Day: June 6, 2022

Artisanal fisheries are the lifeblood of coastal African communities, but they have largely been neglected. Small changes can make sure they don’t disappear.

Feeding more than 200 million people across the continent, small-scale fisheries are intrinsic to African traditions, identity and economies. But they are under immense threat. Compared to the industrial fishing sector, the small-scale industry is marginalised, poorly planned and underfunded. Targeted solutions can ensure these vital fisheries survive as development marches on.

The small-scale fisheries sector makes up 85 percent of harvesters in Africa and employs 5.2 million people – a significant number for communities with few other ways to make a living. Fish represents 19 percent of protein consumption, providing essential vitamins and minerals, as well as omega-3 fatty acids crucial in ending malnutrition. In West Africa alone, 47 percent of fish caught in the region comes from small fisheries, with regional catches exceeding 1.8 million tonnes and generating more than US$2 billion per year. Even so, small fisheries in Africa are a low priority in national economic policies.

Catch amounts have been declining since 2004 despite an increase in fishing effort, such as from longer trips, more advanced equipment and industrial catches. Stocks have become overfished. The costs of fishing have increased, making it too expensive for many African coastal communities to continue. Fish depletion leads to poverty, but poverty also leads to fish depletion because of destructive fishing practices and mismanaged resources. Fishing communities and local fisheries are interdependent.

Ecosystems damaged by extractive industries such as mining, industrial fishing and climate change cannot support fish populations big enough to regenerate unless significant steps are taken. And small fisheries are urgently needed to provide for local communities in the meantime. Diversifying fish products, reducing waste, increasing community awareness and sharing knowledge between local communities are small but powerful ways to support small fisheries.

Bycatch – fish too small to sell, or other species unintentionally caught alongside targeted fish – can be very high and often go to waste. As much as 70 percent of targeted fish can also be wasted: often only the flesh is eaten and the skin, carcass, bones and scales are removed in processing — a huge missed opportunity, especially in communities where healthy food is not always available and starch-based staples decrease iron and zinc absorption. Affordable and innovative methods to transform byproducts into edible nutrient-rich powders using local hammer mills have been trialled in Uganda with the support of the EU-funded project SmartFish. The powders enrich local diets and school meals, and are an emergency food supplement for refugees. They could also be replicated in other regions.

Poor hygiene and handling of fish cause spoilage, threaten livelihoods and generate more waste. The SmartFish ‘Clean Fish, Better Life’ campaign involved the community in creating their own educational videos on post-harvest hygiene and good practices along the shores of Lake Victoria, which borders Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The campaign provided an opportunity for communities to exchange information, work together on pressing issues and solve their own problems.

The first SmartFish video, Usafi Ni Pesa (Hygiene Saves Money), was screened in 44 landing sites and fishing communities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Open discussions allowed the audience to establish the important link between established practices and new practices proposed by the videos. The program’s videos can reach people of different ages who may otherwise not have had access to the information because of illiteracy or limited financial means. The videos deliver educational messages in local contexts at low cost and can cover topics including illegal fishing, fishery laws, good environmental management and diversification of livelihoods.

In 2004 the Vezo community of fishers in the village of Andavadoaka, Madagascar, created the Velondriake locally managed marine area, with octopus-fishing closures, after catches continued to decline. Government policies allowed traditional laws and indigenous knowledge to inform ways of governing local resources, including periodic closures to let stocks recover. In turn, the octopus closures significantly boosted individual catches and fishers’ income.

The management practices have since evolved to include two mangrove reserves and five coral reserves, with significant support from the international community and not-for-profit organisations. The coral reserves have seen a 189 percent increase in fish, relative to the size of the area, within six years. Increased income has supported better access to health services, in turn leading to improved community health and smaller families. Community members say the livelihood interventions associated with the marine area have led to more small businesses and reduced reliance on fishing, decreasing pressure on the ecosystem.

The successes of the Velondriake marine area led many other communities to take similar action through Fishermen Learning Exchanges – gatherings where people from different communities exchange information and experiences. Quiwia village in coastal Mozambique was the first to implement its premier octopus closure based on learnings from Velondriak. Today, delegations from other parts of Mozambique travel to Quiwia to learn about the closure model. Around 200 locally managed marine areas have since been established, many with octopus closures, and these have also spread to Mauritius and Tanzania – and as far away as Mexico.

Giving communities the tools to manage their own resources empowers them and improves environmental stewardship. Even more importantly, bringing different fishing communities together yields powerful results. Deepened understanding leads to more successful management systems that prioritise healthy environments and encourage communities to manage fishery resources cooperatively.

Antaya March is a senior researcher at the Centre for Blue Governance, University of Portsmouth. Pierre Failler is a director at the Centre for Blue Governance, University of Portsmouth.

The Centre is the home of the UNESCO Chair in Ocean Governance. It focuses on supporting and delivering sustainable and equitable governance mechanisms for the ocean and aquatic resources, with a strong emphasis on enhancing the synergies between nature conservation and economic development.

The research was undertaken with financial assistance from the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR).

All views represented in this article are those of the author and do not reflect those of AU-IBAR.

Source: 360info

Long-term drought situation

A severe drought is affecting eastern and central regions of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) and is likely the worst drought in 40 years, after a fourth consecutive below-average rainfall season (Figure 1). Long-term drought (Figure 2) and poor vegetation conditions (Figure 3) reflect persisting drier-than-normal rainfall seasons.

Seasonal outlook

Recently the GHACOF61 outlook[1] for June to September 2022, suggested increased chances for wetter-than-normal conditions over northern parts of GHA, where this period is an important rainfall season. This is consistent with the Global Seasonal Climate Update (GSCU) for June-August 2022[2]. In the eastern and south-eastern parts of the region, where drought is currently more acute, water deficits will be exacerbated not only due to the failed March-May rainfall season but also by abnormally high air temperatures (increasing soil and plants moisture losses – evapotranspiration), which are forecasted to continue into the June–September dry season. The “short rains” season, normally from October to December would be the next window of opportunity to ease drought but predictions for drier-than-normal conditions and continuation of strong positive temperature anomalies, in case confirmed, will push towards a further deterioration of drought situation and its impacts.

El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

The multiyear La Niña conditions, which started in September 2020 and contributed to the exceptional four-season drought in the GHA, continued to prevail in May 2022 across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific[3]. WMO Global Producing Centers for Long Range Forecasts (GPCs-LRF) models’ outputs available at the WMO Lead Center for Long Range Forecast Multi-Model Ensemble (LC-LRFMME) (Figure 4-left), indicate that there is a high probability of the current La Niña conditions extending into boreal summer 2022 and continuing thereafter[4]. La Nina is a naturally occurring phenomena which can shift rainfall patterns across the globe. The impacts of each La Niña are never exactly the same, as they depend on the intensity of the event, the time of year when it develops and the interaction with other climate patterns. Although, consecutive La Nina events’ impacts and related losses become more prolonged and amplified.

Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is currently neutral. The GPCs-LRF climate model outlooks suggest a negative IOD may develop in the coming months and there is strong forecast consistency (Figure 4-right). It is important to note that model outlooks tend to have low accuracy at this time of year and some caution should be taken with IOD outlooks[5]. The IOD is the leading natural mode of interannual variability of SSTs in the tropical Indian Ocean. Usually, a negative IOD increases subsidence over the western Indian Ocean and dry anomalies over East Africa (Figure 5).

Precipitation and temperature forecast for September – November 2022

The global models’ outputs currently available at WMO LC-LRFMME go up to November 2022 and show that there is increasing model consistency, together with ocean and atmosphere indicators, suggesting a warmer and drier-than-average September to November period (Figure 6), which in big part matches with the “short rains” season (October-December) in East Africa. Nevertheless, the confidence (skill) of models is very low for such forecast lead time (about 6 months), so a close monitoring of next months’ outlooks is recommended as the forecast uncertainty is expected to decrease enabling a more robust assessment of the situation[6].

Understanding the possible causes

Many studies have shown the relationship between the East African “short rains” and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacifc Ocean and in the Indian Ocean, namely, the importance of the ENSO and IOD. In particular, when La Niña coincides with a negative IOD the chance of below-average “short rains” season in East Africa typically increases.

In relation to the long-term observed trends, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report[7] states that there is evidence of a human contribution to observed decreases in mean precipitation and observed increase in the intensity and frequency of hot extremes in North Eastern Africa (NEAF)[8]. A decreasing precipitation amount of -2 to -7% per decade in the 1983–2010 period was reported for the March-to-May “Long rains season” in eastern Africa. Recent strengthening of the Pacific Walker Circulation (WC) that resembles a La Niña-like WC (illustrated on Figure 7) and its westward shift has been associated with reduced precipitation over eastern Africa and there is high confidence that changes in the WC are associated with changes in the water cycle over regions like the Maritime Continent, South America and Africa.

Source: World Meteorological Organization

GENEVA— The World Health Organization said that 780 laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases had been reported to it from 27 non-endemic countries, while maintaining that the global risk level was moderate.

The WHO said the 780 figure, for cases from May 13 to Thursday, was probably an underestimate due to limited epidemiological and laboratory information.

“It is highly likely that other countries will identify cases and there will be further spread of the virus,” the UN health agency added.

Few hospitalisations have been reported, apart from patients being isolated.

The WHO listed the non-endemic countries reporting the most cases as Britain (207), Spain (156), Portugal (138), Canada (58) and Germany (57).

Besides Europe and North America, cases have also been reported — in single figures — in Argentina, Australia, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

One case of monkeypox in a non-endemic country is considered an outbreak.

“Some countries are reporting that new generations of cases are no longer appearing only among known contacts of previously confirmed cases, suggesting that chains of transmission are being missed through undetected circulation of the virus,” the WHO said.

“Although the current risk to human health and for the general public remains low, the public health risk could become high if this virus exploits the opportunity to establish itself in non-endemic countries as a widespread human pathogen,” it said in a disease outbreak update.

“WHO assesses the risk at the global level as moderate considering this is the first time that many monkeypox cases and clusters are reported concurrently in non-endemic and endemic countries.”

Most reported cases so far have been presented through sexual health or other health services and have mainly involved men who have sex with men, said the WHO.

The organisation said many cases were not presenting with the classical clinical picture for monkeypox: some have described having pustules appear before symptoms such as fever, and having lesions at different stages of development — both of which are atypical.

The WHO said there had been no deaths associated with outbreaks in non-endemic countries, but cases and deaths continue to be reported from endemic areas.

The WHO listed the endemic states as Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Ivory Coast, plus Ghana where it has been identified in animals only.

From the first seven of those countries, 66 deaths were reported in the first five months of 2022.

Last week the WHO convened virtually more than 500 experts and over 2,000 participants to discuss monkeypox knowledge gaps and research priorities.

Experts stressed the need for clinical studies of vaccines and treatments to better understand their effectiveness, and called for faster research into the disease epidemiology and transmission.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Doha: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has initiated an eye disease treatment and anti-blindness project in Sudan. The launch in Karari Locality, Omdurman, was attended by HE Abdul-Rahman bin Ali Al-Kubaisi, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Sudan.

This project is part of QRCS’s ongoing humanitarian operations in Sudan, under its year-round medical convoys program aimed at providing medical care for poor patients in many countries.

It involves providing medical examinations, medications, eyeglasses, and surgeries free of charge, with a view to easing the financial burden for the beneficiaries in the targeted areas.

A medical delegation from QRCS, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) in Qatar had arrived in Khartoum Friday evening to carry out the eye health care medical convoy in Sudan 4-9 June 2022. The delegation comprises Dr. Omar Al-Qahtani, senior consultant and Head of Ophthalmology Department at HMC, Dr. Ismail Al-Fadl, consultant ophthalmologist at PHCC, and Dr. Izzadeen Gaffar, Medical Convoys Project Coordinator at QRCS.

According to the plan, two camps would be set up in Khartoum and Gezira, to conduct 8,000 medical consultations, perform 800 surgeries, and provide 2,500 eyeglasses free of charge for the patients most in need, in cooperation with the Al-Basar International Foundation – Sudan, and in coordination with Sudan’s health authorities and QRCS’s representation office in Sudan.

The first camp was inaugurated in Al-Fateh district of Omdurman, and the second in Dar Al-Salam district of Jabal Awliya Locality.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by representatives of the Governor of Khartoum and the Minister of Health in the state.

In his speech, Mr. Al-Kubaisi praised QRCS’s humanitarian initiatives, inviting Sudanese medical professionals to benefit from the expert medical delegation, headed by Dr. Al-Qahtani.

The representative of the Governor of Khartoum thanked QRCS and the government and people of Qatar for standing by the Sudanese people. The representative of the Al-Basar International Foundation commended Qatar’s constant role of supporting the people of Sudan. He hoped that this support would continue, especially after the end of COVID-19 risks. Dr. Awadallah Hamdan, head of QRCS’s office in Sudan, reiterated their commitment to pursuing multi-sector humanitarian activities, serving those in need throughout the country, and improve their living and health conditions.

Over the past two days, 3,000 patients were examined in the Al-Fateh camp, eyeglasses were distributed, and 280 patients were referred to Makkah Hospital – Omdurman for eye surgeries.

In the Dar al-Salam camp, 620 patients were examined, eyeglasses were distributed, and 75 patients were referred for surgical interventions at Makkah Hospital – Khartoum.

About Qatar Red Crescent (QRCS)

Established in 1978, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) is Qatar’s first humanitarian and volunteering organization that aims to assist and empower vulnerable individuals and communities without partiality or discrimination.

QRCS is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which consists of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and 192 National Societies. It is also a member of several GCC, Arab, and Islamic organizations, such as the Islamic Committee of International Crescent and the Arab Red Crescent and Red Cross Organization (ARCO). In this legally recognized capacity, QRCS has access to disaster and conflict zones, thus serving as an auxiliary to the State of Qatar in its humanitarian and social efforts — a role that distinguishes it from other local charities and NGOs.

Both locally and internationally, QRCS has relief and development operations in numerous countries throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Central and South America. Its humanitarian mandates include disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and risk reduction. To mitigate the impact of disasters and improve the livelihoods of affected populations, QRCS provides medical services, food, water, shelter, and other needs of local communities. It is also active at the humanitarian diplomacy and advocacy front.

With the help of a vast network of trained, committed staff and volunteers, QRCS aspires to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity, inspired by the seven Fundamental Principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

Source: Qatar Red Crescent Society