AMESD SADC Newsletter Issue#4
The AMESD Regional Implementation Centers are delivering services to support natural resources management. The effort is directed to test and proof the utility of the portfolio of products delivered to target users in different thematic areas.
The Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI) is assisting national institutions of countries belonging to the Indian Ocean Commission to develop pilot projects for the identification of Potential Fishing Zones. The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) is generating products to be used for the sustainable management of host spot areas for biodiversity and wildlife in IGAD countries.
In this article we report two stories of AMESD services used in Tanzania for the management of fisheries and in Kenya to tackle the problem of forest fires around Mount Kenya.
Identify Potential Fishing Zone in Tanzania coast: the pilot project
The fishery in Tanzanian coast is mainly artisanal, contributing about 90% of the total landings. It has major socio-economic and cultural importance and contributes significantly to food security. The fishery is a multispecies, involving variety of fishing gears and vessels and most coastal communities depend on marine resources for their livelihood. Demand for marine resources for local consumption and export is growing, leading to further pressure on the resources. Furthermore, as a result of its open access nature which is subject to inefficient management control, this multi-species fishery increasingly faces problems of local overexploitation.Therefore, as near-shore fish stocks dwindle and move further offshore, locating fish has become extremely challenging, both in terms of suitable fishing grounds and costs of reaching there.
With the on-set of AMESD project, whose goal is to provide a reliable and timely forecast on the location of Potential Fishing Zones (PFZs), the future is bright for artisanal fishers. Briefly, fish aggregate in areas where biological and physical environmental variables such as chlorophyll concentration and sea surface temperature are favourable. Through satellite images, these environmental variables (in other word fish feeding areas) can be identified positively and mapped.
ICPAC provides timely climate early warning information for the mitigation of adverse impacts of climate variability and climate change. It develops an improved, pro-active, timely and broad-based system of climatic and environmental information at both regional and national levels through its national partners. It also attempts to maintain quality-controlled databases and information systems which are required for risk and vulnerability assessment, mapping of hazards and climate change impacts. General support is also provided to the national and regional disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategies.
