1001 Ways to make a right mess of the environment, part 1

I was recently lucky enough to be taking a boat ride around the mangroves of the Saloum Delta in Senegal. Mangroves generally get a bad press - they sit at the point between salt and fresh water and tend to collect sediment and rubbish and so are associated with disease. However, they also prevent coastal erosion, filter the water and provide a habitat for all manner of birds and aquatic life such as manatees and all sorts of fish. Shellfish are a big fan and like to attach themselves to the branches - collecting them is a big part of the economy of many communities. Cutting down mangroves is pretty disasterous all round, but it happens all the time because of industrial development, new roads, a need for wood and whatnot.

There is an ongoing campaign to improve the conservation of mangroves and all the economic and environmental benefits they sustain. In the Saloum in particular, there has been a long history of communications work with the communities there and the value of the mangrove is widely understood. However, understood or not, I saw first hand that there is still a long way to go...:

Pic 1: After a day's hard work spent half standing waist deep in muddy water and half sitting in boats that need constant bailing out, these ladies have two boats full of oysters (and they were delicious, probably part of the appeal was eating them out of a wheelbarrow? I've now eaten oysters from a bucket and a wheelbarrow as well as a more conventional plate and the plate definitely loses out)

Pic 2: Presumably to avoid standing in the water all day, why not chop the branches and take just take the oysters and half the mangrove as well?

But here's the dilemma: if you had to sit in a broken wet boat all day when you know you could do the job in half the time and spend the rest of the day doing something else, wouldn't you be tempted to do the same?