When something is sold to a buyer in another country, it is exported. The opposite happens and you buy something from someone in another country. That’s called importing.A variety of crab is a type of crab.When people invest, they pay money into a project, or a business, that they hope will one day make more money.
Companies investing in the bank will benefit from having a sustainable source of crabs.
If you benefit from something, it does you good.A sustainable source of crabs is a place you can get crabs from that and will not run out of crabs.WORKSHEETFill in the blank spaces with the correct words. Choose them from the list below.If people from the Philippines wish to buy crabs from Viet Nam, they will have to (1)______ them. However, if people from Viet Nam wish to buy fruit from the Philippines, the Filipino people (people from the Philippines) will be (2)__________ their fruit to Viet Nam.If a fruit farmer in the Philippines who wishes to sell his fruit to a buyer in Viet Nam does not have enough money to hire lorries to take the fruit to the airport to fly to Ho Chi Minh City, he may go the bank and ask for a (3)______. “Please, Mr Bank Manager, can the bank (4) _____ me money. Whatever I (5) ________, I shall pay back when I receive my money from my buyer in Viet Nam.”
| loan import borrow exporting lend |
ANSWERS: © Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2014 (1) import; (2) exporting; (3)loan; (4) lend; (5) borrow.
Đăng ký: VietNam News