AS evening falls over Sierra Leone’s Banana Island archipelago, bats stream from their beachside roosts to circle in the thousands over the jungle village of Dublin.

    Below them, a struggle is playing out over an unexpected commodity — the lowly sea cucumber, a fleshy, sausage-shaped creature that scavenges for food on the seabed.

    It is a struggle that is familiar to many in the West African country.

    Sierra Leone’s resources — diamonds, gold, fish and more recently iron ore — have been extracted and exported in great quantities throughout its history, yet the country remains one of the poorest in the world.

    While the Banana Islanders have no use for sea cucumbers, in China they are prized for their medicinal properties and as a natural aphrodisiac.

    Growing demand — currently estimated at around 10,000 tons per year — has depleted stocks around the world, leading traders to search ever further afield for new harvesting grounds.

    Locals still remember the first Chinese traders arrived in Sierra Leone four years ago to harvest the island’s little known, red-spined variety of Stichopus sea cucumbers.

    When prices skyrocketed, the islanders hoped the windfall would both make them wealthy and bring development to the village.

    Moses Taylor, a former village chief known locally as Lord Moe, said the growing sea cucumber businesses haven’t bring much improvement on infrastructure in the region as they have expected.

    Mohamed Bangura, who works for one exporter who asked to be identified only as Cham Jr., argued that the locals have benefited from the trade.

    Cham’s father was one of the first to export sea cucumbers from the Banana Islands, and is also one of those accused by the islanders of reneging on their promises.

    Bangura acknowledged that the villagers’ expectations had not been met, but contended the region was still better off. He noted that his company had supplied a generator to Tombo village, for example.

    “The islanders are the main beneficiaries of our trade,” he said.

    Abu Bakar, who is in his 20s, has been diving since the beginning of the cucumber windfall. Selling his catch to Chinese buyers enabled him to invest in land on the coast to the south of the capital, Freetown. “We thank God the sea cucumber has pushed us forward,” he said.

    Sierra Leone’s government said conditions are generally improving in the country, pointing to a set of impressive economic indicators. The economy grew by 15.2 percent in 2012 on the back of an iron-ore bonanza. Projections for 2014 are not far below that, at 14 percent, according to the World Bank.

    China has contributed a big part of that boom, with trade predicted to hit US$2 billion this year.(SD-Agencies)