Establishment of Community Managed Fisheries’ Closures in Kenya: Early Evolution of the Tengefu Movement

Community-based management (CBM) could be an essential tool to prevent the depletion of marine resources in the Western Indian Ocean region. In Kenya, political pressure to strengthen local governance, has led to adoption of CBM as a way of reducing over-exploitation and managing the competing uses and impacts on the marine environment. Several communities in Kenya have embraced CBM and have set aside or closed previously fished areas to enhance recovery of fisheries and biodiversity. These community fisheries closures (locally called tengefu), despite being degraded, may recover to finfish abundances and biodiversity levels similar to established MPAs or above thresholds for maintaining some ecological services. Communities see their direct involvement and control of these tengefu as more likely to result in benefits flowing directly to them. Community closures are also important for articulating and resolving community values and strengthening their management capacity. Here, we describe the evolution of the tengefu movement in Kenya and combine information from focus group discussions, interviews, underwater surveys and boundary marking to evaluate the current status, opportunities and challenges facing these tengefu. We show that in some cases community closures suffer from slow and incomplete national and local legislative processes, challenges to compliance, and weak management.     

Environmental protection motivation in coastal zone land‐use legislation

Abstract

Analysis of recent substantive coastal land use management laws shows that their main thrust is to provide for protection of the coastal environment from adverse impacts of uncontrolled development. The four purposes cited most frequently among laws of 17 states were: Protection of wildlife and fisheries, protection of ecosystems or the natural environment, control of development, and enhancement of esthetic values. Other purposes were to: Protect life and property, enhance public recreation, conserve soil, and protect water resources. Development and economic purposes were cited in relatively few laws.     

Simple Identification of Some Coastal Marine Habitats by Modeling with Sea-Chart Data

A simple numerical model was applied to distinguish permanently oxygenated marine sill basins from periodically anoxic basins in Nordland County, northern Norway. Input data are sill depth, width of the tidal channel, sea surface area, and tidal range. The model produces a Topography Tidal Factor (TTF) that seems to be an adequate index correlating with empirical field data when sills have saddle depths <30 m. The depth of the pycnocline, and the oxygen concentration of the basin water increases logarithmically with the calculated TTF value toward an asymptotic level. At TTF ≥0.02 basins are mostly well-oxygenated and have a permanent fauna of epibenthic and hyperbenthic animals. Basins with TTF <0.02 may become anoxic each autumn, which permanently prevents establishment of communities with multi-annual sessile benthos. Low oxygen concentration may also cause seasonal variation in the occurrence of motile species. In tidal channels, the abundance of bivalves and fish, as well as the biodiversity in general, probably increases with TTF. The applied method may be universally valid in regions shaped by glacial erosion but needs to be further developed by more detailed studies.     

西南地区生态公路建设的重要意义

结合生态公路的建设理念及特点,阐述了西南地区建设生态公路的意义,并对公路的景观化及对周边生态的保护提出了相应的看法,希望能够将公路建设与生态保护相融合,保护当地的生物多样性.     

Dynamite Fishing in a Marine Protected Area in Tanzania: Why Youth Perceptions Matter

Young men in coastal Tanzania are often blamed for damaging marine habitats by engaging in unsustainable and destructive fishing practices, including dynamite fishing, but their perceptions have not been sufficiently documented. While marine scientists, international environmental NGOs, and activists have called attention to the destructive fishing practices’ devastating impacts, insights into the contextual factors that motivate those who engage in dynamite fishing are limited. Additionally, risk perceptions and concerns regarding the environmental impact and dangers of dynamite fishing among the youth are also understudied. This paper provides ethnographic insights into the historical and contextual factors underlying dynamite fishing in rural coastal Mtwara. It draws on ethnographic data gathered through participant observation, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with residents from two neighboring coastal villages – one located inside a marine protected area (MPA), and another located outside the MPA’s boundary. The paper first examines the views of elderly men and women to provide the historical context of dynamite fishing in coastal Mtwara. It then juxtaposes youth perceptions regarding marine conservation and dynamite fishing in the two villages, vis-à-vis ongoing efforts to curb destructive fishing practices and to enhance marine biodiversity and ecotourism in the region. Results of the study reveal that unresolved tensions between the MPA authorities and local fishers surrounding enforcement practices and unfulfilled gear-exchange-related promises, and allegations of poor governance, are important contextual factors in the persistence of dynamite fishing. The paper concludes by articulating possible remedial measures to mitigate the tensions between youth concerns about their livelihoods, and the goals of marine biodiversity conservation as a way forward in preventing dynamite fishing.     

An Overview of Spatial Management and Marine Protected Areas in the East China Sea

Marine ecosystems of the East China Sea are rich in biodiversity, with 12,933 species of which approximately 47.7% are endemic. As anthropogenic impacts are intensifying, fishery resources and biodiversity in the East China Sea are under threat from overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, and biological invasions. Marine protected areas (MPAs) and other spatial management measures are believed useful tools to protect and restore biological resources. Seventeen nature reserves, seven special marine reserves, and three fishery resource conservation zones covering a combined area of 102,156 km² have so far been established in the Chinese East China Sea in order to protect fishery resources, biodiversity, and marine landscapes. This article provides a review and inventory of MPAs in the Chinese East China Sea as implemented by the People's Republic of China.     

Book review

The Cost of Environmental Protection: Regulating Housing in the Coastal Zone by Dan K. Richardson. Published by the Center for Urban Policy Research Rutgers University, 1976. 250 pp., $10.00.