You don't have to be an expert to conclude that Tafouka is a vulnerable fisheries community. The climate is changeable and fraught with drought and desertification and therefore unsuitable for agricultural activities. Furthermore, a vicious cycle is created with the excessive use of land for grazing, cropping, firewood cutting etc, which intensifies soil erosion, leading to reduction in soil fertility, depletion of forest resources, and the silting up of the water ponds.  The natural result of these combined forces is low-level production of fish.

" The silting up of the lake makes us more vulnerable to the shock of unpredictable rains. Last year’s planting 
season ( 2001) was not good. The low rainfall means that the lake, which is the farmer's main source of income 
and food, will dry up sooner.  So, you see, it's easy to understand why the storage ponds for fish fingerlings 
is our number one activity. We will need to store the fingerlings early.  The altona oven is the second most 
important activity. It offers a lot of advantages, the major one being the fact that it hikes up the value of our products ".

A quick cost analysis shows that the altona oven consumes about 10% of fuel wood to smoke a box of fish, which is then sold for 20.000 FCFA, compared to 1.500 FCFA when the traditional oven is used.

“ Now it all seems so easy. All we needed was to adopt better and more appropriate fisheries and land management practices, and I’m sure the water bodies in our community will soon be restored to a decent level. So, after one year we can be proud of the fact that we have three functional fish storage reservoirs, our fish production has increased and fish is sold at a better price. " " We have intensified our efforts to manage the water bodies and the fishermen's cooperative is fully in charge. We manage water bodies up to 30 Km from our village. "

" Education is really very important in development. We find the adult literacy programmes and training organised for members of our cooperative invaluable - over 1000 persons in the village are eager to attend adult literacy classes. "

Activities relating to tree production and the protection of the catchment area of the major water bodies in the community are being seriously considered, but the problem is that most of the structures erected to control erosion are constructed during the period when food is scarce.

" The main fishing season will be short this year because of the low rainfall so men and women will be looking for other ways to generate income for food. Last year the rains stopped early and the acacia trees planted last suffered. We will try to organise the work differently this year by starting the nursery earlier so that all trees can be ready for planting in June. We will also organise work on the farm in a different way. "

The community’s savings and loan scheme was reinforced.

" We work on simple rules :  if you are of a good moral character and you pay back your loan as scheduled, you will be able to get another loan from one of the socio professional groups. The women control their savings and loan scheme during their weekly meetings and they know exactly how much interest their capital has generated. The men have less precise figures because as soon as the money enters it is immediately given out  to another borrower. … so, it's difficult to keep up with details. But we will learn from the women and meet more regularly to update information. " The women have generated a profit of 120.000 FCFA on a total capital of 400.000 FCFA. No defaults in repayment have yet been recorded.