Your search found 2 records
1 Payet, R.; Obura, D.. 2004. The negative impacts of human activities in the Eastern African region: an international waters perspective. Ambio, 33(1-2):24-33.
International waters ; Social aspects ; Human behaviour ; Ecosystems ; Assessment ; Coral reefs ; Case studies ; Sustainable development ; River basins ; Water policy ; Wastes ; Pollution ; Freshwater ; Climate change / East Africa / Somali
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: P 8100 Record No: H044760)
(2.04 MB)
The complex interactions between human activities and the environment at the interface of land and water is analyzed with a focus on the Somali Current (East Africa), and Indian Ocean Island States, subregions of the Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA). These 2 subregions contain some of the world's richest ecosystems, including the high biodiversity forests of Madagascar and the diverse coastal habitats of the eastern African coast. These ecosystems support local communities and national and regional economies. Current and future degradation of these systems, from water basins to continental shelves, affects the livelihoods and sustainability of the countries in the region, and long-term efforts to reduce poverty. The assessments determined that pollution and climate change are the primary environmental and social concerns in the Islands of the Indian Ocean, while freshwater shortage and unsustainable exploitation of fisheries and other living resources are the primary environmental and social concerns in East Africa. The GIWA approach, through assessing root causes of environmental concerns, enables the development of policy approaches for mitigating environmental degradation. This paper explores policy frameworks for mitigating the impacts, and reducing the drivers, of 3 environmental concerns—freshwater shortage; solid waste pollution; and climate change—addressing social and institutional causes and effects, and linking the subregions to broad international frameworks. The common theme in all 3 case studies is the need to develop integrated ecosystem and international waters policies, and mechanisms to manage conflicting interests and to limit threats to natural processes.
2 Satterthwaite, E. V.; Bax, N. J.; Miloslavich, P.; Ratnarajah, L.; Canonico, G.; Dunn, D.; Simmons, S. E.; Carini, R. J.; Evans, K.; Allain, V.; Appeltans, W.; Batten, S.; Benedetti-Cecchi, L.; Bernard, A. T. F.; Bristol, S.; Benson, A.; Buttigieg, P. L.; Gerhardinger, L. C.; Chiba, S.; Davies, T. E.; Duffy, J. E.; Giron-Nava, A.; Hsu, A. J.; Kraberg, A. C.; Kudela, R. M.; Lear, D.; Montes, E.; Muller-Karger, F. E.; O’Brien, T. D.; Obura, D.; Provoost, P.; Pruckner, S.; Rebelo, Lisa-Maria; Selig, E. R.; Kjesbu, O. S.; Starger, C.; Stuart-Smith, R. D.; Vierros, M.; Waller, J.; Weatherdon, L. V.; Wellman, T. P.; Zivian, A. 2021. Establishing the foundation for the global observing system for marine life. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8:737416. [doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.737416]
Marine ecosystems ; Global observing systems ; Ocean observations ; Biodiversity ; Time series analysis ; Environmental monitoring ; Sustainability ; Climate change ; Coastal zones ; Mangroves ; Sea grasses ; Corals ; Algae ; Data management ; Metadata standard ; Datasets ; Best practices ; Access to information ; Spatial analysis ; Funding ; Capacity development ; Technology transfer ; Developing countries
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050793)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.737416/pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050793.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050793.pdf
(3.69 MB) (3.69 MB)
Maintaining healthy, productive ecosystems in the face of pervasive and accelerating human impacts including climate change requires globally coordinated and sustained observations of marine biodiversity. Global coordination is predicated on an understanding of the scope and capacity of existing monitoring programs, and the extent to which they use standardized, interoperable practices for data management. Global coordination also requires identification of gaps in spatial and ecosystem coverage, and how these gaps correspond to management priorities and information needs. We undertook such an assessment by conducting an audit and gap analysis from global databases and structured surveys of experts. Of 371 survey respondents, 203 active, long-term (>5 years) observing programs systematically sampled marine life. These programs spanned about 7% of the ocean surface area, mostly concentrated in coastal regions of the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Seagrasses, mangroves, hard corals, and macroalgae were sampled in 6% of the entire global coastal zone. Two-thirds of all observing programs offered accessible data, but methods and conditions for access were highly variable. Our assessment indicates that the global observing system is largely uncoordinated which results in a failure to deliver critical information required for informed decision-making such as, status and trends, for the conservation and sustainability of marine ecosystems and provision of ecosystem services. Based on our study, we suggest four key steps that can increase the sustainability, connectivity and spatial coverage of biological Essential Ocean Variables in the global ocean: (1) sustaining existing observing programs and encouraging coordination among these; (2) continuing to strive for data strategies that follow FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable); (3) utilizing existing ocean observing platforms and enhancing support to expand observing along coasts of developing countries, in deep ocean basins, and near the poles; and (4) targeting capacity building efforts. Following these suggestions could help create a coordinated marine biodiversity observing system enabling ecological forecasting and better planning for a sustainable use of ocean resources.
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