Adaptation and Learning in Coastal Management: The Experience of Five East African Initiatives

This article explores principles of adaptive, learning-based resource management and their practical application in coastal management projects in East Africa. The principles of feedback and adjustment, experimentation, and carefully guided participatory processes that capture widespread knowledge are used to describe the experience of five projects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The findings are drawn from a variety of sources, including site visits and interviews. The main finding is that adaptive methods are a major feature of all projects, and the general approaches used in each case are similar.     

Assessing the Impacts of Gender Integration in Ghana’s Fisheries Sector

Abstract

This article presents the results of an impact assessment of a component of a large scale USAID sustainable fisheries management project initiative aimed at integrating gender and strengthening the role of women in fisheries management in Ghana. The assessment is based on a literature review and qualitative field data collection. It assessed gender integration from three entry points: improving the Ghanaian policy environment for gender in fisheries, empowering women post-harvest processors, and engaging women gleaners in fisheries co-management. The assessment found that an important milestone was the adoption and implementation of the Ghanaian Fisheries Sector’s National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in 2016. Summarizing the impacts on local post-harvest processors and gleaners, the assessment found that female post-harvest processors have increased capacity, confidence, and engagement in fisheries management. Gender mainstreaming efforts have succeeded in challenging cultural norms about women’s role in fisheries. Women have been exposed to sustainable fisheries management and are better equipped with the knowledge and leadership skills to advocate for good fisheries practices, which they actively demonstrate.     

Coastal Livelihood Diversification as a Pathway Out of Poverty and Vulnerability: Experiences from Tanzania

Livelihood diversification can increase the number of activities generating income and is often adopted as a means to reduce vulnerability to risk and provide a pathway out of poverty. Previous empirical studies, however, have found that this diversification carries no guarantee of success. This study examines the impacts of investments in conservation-based enterprises and micro-credit interventions implemented in coastal Tanzania. Project beneficiaries (n = 178) and non-beneficiaries (n = 117) from seventeen communities surrounding Saadani National Park and the Menai Bay Conservation area were surveyed in 2013, to gather quantitative and qualitative data on a suite of parameters including the number of livelihood activities, total annual income, and engagement in extractive activities. We found that the beneficiaries reported an average of 2.15 livelihoods, which was significantly higher than the 1.44 average reported by the non-beneficiaries. The beneficiaries also had significantly higher mean annual incomes than the non-beneficiaries as the former reported an annual mean income of US $2,076 while the latter reported US $646. The research found a complex relationship between occupational diversity and people's interactions with the environment and it is clear that livelihood diversification is not a blanket solution to reducing pressure on coastal resources. Another important finding from the research is that there are distinct differences between types of livelihood interventions and it is crucial to be clear about the goal of a livelihoods intervention. If the goal is diversifying livelihoods and strengthening resilience, then livelihoods that provide a small and steady income for many entrepreneurs may be enough. However, if the goal is to bring people out of a poverty trap, then it makes more sense to invest in livelihoods that bring in a higher income, even if that means reaching fewer beneficiaries.     

On the dynamics of oxygen,phosphorus and cyanobacteria in the Baltic Sea; A model study

Oxygen and phosphorus dynamics and cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea are discussed using results from the Swedish Coastal and Ocean Biogeochemical model (SCOBI) coupled to the Rossby Centre Ocean model (RCO). The high-resolution circulation model is used to simulate the time period from 1902 to 1998 using reconstructed physical forcing and climatological nutrient loads of the late 20th century. The analysis of the results covers the last 30 years of the simulation period. The results emphasize the importance of internal phosphorus and oxygen dynamics, the variability of physical conditions and the natural long-term variability of phosphorus supplies from land on the phosphorus content in the Baltic Sea. These mechanisms play an important role on the variability of available surface layer phosphorus in late winter in the Baltic Sea. The content of cyanobacteria increases with the availability of phosphorus in the surface layers of the Baltic proper and the probability for large cyanobacteria blooms in the model is rapidly increased at higher concentrations of excess dissolved inorganic phosphorus in late winter. The natural increase of phosphorus supplies from land due to increased river runoff since the early 1970s may to a large degree explain the increased phosphorus content in the Baltic proper. Another significant fraction of the increase is explained by the release of phosphorus from increased anoxic areas during the period. These results refer to the long-term variability of the phosphorus cycle. In accordance to earlier publications is the short-term (i.e. interannual) variability of the phosphorus content in the Baltic proper mainly explained by oxygen dependent sediment fluxes.