By Ruth Waruhiu
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 11 2019 (IPS)

By efficient management, the sustainable exploitation of resources in oceans, seas, lakes and rivers—also known as the blue economy—could contribute up to $1.5 trillion to the global economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental organization comprising of 36 countries.

Last November experts, government officials, environmental activists, policy makers and academics converged in Nairobi, Kenya, for the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference. With the theme “Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the conference, convened and hosted by Kenya, with Canada and Japan as cohosts, looked at new technologies and innovation for oceans, seas, lakes and rivers as well as challenges, potential opportunities, priorities and partnerships.

Africa has 38 coastal and island states and a coastline of over 47,000 km, and hence presents an enormous opportunity for the continent to develop the sectors typically associated with the blue economy, says Cyrus Rustomjee, a blue economy expert and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Nairobi Blue Economy conference was dedicated to realizing the untapped potential found in our oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.

“Expanding fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, transportation and maritime and inland ports can help to reduce African poverty and enhance food and energy security, employment, economic growth and exports, ocean health and sustainable use of ocean resources,” says Dr. Rustomjee.

He notes that more than 12 million people are employed in fisheries alone, the largest of the African blue economy sectors, providing food security and nutrition for over 200 million Africans and generating value added estimated at more than $24 billion, or 1.26% of the GDP of all African countries. Of concern at the Nairobi conference was the current wanton and large-scale exploitation of the world’s waters, especially in developing countries.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya expressed concern over the “massive pollution of our water bodies; the evident overexploitation of water resources and their related biodiversities, as well as the specific challenge of insecurity, more so in the high seas.” Pre-conference advocacy by Kenya, Canada and Japan, the main organisers of the event, focused on many issues central to Africa’s development, including food security for vulnerable groups and communities, malnutrition, sustainable food production and gender equality in blue economy industries.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Monica Juma, said the discussions were “dedicated to realizing the untapped potential found in our oceans, seas, lakes and rivers; and focused on integrating economic development, social inclusion and sustainability which promotes a blue economy that is prosperous, inclusive and sustainable.” While emphasizing the importance of unlocking the full productive potential of Africa’s waters, Ms. Juma said she especially hoped to see increased participation of women and youth in all areas of the blue economy.

A recurring theme at the conference was that the blue economy could boost a country’s economic growth and environmental protection and, by extension, help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. According to Macharia Kamau, the Principal Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, overall the conference presented “immense opportunities for the growth of our economy, especially sectors such as fisheries, tourism, maritime transport, offshore mining, among others, in a way that the land economy has failed to do.”

The strategic importance of the blue economy to trade is clear, notes the International Maritime Organization, a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping. For instance, up to 90% of global trade facilitation by volume and 70% by value is carried out by sea. One challenge is that the oceans and seas absorb about 25% of the extra carbon dioxide emissions added to earth’s atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. Oil and gas remain major sources of energy, with approximately 30% of production carried out offshore.

Before the event in Kenya, the organisers highlighted current challenges within the blue economy, including a lack of shared prosperity, maritime insecurity and unsustainable human activities around and in oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, including overfishing. Other challenges are pollution, invasive species and ocean acidification, which lead to biodiversity loss and compromise human health and food security. In addition, a weak legal, policy, regulatory and institutional framework and poorly planned and unregulated coastal development exacerbate existing challenges.

To address these problems, participants called on leaders and policy makers to implement appropriate policies and allocate significant capital to sustainable investment in the sector to boost production, inclusiveness and sustainability. The Nairobi conference drew global attention to the blue economy; the challenge is ensuring concrete actions follow the vigorous discussion.

*The link to the original article from Africa Renewal, published by the United Nations: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2018-march-2019/blue-economy-can-be-lifeline-africa

Judith Twaili shows where she used to dry the fish catch when business was better. Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
MANGOCHI, Malawi, Dec 21 2018 (IPS)

Lake Malawi, Africa’s third largest lake, provides an economic lifeline to many fishing families. But overfishing is affecting many of these lives, with women being affected the most.

The lake, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, has the largest number of endemic fish species in the world — 90 percent out of the almost 1,000 species of fish in the lake can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development estimates that fishing contributes about four percent to Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP), and that it employs about 300,000 people.

However, that is probably not the case now because fish stocks in the lake have been dwindling over the years due to over-fishing and women are the hardest hit.

Judith Kananji’s life-changing story tells it all. Kananji who is from a fishing family in Micesi Village Traditional Authority Mponda, in the lakeshore district of Mangochi, says she has in the meantime stopped purchasing fish because the trade is no longer lucrative compared to in previous years.

“The problem is that the fish is no longer found in abundance and it’s only the small fish available at the moment and it’s expensive. Unlike before we were having bigger fish which was easy to make profits. This time around it is hard to purchase small fish to sell at a higher price,” she told IPS.

“About 8 years ago, I used to make a good profit from capital of about MK100, 000 (137 dollars). But now it is even impossible to make profits with a working capital of MK800, 000 (1,095 dollars),” she said.

According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), protocol report, “Years ago, it was the norm to catch about 5,000 fish a day, but now, fishers catch about one-fifth of that, or even as less as a mere 300 fish a day.”

Kananji said that the increase of fishing vessels on the lake has negatively contributed to depleting fish levels because there is stiff competition among the fishermen, which is leading to overfishing.

But SADC also said, “The rapid drop in Lake Malawi’s water levels, driven by population growth, climate change and deforestation, is threatening its flora and fauna species with extinction.”

Kananji said: “Sadly it is us women who buy fish from fishermen who have been pushed out of business because fishermen in most cases raise their prices to meet operating costs whenever there is a small catch.”

“This works to our disadvantage because fish prices at the market are always low,” she added.

Just like Kananji, Chrissy Mbatata received a loan from a micro finance lending institution popularly known as village bank to bank roll her fish selling business.

Mbatata is, however, in more trouble. She is currently struggling to settle the loan.

“Initially it was easy for me to pay the loan and support my family because I was making good money. Now it is even hard to break even. Fish is not available and I don’t know where the money to pay back the loan and support my family will come from,” Mbatata told IPS.

The dwindling fish is not only affecting businesses but also the protein intake in a country where the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund says around 46 percent of children under five are stunted, 21 percent are underweight, and four percent are wasted and Micronutrient deficiencies are common.

“Chambo [the famous local fish] used to be the cheapest source of protein for us but now it’s now a luxury we only can afford at month-ends. Imagine a single fish going at K1 800 (2.4 dollars)?” said Angela Malajira, a widow of four from Lilongwe’s Area 23 suburb.

To reverse the trend government and fishing communities have found sustainable ways to harness the industry by setting up some rules and empower chiefs to implement them.

Every year, the government prohibits fishing on the lake from the month of November to December 31 to allow breeding to take place.

Interestingly this has been well received, without any resistance, from fishing communities because they understand the importance of increasing the fish levels in the lake.

Instead the communities have formulated their own bylaws outlawing fishing from November to March —  extending the fishing for 5 months.

Vice Chairperson for Makanjira Beach Village Committee Malufu Shaibu said the fishing communities agree that fishing on the lake should shut down for a long time because it has shown that the move can help to improve fish levels on lake.

He explained that during the past five months, assessment has shown that there are more fish species and volume that have started to be seen on the lake as opposed to when the lake was closed for two months
only.

“We want the lake to be closed for six months. We are glad that now we have a lot of fish due to the prolonged time of breeding which we gave the fish,” said Shaibu.

“Our children will now be able to see fish the way we saw them. The benefits for closing the lake for a long time are more than the disadvantage.”

But Shaibu, like Kananji, complained that commercial fishermen are derailing their efforts to improve fish stocks.

Mangochi District Fisheries Officer Thomas Nyasulu said that an office they are working with the newly revived Fisheries Association of Malawi to rein in on big commercial fishermen on the lake.
He said closing the lake for a long period of time would make their work more easy and fulfilling.

“It is good that the fishermen are suggesting this move. It can really help a lot. On regulating the commercial fishermen, we are working with fisheries association of Malawi in making sure that all big fishermen are following their fishing grounds,” said Nyasulu.

The bylaws are working. In April this year a 40-year-old man was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of K800,000 (1,095 dollars) or in default serve 60 months imprisonment with hard labour for fishing on the lake when had closed contravening the  fisheries conservation and Management Act.

The Magistrate Court sentenced Kennedy Fatchi of Makawa Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mponda in the district after he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Police prosecutor Maxwell Mwaluka told the court that on March 4, 2018 the chiefs working with the Fisheries Inspectorate in the district came across a commercial fishing company on the lake fishing.

He said the team seized the fishing materials and the convict was charged with three counts which he pleaded guilty to.

“This is the only way we can go back to having more fish in our lake which would inadvertently improve our lives,” said Kananji.

About 2.58 million metric tonnes of raw plastics are imported into Ghana annually of which about 73 percent of this effectively ends up as waste. Credit: Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
ACCRA, Dec 21 2018 (IPS)

Twelve-year-old Naa Adjeley lives in Glefe, a waterlogged area that is one of the biggest slums along the west coast of Accra, Ghana. The sixth grade student, his parents and three siblings use 30 single-use plastic bags per day for breakfast.

When they finish eating the balls of ‘kenkey’, fried mackerel, and pepper sauce, the plastic bags that the food was individually wrapped in are dumped into the river that runs through the slum, eventually ending up in the ocean, which lies a mere 50 metres from their home.

In one month, this family alone contributes over 900 pieces of single-use plastics to the five trillion pieces of microplastic in the ocean. This is because their community of over 1,500 households, which sits on a wetlands, does not have a waste disposal system.

So assuming that their neighbours also dump their waste into the river and that they consume similar amounts of plastics per day, this means they add over 1.3 million pieces of single-use plastics to the sea each month.

The situation is the same in all the other settlements that are close to degraded lagoons around the ocean.

To date, Accra has some 265 informal settlementss, including Chorkor, James town, Osu, Labadi, Teshie, Korlegonor, Opetequaye, Agege and Old Fadama.

With all of these being in different stages of development, according to a recent study by the People’s Dialogue on Human Settlements (PD) Ghana, a non-governmental organisation. Professor Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Chair of the Ghana National Biodiversity Committee, recalls that 10 years ago food was packaged with leaves and women went to the market with woven baskets or cotton bags.

“Now because of civilisation, every food item or prepared food bought in this country is first wrapped in a single-use plastic and then is kept in plastic carrier bags. If Accra has a population of over 2.6 million and everyone uses a single plastic every day, just calculate how much plastic waste is generated per day,” he told IPS.

About 2.58 million metric tonnes of raw plastics are imported into Ghana annually, of which 73 percent effectively ends up as waste, while only 19 percent is re-used, according to the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Sadly, less than 0.1 percent of the waste is recycled, meaning all the plastic waste generated ends up in the environment.

John Pwamang, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, is worried about the discharge of plastics into the various lagoons, and ultimately in the sea. “The reckless manner in which we throw away waste has become the most insidious threat to the ocean today,” he told IPS.

“We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are fast reaching the point where there will literally be more plastics in the sea than fish. Our fishermen will agree with me as they already are experiencing it. They always have more plastics than fish in their trawls. I am inclined to believe that the situation in Ghana may be more dire than it would appear,” he said.

Dr Kofi Okyere, a Senior Lecturer at the Cape Coast University, says lagoons are home to diverse species. There are 90 lagoons and 10 estuaries with their associated marshes and mangrove swamps along Ghana’s 550-km coastline stretch.

“Although I cannot put precise statistical figures, most of the lagoons, especially those located in urban areas, have been heavily polluted within the last decade or two. The pollutants are largely domestic and industrial effluent discharge, sewage, plastics, aerosol cans and other solid wastes, and heavy metal contaminants (lead, mercury, arsenic, etc.) from industrial activities,” he told IPS.

Nelson Boateng, Chief Executive Director of Nelplast Ghana Limited, is one of a group of people and companies that are finding alternative uses for plastic waste. He is holding a paving brick made from recycled plastic. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

However, while a large number of Ghanaians are still using plastic, and discarding it, there are a few people and organisations that are putting the plastic to better use.

Nelson Boateng, Chief Executive Director of Nelplast Ghana limited, began moulding and creating pavement blocks from plastic in 2015.

The company uses 70 percent sand and 30 percent plastic to manufacture the pavement blocks, but the ratio of the two materials changes depending on the kind of pavement project.

Walking IPS through the process in an interview, he explains the plastic waste is mixed with sand and taken through a melting process, and then the pavement slab is ready.

“So far we have paved many important areas, including residential areas, the premises of the Action Chapel, the frontage of Ghana’s Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation and some walkways in the country.”

“The advantage of plastic pavement blocks compared to the conventional cement blocks is that it is 30 percent cheaper, it does not break, there is no green algae growth, it does not fade. A square metre of our plastic paves cost GHC 33 (6.9 dollars) while the concrete cost 98 (20.20 dollars) I am doing this because I love the environment and I did all this on my own to beat plastic,” he said.

Currently, Boateng is recycling 2,000 kilos of plastic waste, but his factory, which is situated on a one-acre piece of land at the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, has the capacity to produce 200,000 plastic pavement blocks.

Of the over 500 waste pickers who sell plastics to Boateng, 60 percent are women who depend on this as their livelihood. With the price of a kilo being 10 US cents women make a minimum of 10.40 dollars per sale.

Ashietey Okaiko, 34, a single mother and plastic picker of Nelplast Ghana limited, confirmed to IPS that she earns 31 dollars on average per sale, and that is what she uses to take care of her family.

“Because people now know that plastic waste is valuable, many women who are now employed are picking plastics. The company needs support to be able to buy more because sometimes when we send it they do not buy,” she says.

Boateng stated that pickers could collect up to the tune of 10,000 kilograms a day, saying, “I feel bad telling them I cannot pay due to financial constraints.”

Similar to Boateng’s innovation is the efforts of the Ghana Recycling Initiative by Private Enterprises (GRIPE), an industry-led coalition under the auspices of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), a non-governmental organisation, that is manufacturing modified building blocks out of plastic.

The initiative, carried out in conjunction with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, is pending certification by the Ghana Standard Authority for commercial use.

Ama Amoah, Regional Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager at Nestle, a leading member of GRIPE, told IPS that the group has done community and schools education and awareness campaigns on proper waste management practices for plastics.

There are also other innovators such as Seth Quansah, who runs Alchemy Alternative Energy, which is converting plastic waste and tires through internationally approved and environmentally sound processes into hydrocarbon energy, mainly diesel-grade fuels.

Through the Ghana Climate Innovations Centre, and Denmark and the Netherlands through the World Bank, Quansah has received mentorship and is preparing to expand the company.

Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori Atta, says the Ministry of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation (MESTI) is in the process of finalising a new National Plastic Waste Policy, which will focus on strategies to promote reduction, reuse, and recycling.

But Helen La Trobe, an environmental volunteer in Ghana, tells IPS, “African industry should seek innovative approaches to reduce plastic use and plastic waste in all its forms by replacing plastic with other innovative products and reducing, reusing and recycling where replacing is not currently possible.”

She also wants the government to provide adequate public rubbish bins at trotro stops (bus stops) and markets to have these frequently emptied.

She says plastic is indestructible and breaks into smaller and smaller parts, called microplastics, but it takes more than 500 years to completely disappear. 

According to Trobe, microplastics and microbeads, tiny polyethylene plastic added to health and beauty products such as some skin cleansers and toothpaste, absorb toxins and industrial chemicals from the environment. As fish and other marine life ingest tiny pieces of plastic, the toxins and chemicals enter their tissue and then the food chain, which ultimately affect humans.  

While Boateng does not believe that production of plastic is a problem, but that authorities need to support innovators and there is a need for a behavioural change, he adds, “The more the support, the cleaner the environment. If we are serious of ridding the country and the sea of plastics this is the way forward. When people go to the beach to clean up, the waste ends ups in the land field site, which is still in the environment.”

A fish catch has come in. Since the community from the Sanwoma fishing village have begun restoring the mangroves, the lagoon has seen a marginal increase in fish stock. However, the stock in the ocean remains depleted. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IP

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
ACCRA, Dec 20 2018 (IPS)

It was just three and a half years ago that the Sanwoma fishing village, which sits between the sea and the mouth of the Ankobra River on the west coast of Ghana, experienced perpetual flooding that resulted in a loss of property and life.

This was because the local mangrove forests that play a key role in combating the effects of coastal erosion and rising sea levels had been wantonly and indiscriminately harvested. “Of a total 118-hectares mangrove, we had depleted 115 hectares,” Paul Nato Codjoe, a fisherman and a resident of the community explains.

The fisherfolk here depended heavily on the Ankobra wetland mangroves for cheap and available sources of fuel for fish processing. Wood from the mangroves was also used as material for construction, and sold to generate income.

But a video shown by officials of Hen Mpoano (HM), a local non-governmental organisation, helped the community understand the direct impact of their indiscriminate felling.

And it spurred the fishfolk into action. Led by Odikro Nkrumah, Chief of the Sanwoma, the community commenced a mangrove restoration plan, planting about 45,000 seeds over the last three years.

Rosemary Ackah, 38, one of the women leaders in the community, tells IPS that the vulnerability to the high tides and the resultant impact was one of the reasons for actively participating in the re-planting.

HM, with support from the United States Agency for International Development-Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP),provided periodic community education about the direct and indirect benefits of the mangrove forests.

In Ghana, there are about 90 lagoons and 10 estuaries with their associated marshes and mangrove swamps along the 550-km coastline stretch.

Dr Isaac Okyere, a lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Cape Coast, explains to IPS in an interview that the conservation of mangrove forests is essential for countries like Ghana, where the marine fishery is near collapse, with landings of important fish species at 14 percent of the record high of 140,000 metric tons 20 years ago.

The fisheries sector in Ghana supports the livelihoods of 2.2 million people — about 10 percent of the population.

Carl Fiati, Director of Natural Resource at the Environmental Protection Agency speaking in an interview with IPS, explains: “Ghana is in a precarious situation where many of the stocks are near collapse and species like the sardine and jack mackerel cannot be found again if we do not take steps to conserve, restock and protect them. A visit to the market shows that sardines, for instance, are no more.”

The Sanwoma community is not unique in the degradation of their mangroves. According to Okyere, the Butuah and Essei lagoons of Sekondi-Takoradi, the Fosu lagoon of Cape Coast, the Korle and Sakumo lagoons of Accra and the Chemu lagoon of Tema are typical examples of degraded major lagoons in the country.

“Most of the lagoons, especially those located in urban areas, have been heavily polluted within the last decade or two.” Domestic and industrial effluent discharge, sewage, plastics, and other solid waste and heavy metal contaminants (lead, mercury, arsenic, etc.) from industrial activities are blamed for this.

Rosemary Ackah is part of the women’s group that was assigned to collect seedlings used to grown a nursery of mangrove trees. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

According to Ackah, many of the women in the community also became involved in the mangrove regeneration because of the positive resultant effect of clean air that would reduce airborne diseases in the community.

“As women, we take care of our husbands and children when they are ill so we thought we should seize this opportunity to engage in this as health insurance for our families,” she added.

Ackah says the women’s group was assigned to collect seedlings used to grown a nursery. They also watered the seedlings.

“We also played a significant role during transplanting. When our husbands dig the ground we put in the seedlings and cover the side with sand. It is a joy to be part of such a great replanting project, that will help provide more fuelwood for our domestic use,” Ackah told IPS.

Codjoe says that thanks to the technical assistance from the project, the community developed an action plan for restoration and is also enforcing local laws to prevent excessive mangrove harvesting.

The community has taken control of its future, and particularly its natural resources, and has established the Ankobra Mangrove Restoration Committee to guide and oversee how the mangrove is used and maintained.

To ensure that the re-planting is sustainable, Codjoe explains that the community has, in agreement, instituted a by-law that all trees within 50 meters of the river must not be harvested. Anyone doing so will have to replant them.

It is uncertain if indiscriminate felling of the mangroves continues to happen as many in the community acknowledge the positive results of the re-planting.

“We have seen positive signs because of the re-generation, the flooding has been drastically reduced,” says Ackah.

She has witnessed another direct improvement: the high volume and large size of the shrimp, one of the delicacies in Ghana, that they local community harvests. “This has really boosted our local business and improved our diet,” she says.

Codjoe says the fish stock in the river increased and agreed that a high volume of shrimp was harvested.

Ackah adds that the project donors SFMP and local implementer HM also helped them reduce dependence on the mangroves for their livelihoods and created a resilience plan in the form of a Village Savings and Loan Scheme.

The scheme, she explains, has financially empowered members to address social and economic challenges they face, thus reducing dependence on fisheries and mangroves in terms of the need for income.

In West Africa, the economic value of nature’s contributions to people per km2 per year is valued at 4,500 dollars for mangrove coastal protection services, 40,000 dollars for water purification services, and 2,800 dollars for coastal carbon sequestration services.

This is according to an Assessment Report on the state of biodiversity in Africa, and on global land degradation and restoration, conducted under the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Fiati says that Ghana’s new draft Coastal and Marine Habitat Regulation policy, which encapsulates the protection, management and sustainable use of mangroves, will be ready and sent to the Attorney General’s Department this month to be signed into law.

And the local fisherfolk of Sanwoma are assisting in sharing their experiences and knowledge.

In the meantime, the Sanwoma are ensuring that the importance of the preservation of their mangrove forests is passed down to young people.

“Because of a lack of knowledge about the importance of such a rich resource we were destroying it. And it was at a fast rate. Now I know we have a treasure. As a leader, I will use it to sustainably and protect it for the next generation. Also, I will make sure I educate children about such a resource so they will keep it safe,” Nkrumah told IPS.

Water hyacinth is a weed and if not controlled on Lake Victoria, experts are concerned that the lake’s water levels might drop by 60 percent. Courtesy: CC by 2.0/Madeira Botanic Garden

By Benson Rioba
KISUMU, Kenya, Dec 19 2018 (IPS)

Currently 30 square kilometres of Lake Victoria, which stretches to approximately 375 kilometres and links Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, is covered with the evasive water hyacinth that has paralysed transport in the area.

But scientists are harvesting and fermenting the weed, and one intrepid chemistry teacher has built a business out of it.

The presence of water hyacinth on the lake is concerning. Late last year, Margaret Kidany, one of the people involved in conserving Lake Victoria’s beaches, said the lake’s water levels might drop by 60 percent if the weed is not controlled. If it is not eliminated, it will kill the livelihoods of thousands of households that rely on the lake for an income.

However, the Centre for Innovation Science and Technology in Africa, founded by former chemistry teacher Richard Arwa, is making the best out of the invasive water hyacinth.

Funded in its start-up stages by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the innovation company, which employs six people and serves 560 households, manufactures ethanol from the weed. This is proving a cheaper source of clean fuel for many of the locals while at the same time preserving the lake.

The process they use is a simple one.

The centre hires locals to harvest the hyacinth from Lake Victoria before transporting it to their workshop for processing. Once at the workshop, the hyacinth is pretreated to remove microorganisms that might compete with the enzymes during processing.

The hyacinth is then dried and chopped into smaller pieces to reduce the surface area for efficient processing. The dried hyacinth is then mixed with water, acids and enzymes in tight closed tanks for fermentation.

After fermentation the mixture is subjected to high temperatures (80 degrees Celsius), producing ethanol and carbon dioxide and methane as final products.

“This was part of a science congress project for secondary schools and it won accolades throughout the country and we, together with my students, decided to actualise the project,” says Arwa.

Arwa is still a chemistry teacher even though he started the institution in 2016.

He adds that they initially tried to produce beverage alcohol from the hyacinth but the project was not viable. According to Arwa, alcohol requires numerous purification processes to make it consumable. In addition the taxes on the product are high.

So it is less costly to make ethanol. Arwa says the company produces 100 litres daily.

The amount is considerable for their factory, and it is sold to 560 households in Yala in Kisumu city. Arwa tells IPS that they always run out of stock.

Lyne Ondula, a mother from Yala, in Kisumu county, is a happy customer.

“Hyacinth fuel burns slower than the usual kerosene I use and doesn’t produce smoke and soot while cooking like firewood or kerosene. To me it’s much cheaper and cleaner to use, no more coughing in my kitchen when preparing food,” she tells IPS.

Ondula says a litre of ethanol retails at 70 Kenyan shillings and lasts four days. That is in marked contrast to the higher cost of kerosene, which currently retails at a national average of 100 Kenyan shillings, and lasts only two days. She says she also used to buy charcoal which was quite expensive, retailing at 100 Kenyan shilling per a 15-kilogram tin, which only lasted hours. So now she only uses ethanol, which she pre-orders.

It is a cleaner option for this East African nation that is still heavily reliant on charcoal, kerosene and firewood as a source of energy. According to a market and policy analysis by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, while “LPG has penetrated Nairobi and higher-income households; bio-ethanol can be an attractive clean fuel for lower income households.”

Ondula’s sentiments were echoed by Sylvester Oduor, another resident from Yala in Kisumu County. He adds that ethanol fuel also produces more heat compared to charcoal when cooking.

Philip Odhiambo, energy and climate change coordinator at the WWF, says such innovations are key in harnessing the untapped opportunities of water bodies.

“There is a need to turn environmental challenges to create wealth and opportunities especially in creating jobs for our many unemployed youth,” says Odhiambo. He adds that the ethanol processing project is a viable way of managing green waste that has been a challenge in the country for a long time.

Odhiambo adds that the world is shifting towards clean, cheap energy and says there is a need to embrace creativity and tap into the energy potential of water bodies, besides the traditional sources of energy.

In addition, unlike other clean fuels, bio-ethanol can be produced domestically over time and could spur industrial growth in the sector “while delivering positive social and economic benefits,” says the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety report.

However, Arwa says accessing the initial capital of 50,000 dollars was a challenge as many financial institutions turned him away for lack of collateral. In the end he had to rely on donors like WWF to finance the project. The chemistry teacher adds that financial institutions did not have faith in the venture and were not ready to invest in the idea.

The immediate goal for the company is to expand production to 600 litres per day.

But Arwa has a five-year expansion plan that includes moving the small factory, which is about 40 kilometres away from Lake Victoria, closer to the lake to reduce costs. He hopes that once relocated, and with the support of partners, they will eventually be able to produce 10,000- 25,000 litres per day.

Arwa adds that he is looking for strategic investment partners to help in scaling up the ethanol project, reiterating that there is a huge untapped market for the product. “I usually feel bad when customers come to purchase ethanol but we turn them away. At the moment we cannot satisfy the demand,” he says.

Aquaponics, an innovative practice in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, is revolutionising the way of conceiving food supply in many MENA countries. This dated picture shows fish pools in Palestine. Credit: Eva Bartlett/IPS.

By Maged Srour
ROME, Dec 7 2018 (IPS)

The Blue Economy is becoming an ‘El Dorado’, a new frontier for traditionally arid and water-stressed nations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to Christian Averous, Vice President of Plan Bleu, one of the Regional Activity Centres of the Mediterranean Action Plan developed under the United Environment Regional Seas Programme.

But against the backdrop of the enormous potential represented by the Blue Economy, there are numerous challenges and critical issues that the region faces. Overfishing, water scarcity, highly salty waters, climate change, high evaporation rates, the oil industry and pollution are just some of things that place at risk the development and conservation of marine and aquatic resources in the MENA region.

In addition, rapid population growth throughout the region complicates things. According to the U.S.-based Population Reference Bureau, “MENA experienced the highest rate of population growth of any region in the world over the past century” and is growing at a current rate of 2 percent per year. It’s the second-highest growth rate in the world after sub-Saharan Africa, the organisation says.

Population growth leads to an increased demand for fish as a food source and this, combined with poor regulations and rapacious fishing practices, ultimately leads to an overall decline in marine populations. Eventually it compromises the survival status of the Red Sea coral reef, which is already highly threatened by pollution, unsustainable tourism and climate change, (even though corals in this region proved to be resistant to global warming).

The MENA region has also had to cope with poor management of water resources, with agriculture using 85 percent of freshwater. Available freshwater in the region is mainly underground and its non-renewable stocks are being depleted, warns the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Over the last four decades, the availability of freshwater in the MENA region has decreased by 40 percent and will probably decrease by 50 percent by 2050. The consequences could be disastrous in terms of food security, rural livelihoods and economies.

The Blue Economy: a way to overcome challenges and boost development?

“It is very important to promote an ocean-based economy in today’s world, as governments struggle for economic growth, [particularly] in the MENA region as well as in the whole Mediterranean region and in the Gulf countries,” Averous tells IPS. 

This means that countries in the region should not only seek to preserve aquatic and marine resources, but should also invest in these same resources to foster a process of economic development and growth through them.

Farmed Tilapia on sale in a Cairo supermarket. Local farmers from Egypt, Algeria and Oman participated in farmer-to-farmer study tours, visited 15 integrated agri-aquaculture farms, and learnt new skills and techniques from each other. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS.

Fisheries and Aquaculture

But best practices across the region are demonstrating just how much these countries believe in the enormous potential of the Blue Economy. One example is aquaponics, an innovative practice in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors that is revolutionising the food supply in many MENA countries. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture — the practice of fish farming and hydroponics (the cultivation of plants in water without soil).

“While hydroponics still uses some chemical fertilisers to grow plants, with aquaponics, the fish themselves, through their excrements, fertilise the water allowing plants to grow,” Valerio Crespi, Aquaculture Officer in FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department in Rome, tells IPS.

Egypt, Algeria and Oman recently embarked on a cooperation project promoted by FAO, where local farmers participated in farmer-to-farmer study tours where they visited 15 integrated agri-aquaculture farms and learnt new skills and techniques from each other.

“It was a good experience,” says Basem Hashim, an Egyptian farmer and consultant for the General Authority of Fish Resources Development, a movement which tries to shape new ideas and actions for agriculture and food in Egypt.

Basem took part in the study tours organised by FAO and thanks to that experience was able to outline and understand the most pressing challenges for the farming communities in the region.

“We know the importance of using water properly and of improving production [not only in terms of quantity, but] also in terms of quality,” he tells IPS. “At the same time, I think there is still not enough awareness in Egypt in terms of water scarcity, pollution and waste, even though the government is working with associations to raise awareness and transfer experiences.”

“The study tours were a clear example of successful South-South Cooperation,” says Crespi. “The ultimate goal, which is what we are working on right now, is to draft a road map to outline the best practices to best use water in these areas where water is scarce. In the three countries we have created national teams that have produced three technical reports that will be the basis of the road map.”

Aquaponics is an incredible innovation also because it allows these communities to have, thanks to the fish that are raised in those structures, a source of protein that would otherwise be poorly available if not nonexistent in some of these countries.

“In addition, with the same use of resources,” says Basem, “we also have fruits and vegetables. This is what the future looks like.”

Tere are other countries in the region are known for their best practices in the Blue Economy, particularly in the aquaculture sector:

• Iran has long-standing experience with rice-fish farming, which is currently estimated by experts to be practiced in 10 percent of all rice fields in the country, on a total area of between 50,000 to 72,000 hectares.
• Lebanon has been practicing aquaculture for many decades and in 2017 total fishery production from marine capture fisheries and aquaculture were 3,608 and 1,225 tonnes, respectively.
• Fish farmers in Israel are developing innovative technologies and breeding methods which are revolutionising their industry. The excellence of Israeli technology is not used alone in breeding in the country but is also appreciated and exported all over the world.

Coastal and marine tourism

According to Plan Bleu, in the past 20 years the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution of the tourism sector has increased by 60 percent in Mediterranean countries. The Mediterranean region is the world’s leading tourism destination. International tourist arrivals have grown from 58 million in 1970 to nearly 324 million in 2015. It is also among the most frequented areas by cruise ships in the world, with some 27 million passengers visiting the area by 2013. Therefore tourism has been a positive economic asset for the region. 

But as surprising as it may be, it is not so much industrial pollution that represents the greatest damage to the marine environment, but tourism that has a huge negative impact on the region.

Tourism is in fact one of the main threats to ecosystems in the area. Indeed, locals confirm that industries and cruises operating, for example, in the Red Sea are subject to harsh regulations but the main threat to the environment is posed by waste disposal, especially of plastic, and by the enormous water footprint that each tourist leaves behind.

Perspectives about the future

The Middle East certainly has many challenges to face in terms of scarcity of natural resources and food security. For this reason the economy based on maritime sectors in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East represents a crucial potential for the economic development.

“We do not have any ‘miraculous’ innovation. We simply have some technologies that, if associated to traditional methods, can stimulate a process of sustainable development, which is a key factor for those countries struggling for finding enough natural resources,” says Crespi.

“Moreover,” he adds, “promoting a policy of implementation of Blue Economy, could reduce the rural exodus of these populations from the countryside to the cities, or even the exodus across the Mediterranean to get to Europe, risking their lives often for not finding the much desired job and economic prosperity.”

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and was co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Participants from 150 countries around the world gathered to learn how to build a blue economy.

Seamounts are filled with a diversity of ocean life including anemones, feather stars, octopuses, lobsters and rockfishes. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust, Northeast Pacific Seamount Expedition Partners

By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 5 2018 (IPS)

Despite the deep, cold waters, newly discovered undersea mountains off Canada’s west coast are home to a rich diversity of life.

“When we reached a seamount (undersea mountain), it was often like we were entering a forest, only of red tree corals and vase-shaped glass sponges,” said Robert Rangeley, Science Director, Oceana Canada.  “These areas were filled with a diversity of other animals including anemones, feather stars, octopuses, lobsters and rockfishes,” said Rangely who led the expedition in July.

Oceana, a marine conservation organisation, along with the Haida Nation, an indigenous people, the Federal government department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Ocean Networks Canada were partners in the first in-depth investigation of the recently designated Offshore Pacific Area of Interest. This is a 140,000 square kilometre region 100 to 200 kilometres west of Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia.

The waters in this region are also home to the vast majority of Canada’s known hydrothermal vents, deep-sea hot springs at the bottom of the sea floor.  As seawater meets the Earth’s molten magma it gets superheated and rises up through holes or vents in the sea floor carrying with it minerals leached from the crustal rock below forming bizarre chimney-like structures. These vents are home to strange forms of life that thrive in a toxic chemical soup where temperatures can reach 350 degrees C.

The expedition spent 16 days on the water and discovered six new seamounts with ancient and fragile coral forests and potentially new species. Even scientists who have visited seamounts on other parts of the world were blown away by the abundance and diversity of life found Rangely told IPS.

The expedition team also found lost fishing gear on some of the seamounts. This gear entangles marine life and destroys fragile and slow growing corals and sponges. Seamounts are often targeted by fishing vessels because they attract an abundance of fish. The damage wasn’t from bottom-trawling vessels that scrape along the seafloor but from long-line fishing. The Cobb seamount just outside of Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has been destroyed by fishing he said.

Canada is working to create a new marine protected area (MPA) for most of the 140,000 sq km Offshore Pacific Area of Interest. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust, Northeast Pacific Seamount Expedition Partners

Seamounts need protection to provide refuge for marine life and Oceana wants to see all of Canada’s seamounts closed to bottom contact fishing Rangely said. Fishing can still continue away from seamounts, and will benefit from the closures. When seamounts are protected from fishing or resource extraction, it increases the quantities of fish outside the area in what’s known as a ‘spillover effect’.

Canada is working to create a new marine protected area (MPA) for most of the 140,000 sq km Offshore Pacific Area of Interest. Half the region would be closed to fishing to protect seamounts and hydrothermal vents. The new MPA may be officially in place in 2020 to help Canada get close to its United Nations Convention of Biodiversity commitment of protecting 10 percent of its marine and coastal areas by 2020. Canada had protected less than one percent by 2017. However, the current government is rapidly ramping up the number of protected areas but conservationists say these protections are too weak and allow fishing or resource extraction.

For example a near 50,000 square kilometre marine refuge east of Newfoundland on Canada’s Atlantic coast is off limits to fishing was just opened to allow drilling for oil and gas.

Canada is also scrambling to manage its fish stocks that have seen years of steady decline. Just a third of the nearly 200 stocks are considered healthy, according to a 2018 audit report by Oceana. Canada is a major fish and seafood exporter, with exports reaching C$6.9 billion in 2017.

After a decade of deep cutbacks by a previous government, Canada’s fisheries department under the Trudeau government is struggling to catch up. Most of the 26 critically endangered stocks do not have rebuilding plans in place the Oceana report found.

Last week the Canadian government announced $107.4 million over five years for rebuilding and assessments of fish stocks across Canada.

In a statement Oceana Canada’s Executive Director, Josh Laughren called this a critical investment addressing the urgent challenge of rebuilding depleted fisheries and rebuilding abundance.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and was co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Participants from 150 countries around the world gathered to learn how to build a blue economy.

By Sam Olukoya
NAIROBI, Dec 3 2018 (IPS)

The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world. Pesticides and insecticides used on crops grown for fabrics together with the chemicals used in the production of fabrics cause enormous damage to the environment.

Some of Africa’s leading fashion designers staged a fashion show at the Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi Kenya to unveil innovative creations made from natural materials sourced from seas, oceans and lakes. The aim was to showcase the use of environmentally friendly marine materials in the fashion industry. IPS was there.

A fish farm in Central Province near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Dec 3 2018 (IPS)

In the rugged mountainous highlands of Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Islands fish farming has transformed the lives of former prisoners and helped reduce notorious levels of crime along the highlands highway, the only main road which links the highly populated inland provinces with the east coast port of Lae.

Moxy, who completed his sentence at the Bihute Prison in Eastern Highlands Province ten years ago, has used skills learned during his time in gaol to set up a fish farming enterprise in his village, located 15 kilometres northwest of the Province’s main town of Goroka. Today he is proudly known as ‘Daddy Fish’ in his community where he has regained self-esteem, social status and is sought after for his wisdom and knowledge.

“Whenever I feel down or I am tempted to do wrong, I sit by my fish ponds and look at what I achieved,” he said.

Moxy is one of many inmates who have participated in the Fish for Prisons program, the result of a partnership between Papua New Guinea’s National Fisheries Authority and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The initiative, begun in 2008, aims to train and mentor prisoners in aquaculture practice so they are equipped for a new livelihood before they are released.  But the training has also made ex-prisoners more disciplined, self-motivated, emotionally resilient and less likely to reoffend.

Aquaculture, while still a relatively under-developed industry in the Pacific Islands, possesses huge potential to help meet future food and nutritional needs in the region, where fish is a major part of the daily diet.

The global average fish consumption rate of 20.2kg per person pales in comparison to the Pacific Islands where consumption is 53kg per person in Papua New Guinea, 85kg in Tonga and 118kg in the Solomon Islands.

Yet for people living in inland areas of Papua New Guinea, far from the sea, protein deficiency is common. It was high levels of malnutrition in the highlands which prompted the introduction of aquaculture into the country in the 1960s, although development of the sector was very slow until recently. A decade ago, there were an estimated 10,000 fish farms in the country, but today the number has jumped to about 60,000 aided by improved research, training programs and outreach support.

Fish farming is as important as ever to combating malnutrition, which remains pervasive among the Melanesian nation’s population of more than 8 million people. The child stunting rate is the fourth highest in the world and children living in the highlands are at greater risk than those living in coastal communities.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) claims that, with its multiple nutrients, fish is the optimum single food for addressing undernourishment.  It possesses high quality animal protein, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, as well as fat and water soluble vitamins.

But aquaculture is also giving young people in rural areas, where unemployment is as high as 70 percent, the chance to acquire vocational skills, economic self-reliance and sense of achievement.

This has happened in the Eastern Highlands village of Hogu where a criminal band, locally known as a ‘raskol gang’, renowned for car jackings, extortion, robbery and an illegal marijuana racket, had turned the nearby section of highway into the infamously known ‘Barola Raskol Hotspot.’ It was a treacherous place for any motorist or traveller.

But that all changed when fish farmer training was conducted in the village three years ago, gaining the attention of the gang.

“They saw the training being held and came down to see what was going on in their territory. They became interested, were welcomed by the [training] team and eventually participated,” Associate Professor Jes Sammut of the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Ecosystem Science and the fisheries consultant in Papua New Guinea for the ACIAR told IPS.

The program covered all facets of practice, including husbandry, water quality management, building and maintaining fish ponds, producing low cost fish feed and the use of organic fertilisers with the aim of strengthening sustainable food security and household incomes.

After finishing the course, the raskols, aged from 25-47 years, established 100 fish ponds, which now produce tilapia and carp and help to feed the village’s population of more than 680 people. In so doing, they gained an honest livelihood and respect within the community, eventually destroying their marijuana crops and abandoning crime.

Micah Aranka, who works with fish farmers in Hogu, said that “they [the gang] worked hard on digging their ponds and digging canals to draw water to their ponds…..and by watching the fish in their ponds they have found peace.”

In the most populous Pacific Island nation, aquaculture has emerged as an unlikely agent of social change, as well as a more secure food future.

By Sam Olukoya
NAIROBI, Nov 29 2018 (IPS)

Women make up about half of the over 120 million people whose livelihood depend on the blue economy. But women play only a marginal role in the blue economy with most of them earning subsistence income. Women are mainly excluded from more important aspects of the Blue Economy like shipping and large scale fishing.

The Canadian High Commission to Kenya and the Canadian government funded International Development Research Centre, IDRC, organized a side event at the first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, with the aim of seeking ways of increasing women participation in the blue economy.

Dr Cyrus Rustomjee, a former director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, says there is clearly the will, the determination, the excitement, the collective endeavour at an African level to take the blue economy forward. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

By Nalisha Adams
NAIROBI, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

The first every global conference to address the twin focuses on both conservation and economic growth of the oceans has fulfilled the broad range of expectations it set out to define.

It could also be starting point for spurring on a whole new range of global development co-ordination challenges harmonising terrestrial and ocean-related laws and treaties.

This is according to Dr. Cyrus Rustomjee, a former director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and a senior fellow with Global Economy Programme, Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Rustomjee was at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya as some 18,000 participants gathered in the East African nation. The conference hosted by the Kenyan government and co-hosted by Canada and Japan, set out to discuss how to create economic growth that is inclusive and sustainable, how to ensure healthy and productive waters, and how to build safe and resilient communities.

Rustomjee has held various positions for his native South Africa with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. IPS was able to speak to the South African who holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Masters in Development Economics.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): Can you tell us in terms of this conference what were the expectations that you had coming here.

Cyrus Rustomjee (CR): I think I didn’t want to create expectations for myself about this because it is the inaugural Sustainable Blue Economy Conference. It hasn’t happened before in this way. We have had conferences on the Blue Economy in various parts of the world, we have had global United Nations-driven conferences. We haven’t had one which tries to bring together the conservation and the growth dimensions of the Blue Economy.

In the past they have really been seen as two contending perspectives of the Blue Economy, where as in fact what this conference is saying is that they are part and parcel of a sustainable blue economy. You have to have sustainability of the oceans if you want to harness the wealth or other opportunities from it. But at the same time you can’t continuously focus on conservation because there will be some who will exploit the ocean while others persist simply with conservation.

So the benefits that the ocean offers will be then inequitably shared.

No one wanted to confront this issue at a global level. And to try to discern practical ways to harmonise this and to bring these two strands, which is a common concept together. So I didn’t have any particular expectations. I had a whole lot of questions about the scope and the ambition of the conference. And that has been fully fulfilled. Because I think the scope is enormous, it’s covered a very very wide range of policy issues, a wide range of conceptual issues, it’s brought it science, it’s brought in legal frameworks and transboundary challenges which are part of the unique characteristics of this sustainable blue economy concept.

It really has brought many many countries to the table to discuss, in some sense without preconceived positions, which is very valuable. Which is really saying let us kind of take a step back and then take a collective step forward. And I think that is what is happening at this conference.

IPS: In light of what you have heard, what are your first impressions?

CR: It is only day one. First impressions are that I wasn’t sure to what extent an African voice would come forward. Because it is in this space that the fullest potential of the Blue Economy will reveal itself or not in the years ahead. So Africa has watched the oceans being utilised and has hesitated to utilise the resources of the oceans for a whole host of reasons, including insufficient technology, skills, human resources, legislative frameworks, co-ordination at an inter-continental level and many many other factors.

Whereas I would say many advanced economies particularly have gone surging ahead with the blue economy, whether sustainable or not, I don’t know.

Now Africa has an opportunity to take advantage of all of that. And build on continental momentum to do so in many other areas. For example, we just recently secured a continental free trade arrangement and there are already ingrained in African continent-wide policies and strategies the concept of the Blue Economy. It is the 2063 Agenda [of the African Union]. It is in the 2050 Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS) framework. Not it is time to operationalise it in practical ways.

So a big take-away from me is there is clearly the will, the determination, the excitement, the collective endeavour at an African level to take this forward.

I think if there is anything we look back on in, say five years from now, we will look back at two things. One is, this is where the world got together to recognise this concept as a practical mechanism in some sense for operationalising sustainable development fully. Not only in terrestrial activity but across the whole spectrum of what the earth’s surface is.

We started also talking today about the interaction and the interplay between the terrestrial sustainable development framework and the ocean and realising it is actually a single framework…

The second big thing from today is the arrival of the African Blue Economy as a real prospect.

IPS: Kenya says it wants to lead the way in building a sustainable blue economy. With your background in finance and development, can you give us some key take-aways they need to look at?

CR: It’s a difficult one because we are very much in a pioneering state for a continent that has 38 coastal states, and has 31,000 km of coastline, and which also has 13 million square kilometres of exclusive economic zone. It’s a huge, huge environment. [The number of people living along the coast] is high and it’s rising. For a whole host of reasons.

We are at the dawn of the journey. We are at the dawn but in the context where there are many components that is encouraging many african countries have started developing their blue economy strategies and laws and concepts. And they have started to tackle some of the co-ordination issues that come with that, simply-explained ones, co-ordination between the coastal tourism and fisheries sectors, for example, jurisdictional issues between different portfolios, they’ve developed integrated coastal zone management strategies and many have developed marine protected areas and have started working on the challenges in sustaining those.

Many have been in the forefront, globally now, of innovative blue finance [for example the Seychelles issued a Blue Bond last month]. We are seeing a lot more activity at a regional level. We are starting actively to see discussion about how to integrate regional and continental initiatives. In a certain sense the Blue Economy in an African context is an African Blue Economy, not an African-specific national series of Blue Economies.

That is where the full potential of the Blue Economy will arise, rather than at a national level. We are starting to see this is part of the longer-term vision which we will end up realising as a continent.

So there are lots of promises, lots of opportunity and lots of action. But a lot of action is happening at a national level and some critical steps for the future now, in an African context is to build the institutional capacity to share knowledge, experience within the continent and to build the institutions what will quickly bring the inter-continental collaboration needed to realise the Blue Economy.

Excerpt:

Government squads demolish illegal stake net prawn enclosures on the Chilka Lagoon in eastern India in this picture dated 2010. / Credit:Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Busani Bafana
NAIROBI, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

Fish will soon be off the menu, unless global leaders strike a deal ending multi-billion dollar harmful fisheries subsidies blamed for threatening world fish stocks and widening the inequitable use of marine resources.

The inaugural Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, which opened in the Kenyan capital today, heard of the urgency for global leaders to reach an agreement that will end subsidies to the global fisheries industries, which in 2016 generated value in excess of 360 billion dollars.

Convened by Kenya, co-hosted by Canada and Japan, the conference attracted over 18,000 participants to discuss ways of harnessing the potential of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers in improving livelihood epically of people in developing states. Over 3 billion people worldwide depend on fisheries for food, income and jobs.

The world has rallied around the enormous pressures facing our oceans and waters, from plastic pollution to the impacts of climate change. The conference builds on the momentum of the United Nations’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris and the U.N. Ocean Conference 2017 “Call to Action”.

However, fisheries subsidies, some introduced more than 50 years ago, have become a sore point in the harvesting, trade and consumption of fish in the oceans, which technically no one owns.

Since 2001, global leaders have been haggling about certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. Since 2001, negotiations have been on to eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Global fisheries subsidies are estimated at 20 billion dollars a year.

World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on fisheries subsidies were launched in 2001 at the Doha Ministerial Conference, with a mandate to “clarify and improve”, existing WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. That mandate was elaborated in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, including a call for prohibiting certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.

Roberto Zapata Barradas, Chair, WTO Rules Negotiating Group and Mexico’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO says that negotiations have been on to eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing needs to be reached by December. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Most recently, at the 2017 Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference (MC11), ministers decided on a work programme to conclude the negotiations. They have aimed to adopt, at the 2019 Ministerial Conference, an agreement on fisheries subsidies. The agreement should deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 on the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Fishing paradox

Sticking points on the negotiation include the need for including appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing country members and least developed country members in the negotiations. While the aim is to stop subsidies that deplete the natural capital of fish stocks, rules for harmful subsidies have to be framed as having the potential to deliver a win-win situation for trade, the environment and development.

Stephen de Boer, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO, said the agreement is not about maintaining the credibility of the WTO but about fish and tackling development challenges.

“Canada is concerned that we have little time to get this done and there is wider divergence of issues,” de Boer told IPS. “My fear is there is not enough concern about the fish but we are spending too much time on old positions and not showing the flexibility to reach an agreement. Negotiators need to have discussions outside the WTO to the broader public from fisher communities to civil society to put pressure on us.”

An agreement must be reached in December, Roberto Zapata Barradas, Chair, WTO Rules Negotiating Group and Mexico’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, told IPS.

“I am happy with the level of engagement that the delegates are showing in Geneva,” said Barradas. “There is still a lot of doubts and concerns as to what the outcome is going to be but it is about having a good process to ventilate those positions and trying to find middle ground and areas of convergence.”

Zapata agrees the time to cobble together an agreement is tight but that the 164 WTO members need to be creative in opening the necessary space in Geneva to achieve agreement.

Peter Nyongesa Wekesa, Fisheries Expert at the Secretariat of the 79- member African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) said there are good subsidies that reinforce good management of resources enabling spending on research, stock assessment, training and removing excess capacity from the fisheries like buying back excess vessels in the industry.

“The bad subsidies are those throwing money for fuel, building new vessels to continue catching fish when you know that stocks are not in good shape. These serve no purpose because you are worse off outcome for the same money that you are spending.

“We are looking at the complexity of the countries but we do not want subsidies that support IUU fishing and contribute to over fishing. Fisheries are extremely important to the ACP for food, nutritional security, exports and employment. For some small islands countries fish exports account for 50 percent of their commodities trade.”

Saving fish today for the future

Ernesto Fernandez, from the Pew Charitable Trust, says addressing the challenges of fish resources is the most important step governments could take in 2019 to ensure the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on the fishing trade.

“Instead of saying what WTO should do for fish we might reverse and think what the fish can do for WTO,” Monge said.

Oceans contribute 1.5 trillion dollars per year to the global economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that 60 million people are directly employed in the fisheries industry many in small-scale operations in developing countries.

The global fish production in 2016 reached an all-time high of 171 million tons, of which 88 percent was for human consumption, said José Graziano da Silva FAO Director-General in the 2018 State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture report. While the value of global fish exports in 2017 rose to 152 billion dollars with 54 percent originating from developing countries.

2019, deal or no deal?

Should we reach Christmas 2019 without a deal, what next?

“I am not factoring in that possibility. I am fully focused on reaching an agreement,” Zapata told IPS.

A leatherback turtle on the beach. Communities in Trinidad and Tobago are actively conserving the leatherback. Courtesy: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region Follow/CC by 2.0

By Nalisha Adams
NAIROBI, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

On the north-eastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago, on the shoreline of Matura, more than 10,000 leatherback turtles climb the beaches to nest each year. But there the local community is keenly area of one thing: ‘a turtle alive is worth more than a turtle dead.”

It’s a lesson the community learned almost three decades ago when the government of Trinidad and Tobago first created a tour guide training course in the north-eastern region. Dennis Sammy, Treasurer of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), also a community leader from Matura, was part of the course. But instead of just working as tour guides, the community had a bigger vision of conservation, at a time when people were “killing lots of turtles”.

The area of Matura is one of the few places in the world where the leatherback turtles nest. Sammy tells IPS that it is also easily accessible via a beach road, something which places the turtles at risk to poachers.

But in four years the community residents, who had formed a conservation organisation, were able to stop the slaughter of turtles, Sammy tells IPS. The residents themselves had been part of the problem initially, he adds.

“They changed because the community became part of the solution.”

By 2000, the population of turtles rose as a result of the conservation efforts, thereby creating a problem for local fishers as up to 30 turtles a day became caught in their nets.

Now, ecotourism is practiced and people pay to come watch the turtles nesting.

Sammy is one of the participants at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, which is currently being held in Kenya and spoke to IPS alongside a side event on blue enterprises.

He uses the above example of turtle conservation as a key example of a community-led intuitive during the discussion on the blue enterprise titled “SIDS inclusive economic development through community-led conservation and social enterprise”.

“We have seen one turtle, by documenting and tagging it, come up so many times and we have been able to identify the number of people seeing this turtle. And we have traced back the value that these people pay to come and look at this turtle, and it’s a very high value,” Sammy says.

He explains that this is clear to the local communities that, “a turtle is worth more alive than dead”.

Nicole Leotaud, Executive Director of CANARI, a non-profit technical institute which facilities and promotes participatory natural resource management, says that in order to engage further community engagement, the Local Green-Blue Enterprise Radar, a tool that engages small enterprises by questioning them about their sustainability.

The radar is a list of questions, with each question being an indicator related to the SDGs. It looks particularly at poverty, environmental sustainability, well-being, and good governance.

This happens through a facilitated process where each and every member of the enterprise, not just business leaders, are asked probing questions.

“The blue economy and green economy are very top-down concepts being imposed on us. How do we make it real and how do we involve local communities and recognise small and micro enterprises as part of economic development?

“Very much you are hearing about big sectors, tourism and shipping and [seabed] mining and how do you involve the real enterprises that are there and always doing it?”

Nicole Leotaud, Executive Director of CANARI, a non-profit technical institute which facilities and promotes participatory natural resource management. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

CANARI asked the questions how local, rural and marginalised communities could become part of the movement that was not only delivering economic benefits to communities but also asked how these communities could practice environmental sustainability.

“The radar is really designed for community enterprises that are using natural resources,” Leotard tells IPS.

“They are already starting to make changes. We are not telling them to make changes, it is a self-discovery.”

Leotaud explains that the organisation Grande Riviera Turtle Conservation experienced a similar process of discovery.

“One community enterprise working on turtle conservation have big tanks where they keep baby turtles, if these have been born in the day,” Leotaud says. She says thanks to the radar, the organisation then looked into not merely conserving turtles but also conserving water and using renewable energy.

“They said can we think about renewable energy. It would not only be good for the environment but it would be a steady energy supply because [they are based] in a remote village where they are cut off [from electricity] all the time.

“They realised that they can do better in terms of energy and water. And they realised they have a few powerful leaders but they are not doing enough to engage other members of the enterprise and bring them in, they are not doing enough to build partnerships,” says Leotaud.

“They said: ‘Ah now we see how we are part of the blue economy.’”

Mitchell Lay of the Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisation says that in order to help community enterprises become part of the blue economy and to become even stronger, the actors already operating in the space have to be recognised.

The small fisheries sector, he says has “across the globe operating in the aqua environment over 90 million individuals. In the Caribbean region, the Caribbean community alone, we have in excess of 150,000 operating in the entire production already in the blue economy space.”

He says their contributions should be recognised. These contributions include “not only to SDG 14, but to the other SDGs. Their contribution to eradicating poverty, in terms of job creation, their contribution to human health and wellness. The contribution to ending hunger.”

Lay says support is critical because of the nature of the enterprises as they are small and micro and that their sustainable development needed to be promoted.

“So support from a policy perspective, support from other perspectives as well, capacity development etc.”

Meanwhile Leotaud says that “Community enterprises especially because they are informal they are marginalised. They are not part of the decision making they are not part of the discussion. So how can we get them to feel a part of this movement, for them to make their own transformation? And for them to call on governments?”

She explains more enabling policies were needed and that CANARI was working on building a more enabling environment for the micro enterprises.

She says that community enterprises don’t have access to finance, and that the technical capacity available in countries for enterprise development was not tailored for them.

A Tundra Buggy with tourists watch a polar bear in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and tourism company Frontiers North Adventures has limited their growth to minimise impacts. Credit: Stephen Leahy/IPS

By Stephen Leahy
CHURCHILL, Canada , Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

It’s almost always cold in Churchill, Manitoba, a remote coastal community on Hudson Bay in Canada’s subarctic region. Today, a month before winter officially begins, it’s -25 degrees C with a fierce wind coming off Hudson Bay which is thick with slabs of ice. Situated in the middle of Canada, it’s the world’s largest saltwater bay. And even though frozen solid eight months of the year, the bay sustains the nearly 800 residents of Churchill which is known as the “Polar Bear Capital” of the world.

Tourism and ecotourism are the major contributors to the local economy, with the polar bear season being the largest. The cold waters of Hudson Bay bring polar bears into the area in October and November, while the mouth of Churchill River brings thousands of five-metre-long, pure white Belgua whales in June and July. Summer also brings birdwatchers to the treeless tundra region. In winter people from all over the world brave the bitter cold to view the spectacular aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.

Living with polar bears isn’t easy. They’re fierce predators, double the size of  the largest lions or tigers, and always hungry when on land where they find little food. Seals are their main food source but the bears can only catch them when the bay is frozen. Fifty years ago any bear near Churchill would be shot on sight. Their numbers fell dramatically and conservation measures were put in place. Although there are no roads to Churchill, it is less than three hours by plane from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s international airport, making it relatively easy to see polar bears in the wild.

In the late 1970s a tourism operator built Tundra Buggies, school-bus-sized, four-wheel-drive vehicles with two-metre high wheels to navigate the roadless tundra while safely allowing tourists to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

“We don’t call our business ecotourism,” says John Gunter, President and CEO of Frontiers North Adventures, the main tourism operator in Churchill with 14 Tundra Buggies. “I’m not sure what ecotourism really means in practice,” Gunter told IPS. However Frontiers North is committed to sustainable tourism and has followed the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility guidelines for ten years. They issued their first sustainability report in 2016 based on the Global Reporting  Initiative.

The company plans to release a new sustainability report in 2019. “It takes time to do this kind of reporting and some things are really hard to measure,” Gunter said. While some of Frontier’s customers are keen to know about the company’s practices, the report is mainly for employees and the local community he said.

Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and Frontiers has limited the companies’ growth to minimise impacts. Polar bears need sea ice to survive, however global warming has dramatically reduced the amount of sea ice in the Arctic. To reduce its carbon footprint, the company makes sure flights in and out of Churchill and their Tundra Buggies are as full as possible. The company launched a recycling program that the local authorities  now run and eliminated use of plastic water bottles. Frontiers North buys from local suppliers and employs as many Canadian and local-to-the-north guides as possible. They also support Churchill’s Junior Canadian Ranger Program that offers young people in isolated communities opportunities to build their outdoor and traditional skills.

“Our guests come for the polar bears but they end up learning about our community, the indigenous culture, environmental issues affecting the region,” he said.

“Frontiers are a tremendous partner in our conservation and education efforts,” said Kt Miller, of  Polar Bears International (PBI), a world-renowned non-profit organization dedicated solely to the conservation and protection of wild polar bears, and the sea ice they depend on. The company has provided the permanent use of a Tundra Buggy for PBI’s research and education programs. Those programs include webchats with polar bear scientists from the buggy and live web cameras of polar bears that anyone with an internet connection can access.

“We want to share the experience of seeing a polar bear in their natural setting with everyone,” Miller said. In summer PBI is involved in research on belgua whales and there is an underwater web camera on their boat which is very popular.

Bear safety is an important part of Churchill culture says David Allcorn, an expedition leader who has worked throughout the Arctic. The bears often wander near or into town looking for food but instead of shooting them, residents call a 24-hour “Bear Alert” hotline. Conservation officials respond to drive the bears away.  If they persist, they are live-trapped and put in the a holding facility known locally as ‘Polar Bear Jail’. When Hudson Bay is frozen, the bears are released.

No one is allowed to feed the bears, and any garbage is either locked up or collected quickly.  We can’t let bears associate humans with food explained Allcorn. When a tourist tossed a sandwich out of Tundra Buggy to lure a bear closer for a better photograph, he and everyone else on the tour were immediately taken back to town, he recalled. The man was then put on the first plane out of Churchill.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 13,000 participants from around the world have gathered to learn how to build a blue economy.

By IPS World Desk
ROME, Nov 24 2018 (IPS)

The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 13,000 participants from around the world are coming together to learn how to build a blue economy.

Read more: https://www.ipsnews.net/topics/sustainable-blue-economy-conference/

Djibouti, situated at the Horn of Africa, has an increasing network of ocean ports. The blue economy is about the shipping industry, which is essential to trade; tourism and recreation. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By Lisa Stadelbauer
NAIROBI, Nov 24 2018 (IPS)

Throughout history, oceans, seas, lakes and rivers have provided life and livelihoods to people around the world. Today, they are a multi-trillion-dollar global economy supporting hundreds of millions of people and helping drive economic growth in all corners of the world.

But the true potential of the blue economy has not been fully captured.

In Canada, we understand the importance of water. Not only does Canada have the largest coastline in the world, we border three oceans and hold 20 percent of the world’s freshwater resources. Our waters also drive a marine economy which supports roughly 350,000 jobs and contributes close to 35 billion Canadian dollars to our country’s GDP.

Crucially though, with proper stewardship, those waters have also come to play a key role in not just creating good jobs and expanding industry, but in promoting and supporting inclusivity.  As innovative projects in Canada have shown, we can preserve the marine environment and improve livelihoods at the same time. Indigenous communities have a special relationship with our waters, and their stewardship, cultures and knowledge are helping to keep our lake, river and ocean ecosystems healthy.

Canada made the blue economy a cornerstone of its G7 presidency this year, shepherding the Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas, and Resilient Coastal Communities and the Oceans Plastics Charter. We invited countries from outside the G7 – including Kenya – for a dedicated conversation on oceans. Additionally, last week Canada held its first leader to leader engagement with the Pacific Islands Forum where Prime Minister Trudeau demonstrated Canada’s continued commitment to supporting those countries faced with the existential and immediate threat of climate change. We see the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference as a natural extension of our work, and when approached to co-host the conference with Kenya, we had no hesitation in accepting.

Furthermore, this conference will help us continue the important work of meeting the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Goals five and fourteen, in particular, emphasise the importance of achieving gender equality, and conserving and sustainably utilising the oceans, seas and marine resources. It is our hope that the conference serves to reinforce our collective implementation of this critical agenda.

We are thrilled that a global conference of this magnitude and importance is taking place in Africa, where the potential for the blue economy is enormous.  Almost three quarters of African countries have a coastline or are themselves islands, and the total continental coastline is over 47,000 km.  When we add the riches of African rivers and lakes, we can understand the impact that a prosperous, inclusive and sustainable blue economy can have on communities.

Lisa Stadelbauer is the High Commissioner-designate of Canada to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda; the Ambassador-designate to Somalia, Burundi; and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Nairobi.

When we say “blue economy” we are not only talking about fish. We are also talking about the shipping industry, which is essential to trade; tourism and recreation, which is so important to the Kenyan economy; and energy. The International Energy Agency says ocean renewable energy can potentially supply more than four times current global energy demand. Canada is a leader in harnessing tidal power, and Africa could look to do the same, complementing other exciting work in renewable energy on the continent, such as wind, solar and geo-thermal. 

But it is important to remember that this is not just an African conference, it is a global conference. Oceans and seas know no boundaries and successfully harnessing their potential can only be done with global co-operation. It would be a short-sighted to think otherwise. 

Canada’s contribution of two million dollars will help ensure the meaningful participation of delegates from seventy Small Island Developing States and other developing countries representing governments, academia, and civil society organisations, with a strong focus on women leaders in the sector.   

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is special in that it is the first conference to bring scientists, innovators, businesses, academics and civil society together with heads of state, ministers and policymakers in one forum around these issues.  It is a chance for people from all over the world to exchange ideas, experiences and the latest scientific advances and innovative solutions to allow us to conserve and sustain the waters that underpin the blue economy as we look at the same time to use them help spread wealth and prosperity. 

There is often a misunderstanding that economic growth and environmental protection must be mutually exclusive. This is far from the case with the blue economy, as innovative projects and initiatives from all parts of the world have shown, and will be showcased at the conference.

Canada also sees this conference as an opportunity to promote a stronger role and voice for women in the blue economy. We cannot expect to reap the benefits of the blue economy if half of the population is left behind. Research shows that 85 percent of workers in the ocean economy in the Global South are women, but very few of them are in senior or leadership positions. We need to make sure that their voices and ideas are heard, and that they are able to access high value jobs, in all sectors of the blue economy.

In 2017, Canada launched its first ever Feminist International Assistance Policy. In short, women and girls are at the heart of Canada’s approach to development. The policy recognises that supporting gender equality is the best way to build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world.  So, Canada’s vision for the blue economy is one that is transformative and inclusive. Investments in the blue economy should ensure that the benefits of this economic growth are equally distributed, including amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised people.

Meaningful youth employment is critical for the success of our economies, and we think that the blue economy offers real opportunities to create good jobs, and harness the creativity, energy, and innovation of young minds. 

Canada is supporting the Youth Pre-Conference, and a side event at the conference itself focused on Women of the Blue Economy, to broaden and highlight the discussion on inclusion. We also hope that the issue of gender in particular will be raised in all conference panels. 

The blue economy has the potential to support and improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world in both developed and developing countries.  Under good global stewardship, it can also be environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically prosperous for all.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is a global first and a chance to lay the foundations for a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future involving our oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. We must make sure that together we take that opportunity. Now is the time for action

Excerpt:

Terry Hunter is a cultural tour guide at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Being an extractive and extensive form of farming, pearl oyster aquaculture is one of the most environmentally sustainable industries. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY/BROOME/CYGNET BAY, Australia, Nov 23 2018 (IPS)

Australia’s remote north-western Kimberley coast, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the sapphire waters of the Indian Ocean, is home to the giant Pinctada maxima or silver-lipped pearl oyster shells that produce the finest and highly-prized Australian South Sea Pearls.

Australia is the only country in the world that uses wild oyster stocks. To ensure its sustainability, the pearling industry operates on a government-regulated quota system that sets a maximum number of wild stock pearl oysters that can be caught each year from the Eighty Mile Beach, south of Broome in the state of Western Australia. These wild pearl oyster beds represent the last wild commercial fishery for Pinctada maxima oysters in the world.

There are currently 15 wild stock pearl oyster licence holders, but the majority of licences are owned by Paspaley subsidiaries. As Paspaley Group of Companies’ Executive Director, Peter Bracher tells IPS, “Our wild pearl oyster quota is hand-collected by our divers. This is an environmentally friendly and sustainable form of commercial fishing that causes no damage to the seabed and produces no wasteful by-catch. Elsewhere in the natural habitat of Pinctada maxima, which includes much of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the wild oyster populations have been depleted by overfishing.”

In recent years, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) has been set between 600,000 and 700,000 pearl oysters. The 2016 TAC was 612,510 pearl oysters and the total quota that could be seeded was approximately 907,670 (557,670 wild stock and 350,000 hatchery-produced), according to the Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s 2016-17 Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Australian pearling companies have been conscious of the need to protect the oysters’ habitat as there is a strong co-relation between Kimberley’s pristine environment and the production of high-quality pearls.

“The nutrient-rich Kimberley waters, in which our pearls are farmed, are our most valuable asset and monitoring their condition forms an integral part of our operations and management. We have opened our infrastructure and expertise to the academic world and established the Kimberley Marine Research Station to encourage independent marine research and to help bridge the indigenous cultural knowledge with scientific knowledge, which we believe will help in our attempt to ensure our production practices are sustainable,” says James Brown, the third-generation owner and managing director of Cygnet Bay Pearls, the first all-Australian owned and operated cultured pearling company.

Being an extractive and extensive form of farming, pearl oyster aquaculture is one of the most environmentally sustainable industries. Oysters are voracious filter feeders drawing their nutrition from micro-organisms like algae from the water column and in so doing effectively clean the water.

Professor Dean Jerry, Deputy Director at James Cook University’s (JCU) Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture tells IPS, “Pearl farms also act as fish attraction devices (FAD). The oyster lines, buoys and panel nets hung in the ocean provide habitat and structure for larger and small fish. Often this is the only form of structure in the ocean where farms are providing habitat for marine life to live.”

But Pinctada maxima oysters are very sensitive to pollution and environmental changes. “Global warming and increased carbon dioxide levels in the ocean will make it harder for the pearl oysters to quickly and efficiently lay down calcium carbonate for the mother of pearl that makes the nacre for the pearl. This means that oysters will have to spend more energy for growth, leaving less for immune functioning thereby increasing their exposure risks of disease as rises in water temperatures speed up microbial and parasitic lifecycles,” Jerry adds.

Since 2006, Australian companies have battled Oyster Oedema disease and Juvenile Oyster Mortality Syndrome, which impacts oysters before they are seeded with a pearl and may result in 90-95 percent mortality. Scientists haven’t yet been able to find a causative agent for the two diseases, which have almost halved the worth of the industry.

To make the industry more sustainable, Jerry says, “We need to adopt technology to make oyster breeding programs more productive and disease tolerant. Pearl oysters will really benefit from selective breeding, which will help them grow faster and therefore get to a point where they can be seeded at a younger age and ultimately produce the pearl quicker.”

It takes two years for an oyster to grow where it can be seeded and another two years for when the pearl is harvested. During these four years, the oysters have to be regularly cleaned. “It can cost up to AUD1 an oyster each time, which is a huge financial cost to businesses. If we can get to a stage of harvesting the pearl from a younger oyster, say three years, it will not only increase financial sustainability, but also environmentally sustainability,” Jerry adds.

Mother of Pearl at Cygnet Bay. Australia is the only country in the world that uses wild oyster stocks. To ensure its sustainability, the pearling industry operates on a government-regulated quota system that sets a maximum number of wild stock pearl oysters that can be caught each year. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

Hatchery-bred pearl oysters are now a major part of pearl production. Three oysters are required to create one pearl. A nucleus is inserted from one oyster into another healthy oyster with a small piece of mantle tissue selected from a donor oyster. With time, the mantle tissue that produces nacre (the secretion known as mother-of-pearl) grows completely around the nucleus, forming a pearl sac in which the pearl grows.

An oyster can be reseeded up to three times, and, when it reaches the end of its reproductive life, it is harvested for the mother of pearl shell used in jewellery and inlay for furniture, and pearl meat.

Last year, the Australian South Sea pearling industry of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, have been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

Chief Executive of Pearl Producers Association, Aaron Irving tells IPS, “The MSC Standard is an independent, internationally accredited science-based standard, against which the environmental sustainability management of a wild marine resource fishery is rigorously assessed. MSC ecolabel assists discerning customers in making an ethical choice.”

Australia is the world’s first pearl fishery to be certified against the MSC’s standard for sustainable fishing. MSC Oceania Program Director Anne Gabriel says, “It’s an exciting development and opens the door to engage a whole new world of consumers on the important issue of fisheries sustainability. We are looking forward to seeing the MSC ecolabel on wild pearls in the jewellery and fashion markets of the world, as well as on mother of pearl and pearl meat products. By buying sustainable pearl products, consumers can also play their part in maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems and securing the future of our fish stocks.”

Paspaley, Australia’s leading pearling company, exports over 95 percent of its production to wholesalers and jewellery manufacturers around the world. Bracher tells IPS, “We sell to many of the world’s leading brands for which ethical supply chains are a high priority. Although we cannot communicate directly with their end-customers, our environmental credentials are an important differentiator as a supplier.”

Cygnet Bay Pearls uses tourism as a way of educating consumers about the making of the Australian South Sea Pearl and the environment it thrives on. Brown tells IPS, “Our new business model welcomes general public to the farm. Our Giant Tides tour shows visitors the unique Kimberley marine environment, which is now regarded as having the largest tropical tides by volume of water and also the fastest tidal currents in the world. This is what powers our pearl farm and allows Australians to grow the finest pearls in the world.”

Terry Hunter, a fourth generation Bardi man, is a cultural tour guide on the Cygnet Bay Pearl farm. He tells IPS, “Cygnet Bay has been my playground. My father and grandfather worked here. The Browns have always recognised, acknowledged and respected Indigenous knowledge. When I hold a mother of pearl oyster shell, I feel alive – connected through ceremony and ancestors.”

Traditionally, the indigenous Aboriginal Bardi and Jawi tribes collected the mother of pearl to make a riji, which boys wear as a pubic covering at the time of initiation or formal admission to adulthood. The engravings on the shell symbolise their connection to earth and water. Now, the riji is worn for ceremonial purposes.

Bart Pigram, an indigenous Yawuru man, worked as a pearl shell cleaner and now owns and operates Narlijia Cultural Tours and shares the unique pearling history of Broome with visitors. He tells IPS, “The environment’s health is integral to not only sustaining the pearling industry, but also the local indigenous communities.”

The pearling industry employs about 800 people. The value of the pearl aquaculture sector was about AUD78.4 million for the 2015-16 financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) Australian fisheries and aquaculture statistics 2016 report.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 13,000 participants from around the world are coming together to learn how to build a blue economy.

Two fisherwomen walk along the seashore in Nemmeli, India. Canada is committed to building a sustainable ocean economy that is inclusive and can prosper for many. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Jonathan Wilkinson
OTTAWA, Nov 23 2018 (IPS)

This November, Canada, along with Kenya and Japan, is proud to host the world’s first global conference focused on the world’s ocean economy: the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, designed to follow the G7 meeting, brings together the international community to discuss ocean economic opportunities and ocean sustainability. This is a crucial step in ensuring the benefits of the blue economy and of a healthy ocean today and for future generations. The world needs to focus on preserving and restoring the ocean’s health while seizing the economic opportunities that come from doing so.

Jonathan Wilkinson is Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

The blue economy provides jobs for hundreds of millions of people around the world – and generates trillions of dollars. In Canada alone, 350,000 jobs depend on the ocean and 36 billion dollars of our national GDP is generated by the ocean economy.

It is a critical example that the environment and the economy go hand in hand.

This conference comes at a critical time. Across the world, thousands of tons of fishing gear are lost and discarded in seas and oceans every year, putting marine life in jeopardy and clogging up harbours. Climate change is warming our ocean at faster rates than we had imagined. And the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing market is scooping up millions of kilograms of fish each and every year.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said “the ocean economy is essential to the future well being and prosperity of humankind. It is a key source of food, energy, health, leisure and transport on which millions of people depend”.

As our global population continues to grow, we increasingly understand that we will need to rely on our oceans to provide for our global needs of food, trade and livelihoods. Canada is committed to building a sustainable ocean economy that can prosper for many.

Canada made the ocean a cornerstone of our G7 Presidency. Ocean science and observation; addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; achieving marine conservation targets; addressing ocean plastics including “ghost fishing gear”; restoring and rebuilding fish stocks and marine biodiversity; preventing and controlling invasive species; being prepared for marine emergencies; and improving marine safety are key elements of Canada’s ocean agenda.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is the start of an important global conversation. One hundred and fifty countries will be participating. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend. The stakes are high, the time is short.  Global environmental and sustainability challenges needs global solutions. We must work with the United Nations, our G7 partners, our Commonwealth partners, other international organisations, small island developing states, non-governmental and business groups, who want a vibrant blue economy and a healthy ocean.

We look to the Conference to shape the international cooperation and collective actions needed to seize the opportunities and to meet the challenges. Success will show the essential relationship between environmental sustainability and economic growth, and we are committed to success.

As a country that is bordered by three oceans: the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Pacific, and home to the longest coastline in the world – protecting our oceans for future generations and ensuring the sustainability of this marine resource is of critical importance.

To all the Ministers, partners, businesses and delegates at the Conference and beyond, I encourage you to join with us. We need your voice. You have a stake in this. It’s your future. Join us in building a sustainable future that our kids and grand kids can be a proud of. You can make a difference. Follow us in Kenya and beyond.

Excerpt:

Ready for a day's work at sea, a small fleet of boats hugs the shoreline of a fishing village in the district of Kilifi. Fishing is important to the local economy. Experts experts insist that there is still a lot more to be done towards developing a strong blue economy action plan for Kenya. Credit: UN Photo/Milton Grant

By Miriam Gathigah and Robert Kibet
NAIROBI, Nov 22 2018 (IPS)

In a matter of days the world’s blue economy actors and experts will converge in Nairobi, Kenya for the first ever global conference on sustainable blue economy.

From Nov. 26 to 28, participants from around the globe will meet in Kenya’s capital to discuss how to develop a sustainable blue economy that is inclusive of all.

Professor Micheni Ntiba, the Principal Secretary for Kenya’s Department of Fisheries, Aquaculture and the Blue Economy, says partnership linkages with development agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme are key to progress, but synergies need to be directed towards integrating policy and strategy for implementation.

“This will be a conference like no other, with a research and scientific symposium. It requires knowledge and hence there is the need to integrate policy and strategy for implementation as well,” Ntiba told IPS in an interview.

Wilfred Subbo, an expert in natural resources and an associate professor at the University of Nairobi, told IPS that the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will significantly jumpstart the country’s blue economy by setting the agenda on the need to prioritise the exploitation of water-based natural resources.

He said that the stage is set for governments and private sector actors to transform the country into a robust commercially-oriented blue economy.

Just this week, on Nov. 19, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the country’s newly-formed Kenya Coast Guard Service in Mombasa, Coastal region.

With the Kenya Coast Guard Act 2018 already in place, the mandate of the new coast guard includes controlling illegal and unregulated fishing, border disputes, and piracy as well as the degradation of the marine ecosystem.

Also on the same day, Kenyatta launched the ‘Eat More Fish’ campaign, which has Ali Ahmed is elated. Ahmed is a Malindi-based fisherman whose main target markets are in Malindi, Mombasa and Nairobi.

Government statistics shows that the current per capita fish consumption is at 4.6 kilograms, and that the president’s campaign will drive consumption to rival Africa’s average of 10 kilograms, and later attain the global average of 20 kilograms. This is part of an agenda to encourage ordinary Kenyans to both invest and reap from the blue economy based on the untapped potential in fisheries.

“Kenyans have turned to other foods like traditional vegetables and ignored fish. They say it is too expensive but this is not true. Most of the fishermen are in the business to put food on the table and nothing else,” he tells IPS.

Nonetheless, experts insist that there is still a lot more to be done towards developing a strong blue economy action plan, just as countries in the Western Indian Ocean such as Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and the Union of Comoros have done.

Professor Peter Anyang Nyong’o, the Governor for Kisumu County where Lake Victoria is located, told IPS in a telephone conversation that despite huge funding towards solving environmental problems in Lake Victoria, the impact has been negligent.

The Lake Region Block is planning to host a conference early next year that seeks to discuss pollution in Lake Victoria, mainly caused by the hyacinth, the invasive plant that has paralysed commercial fishing and marine transport.

“Hyacinth has heavily affected fish life in the lake as it impedes oxygen level. We are going to discuss scientific research that seeks to bring a better solution to the hyacinth in the lake,” says Nyong’o.

And as counties from the Lake Region plan to attend the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, Nyong’o says his county is currently working on a plan to revive the fibreglass boat-making project to curb accidents and deaths caused by the use of soft wood in making boats, which he says causes roughly 5400 deaths a year.

Experts such as Nairobi-based economist Jason Rosario Braganza told IPS that the conference offers the public and private sector an opportunity “to reinforce the narrative on the importance of a holistic approach to sustainable development through the diversification of the economy.”

Braganza says that the high-level meeting will draw attention to the responsibility that citizens have in the ethical consumption and responsible use of natural resources.

According to the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), the estimated annual economic value of goods and services in the marine and coastal ecosystem in the Blue Economy in the Western Indian Ocean is currently slightly over 22 billion dollars. Kenya’s share is approximately 4.4 billion dollars, with the tourism sector accounting for about 4.1 billion dollars.

Dickson Khainga, from the Productive Sector Division, says that Kenya’s blue world is more than just tourism and includes “the extraction of non-living resources such as seabed mining, marine biotechnology and the generation of new resources such as energy and fresh water.”

The research and policy analyst says that despite the country having a maritime territory of 230,000 square kilometres and a distance of 200 nautical miles offshore, equivalent to 31 of the 47 counties, Kenya has only explored tourism and fisheries.

According to Kippra, fisheries are by far not its most productive sector, accounting for a paltry 0.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Against this backdrop, Braganza emphasises that in pursuit of the blue economy the country will need to seal its policy loopholes.

He says that the “exploitative nature of big corporations of natural resources is a threat to sustainable development.” Braganza cautions that governments “will need to be more robust and decisive in the development of institutions, and legislation to police the exploitation of natural resources.”

With shipping said to be responsible for about 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, an agreement reached to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global shipping when nations met at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in April this year marked a big milestone.

Feeding the globe’s projected 9.6 billion people by 2050, invigorating aquaculture estimated to supply 58 percent of fish to the global market has the potential to contribute to food security as well socioeconomic inclusion of some of the world’s poorest.

Ntoba says Africa is still blind to the rich diversity of water body resources, and that its nations should now seize the opportunity by using the upcoming global conference as a wake-up call to foment greater African partnership.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who chairs the Lake Region Economic Block, told IPS the region will seek to push for a focus to have more funding directed towards improving commercial fish farming in the counties.

So far, the government has already set aside some Ksh 10 billion to improve marine fishing in the coastal region and another Ksh 14 billion to harness commercial aquaculture in 14 counties.

“Water has been mainly used in conventional irrigation agriculture which has contributed to greenhouse gas emissions but there has to be a shift. Sustainable water use will help spur the economy and at the same time curb greenhouse gas emissions,” Oparanya told IPS.

Rita Francke and another fisherwoman at the jetty, in front of the old crayfish factory at Witsands, South Africa. Credit: Lee Middleton/IPS

By Mahawa Kaba Wheeler
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 21 2018 (IPS)

The blue economy has quite rightly been described as the ‘New Frontier of the African Renaissance’. Its potential for a continent on which almost two thirds of its states have a coastline, whose trade is 90 percent sea-borne and whose lakes constitute the largest proportion of surface freshwater in the world, is enormous.

Indeed, its potential runs into the many trillions of dollars and promises to combine enormous economic growth with environmental conservation, if stewarded properly.

The Africa Union’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS 2050) provides a robust roadmap to fully exploit the potential of its oceans and seas and the first Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi next week offers African nations the opportunity to solidify this continental framework.

But one thing we can say with certainty now is that the full potential of Africa’s blue economy can only be reached if it is truly inclusive, allowing all people in society to reap the dividends on offer from the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers of the continent.

Women must be at the heart of this inclusivity. Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of all African Union (AU) policies and actions and the blue economy is fertile ground to further women’s role in this transformative field.

The AU at its 31st Ordinary Summit in Nouakchott adopted its first Continental Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2017-2027) to accelerate translate Agenda 2063 into reality for the millions of women and girls across the continent.

The first pillar of this strategy is aimed at achieving economic autonomy for women through maximising outcomes and opportunities for them. The blue economy is one such target.

Women have not always been able to fully enjoy the rewards of the growth in Africa’s economies and the roles they have played in helping expand sectors across the continent are gaining greater recognition.

Mahawa Kaba Wheeler, Director for the Women, Gender and Development Directorate, at the African Union Commission, says that while the marine industry in Africa is male dominated, women are working collaboratively with men to find a voice within it. Courtesy: Mahawa Kaba Wheeler

The AU is committed to ensuring this is not the case with the blue economy and is advocating for women to be more involved in marine industries across Africa. The AU currently works with women’s networks in this field, including among others Women in Maritime Africa, Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association and Women in the Maritime Sector in Eastern and Southern Africa, and welcomes new initiatives.

As delegates will hear at the Nairobi conference, we are pushing several initiatives for women in the blue economy, for instance to help them become sea cadets, lead port operations, increase the number of women in the industry, become captains of ships, celebrate their accomplishments and leaders in the industry, to expand their roles in shipping, fishing and other sectors of the marine industry.

We want to make sure that the blue economy is an inclusive one for women. Agenda 2063 calls for inclusive economic growth and we want to make sure that women are included in that growth and within the blue economy.

At present, the marine industry in Africa is male dominated, but women are working collaboratively with men to find a voice within it. This conference will ensure women’s voices are more fully heard.

This is especially important now as we have seen women deciding to come together to play their part in the blue economy and take their dividend from it – across Africa they are joining groups to promote and support the role played, and which could yet be played, in the marine industry.

The AU welcomes and fully supports these and any similar activities as they can only be good for women, for the promotion of inclusivity, and the blue economy as a whole.

But it must not stop there.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi offers an opportunity for all blue economy stakeholders, in Africa and from other countries, to not only hear about the key role women can play in the blue economy, but help suggest and support ways and means to expand those roles and to ensure that women are truly and fully included in Africa’s blue economy and able to reap its rewards. Several events will be held to promote women’s role in the blue economy and are anticipated to help leaders rally behind women’s initiatives in the industry.

Together, heads of state, ministers, policymakers, civil society groups and other stakeholders must come together to honour commitments we have all made to inclusivity in the blue economy and guarantee that women are not left behind as Africa’s ‘New Frontier’ is opened up. We must therefore create bold and transformative initiatives to accelerate women’s economic empowerment and leadership in this field.

It must also not be forgotten that this is not just about women’s roles in developing the potential of the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers around the world. It goes well beyond this.

By showing that women can succeed and thrive as entrepreneurs and independent active agents of change and growth in the blue economy, we can inspire women in all other sectors of society. If they can succeed in one economy, why not in another? If a woman can rise to the top in a sector of the marine industry, she can rise to the top in, for example, the finance or retail industry, to name just two.

The AU helps give women a voice in all industries, especially those which are non-traditional or male-dominated, and in Nairobi, we want to help them find their voice in the blue economy.

We say “women can sail Africa to the seas” and we believe the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will give us the chance to succeed.

Excerpt:

Fishermen at work, Little Bay, Jamaica. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS

By Terry Waghorn
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, Nov 21 2018 (IPS)

I recently connected with Felix Dodds and a colleague of his Chris Tomkins about the development around how the Blue Economy prior to the Kenya Government’s international conference (26-28 November) on the subject. Felix is a global sustainable development leader who has worked on sustainable development for more than two decades observing and participating in international development meetings, including the negotiations on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which the Blue Economy is part of and asked for his take on why and how the business and finance community should get behind them.

Terry Waghorn: We are now three years into implementing the Sustainable Development Goals one of which deals with the Oceans. For many people the term the Blue Economy is new. What does it mean?

Felix Dodds: The Blue Economy is the sustainable use of oceans, their coastal and estuarine hinterlands, as well as lakes and associated areas which embrace key sectors such as seabed mining, port development, fisheries, energy and tourism. It is a new frontier for sustainable investments.

This Blue Economy approach is key to the development of coastal, oceans, and lakeside areas, putting growth, jobs and the natural resource base on a sustainable footing. Done well it has the potential to release the estimated 12 trillion dollars of oceans goods and services in a sustainable way.

Governments, particularly in emerging economies, working in partnership with the private sector and need to make full use of the substantial foreign investment flows and loans available, can get ahead of the game and guide coast and ocean development in a sustainable and profitable manner.

This Blue Economy approach is key to the development of coastal, oceans, and lakeside areas, putting growth, jobs and the natural resource base on a sustainable footing.    Done well it has the potential to release the estimated 12 trillion dollars of oceans goods and services in a sustainable way.

Terry Waghorn: What could be done to bring together investment in this area to support addressing the challenges of the Blue Economy?

Chris Tomkins: We are suggesting the establishment of a Blue Economy Investment Facility (BEIF) this would mobilize greater investment to address the challenges in the Blue Economy. Such a BEIF would be created by a partnership of governments, the finance sector and other relevant stakeholders.

The aim of the BEIF in a country would be to develop a pipeline of bankable projects that catalyze sustainable investment requiring close public-private cooperation. This cooperation would inter alia utilize the UN”s  Guiding Principles on People-First Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)..

The structure of a Facility would of course depend on national circumstances. For example, Some governments have Blue Economy units which could be re-oriented towards a mandate for securing Blue investment, aligning investment partners with projects, utilising national and regional expertise and best practice, and ensuring that investments contribute to an ongoing Blue Economy process.    Governments can move quickly to such an integrated focus given that the various elements for so doing are in in place.

Terry Waghorn: Is there really a business case for Blue Economy Investment?

Felix Dodds: We do believe that the time has come for a more robust and sustainable approach to Blue Economy Investment. There are a number of underpinning and linked elements in making this cass. Perhaps the most obvious for business is managing risk.

This means proper valuing of the resources provided by oceans, coasts and lakes effectively.   We need robust valuations – and much work has been done on this which could enable is to move forward looking at the stream of ecosystem, growth and livelihood benefits, which flow from investing in the Blue Economy.

Terry Waghorn: How is this reflected in effective valuation?

Chris Tomkins: Because sustainability arguments are more effectively mainstreamed into lending decisions there is greater willingness by the private sector – corporate and institutional – as well as national and multilateral sectors and donors – to invest in sustainability over significant periods of time.

Private investment recognizes increasingly the need for longer time lines in making investment decisions consistent with the requirements of sustainability and profitability. Sustainability has become a more core concept for many businesses, as more and more, report on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues.

Terry Waghorn: What do governments need to do to enable this to happen?

Felix Dodds: Governments need to provide the right enabling environment for private investment and wider borrowing flows.  It is particularly important when much investment will be large scale and, to some extent, of the nature of a public good.

This would include major infrastructure, such as improved water quality; sewage management and storm damage control; harbour, tourism and fishing fleet development; and energy production and sustainable mining.

Finally, A Blue Economy Investment Facility and associated process would allow governments to accelerate, focus and strengthen moves towards a genuine Blue Economy approach.    They would be able to utilize their and private sector expertise and orientate, develop, and tender projects and initiatives which deliver improved livelihoods, improved environmental quality, and improved spending of investment flows.

Appropriate investment principles, recognized by the international community of donors, lenders and other investors can help consolidate the process and drive it forward in a sustainable manner.

Terry Waghorn is Founder and Managing Director of Katerva, one of the world’s largest ‘human neural networks’ dedicated to innovation. The network brings together entrepreneurs and innovators, academics and researchers, business and thought leaders, ministers and policymakers, NGOs, governments, and investors intent on improving the state of the world.

Sea level rise threatens Raolo island in the Solomon Islands. The ongoing negative effects of climate change, inadequate agricultural, industrial and household waste management, to name but a few, all threaten and undermine the promise of the Blue Economy. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS.

By Cameron Diver
NEW CALEDONIA, Nov 20 2018 (IPS)

We live on a “blue planet” where water covers around 75 percent of the Earth’s surface. Without water we would simply not survive as a species. As we strive to find pathways to and take action for inclusive sustainable development, we must ensure that our ocean, our seas, rivers, lakes, waterways and wetlands, together with their invaluable biodiversity, are preserved, sustainably used and integrated into development programming.

Above all, we should understand, value and harness these natural pillars of the Blue Economy as answers to many development challenges, as solutions to help us achieve the ambition of the Paris Agreement, deliver a new deal for nature and people, and reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Blue Economy has enormous potential as a driver of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection, but it is also faced with immense challenges.

The ongoing negative effects of climate change, inadequate agricultural, industrial and household waste management, plastic and chemical pollution, corruption and lack of robust water governance mechanisms, the alarming rate of biodiversity loss in global ecosystems and sometimes wilful ignorance of scientific evidence and advice, to name but a few, all threaten and undermine the promise of the Blue Economy.

There are inspiring examples worldwide of action to clean up waterways, restore habitat and create clean environments for economic and recreational activities. But you don’t have to be a wealthy developed country to share the same ambition or achieve similar outcomes.

Here are just a few examples from the Pacific region, whose large ocean/small island states are taking up the challenge, all the while dealing with the immediate impact of climate change, natural disasters and the very real tyranny of distance.

The Pacific Islands are uniquely vulnerable to the environmental impacts of maritime transport due to their reliance on shipping and the fact that many ports in island contexts are located both in the main urban area and in fragile coastal ecosystems like lagoons.

Through programmes like our Green Pacific Port initiative my organisation, the Pacific Community, is helping its Member States address these issues through improved efforts to increase port energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint, and enhanced environmental management including marine pollution and waste management.

In the tiny archipelago of Wallis and Futuna, the issue of used oils, batteries and saturated landfill was prioritised by local authorities due to its potential repercussions on the quality of the aquifer, lagoon and coastal water, and of course marine biodiversity.

Working alongside local communities and decision makers, our teams contributed to developing multiple measures to remove hazardous waste from the islands. A viable export business was set up to process this type of waste and, on the island of Futuna, the landfill was closed and underwent site remediation.

In the agriculture sector Pacific Island countries are also tackling threats to soil quality, plant life and water resources. In Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Samoa we are helping develop and implement innovative approaches using soft chemicals and biocides to target specific pests and diseases without affecting other forms of biodiversity and significantly lessening the environmental impact.

Alongside other partners, the Pacific Community contributed to the 2018 Pacific Marine Climate Change Report Card. The Report Card provides an easy to access summary of climate change impacts on coasts and seas in the Pacific region.

It also highlights the critical nexus between the ocean and climate change and underscores the significant threat that deteriorating marine and coastal biodiversity would present for livelihoods, health, culture, wellbeing and infrastructure.

It also proposes are range of responses Pacific Islands can adopt such as: building resilience to unavoidable climate change impacts on coral reefs, mangroves and seas grass by reducing non-climate threats and introducing protected areas; working with communities to diversify fisheries livelihoods and restore and preserve fish habitats; optimising the sustainable economic benefits from tuna through regional management.

For the large ocean/small island States of the Pacific region the ocean is at the heart of their identity: “We are the sea, we are the ocean, we must wake up to this ancient truth”. Through the Blue Pacific narrative, Oceania’s Leaders seek to harness the potential of Pacific peoples’ shared stewardship of the Pacific Ocean based on an explicit recognition of their shared ocean identity, ocean geography, and ocean resources.

The Blue Economy must therefore contribute to the Blue Pacific identity and help fulfil a higher ambition for regionalism and sustainable development based first and foremost on the deep-rooted bond between the peoples of the Pacific, the land, the ocean and biodiversity.

In this context, the Pacific Community and our partners provide scientific and technical expertise and advice for evidence-based policy making and sustainable solutions tailored to the needs of the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories. Globally, as in the Pacific, we must ensure that the Blue Economy is more than a slogan, more than a concept encouraging sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth.

It must become a concrete reality where decisions are informed by science and the best available evidence. We must use the Blue Economy so that nature and the environment are not sacrificed for short-term political or economic gain but leveraged for long-term sustainable growth and development.

We must truly transform the promise of the Blue Economy from the page and the conference hall to tangible and integrated climate action, ocean action and biodiversity action to guarantee a sustainable future for our planet and, as a consequence, ourselves.

Excerpt:

St. Lucia's iconic Pitons, a World Heritage Site, located in Soufriere in the south of the island. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been poorly placed to take advantage of the blue economy. They face acute development challenges; small population size, limited opportunities to diversify their economies, inability to achieve economies of scale in production, weak institutional capacity. Credit: Kenton X. Chance/IPS

By Cyrus Rustomjee
WINDSOR, England, Nov 20 2018 (IPS)

The blue economy—a concept and economic model that balances economic development with equity and environmental protection, and one that uses marine resources to meet current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own—is not a new idea.

Already the global blue economy, through fisheries, aquaculture, coastal and marine tourism, ports, shipping, marine renewable energy and many other activities, generates global value added of over USD1.5 trillion, a figure that is projected to double by 2030.

But so far, the world’s almost 50 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been poorly placed to take advantage of the blue economy.

They face acute development challenges; small population size, limited opportunities to diversify their economies, inability to achieve economies of scale in production, weak institutional capacity.

Many are among the world’s most remote countries with disproportionately high transport costs severely reducing opportunities for trade.

Most face disproportionately high impacts from climate change and adverse weather events. There is an irony and paradox in this: collectively, 10 Caribbean SIDS together enjoy an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 1.25 million square kilometres.

That’s a sea area exclusively available to these countries to develop, of 23 times their collective land area. For 12 Pacific SIDS the opportunity is even greater, with EEZs totalling an enormous 16.8 million square kilometres – on average 31 times their collective land area.

Constrained by these and other factors, SIDS have seen little of the potential benefits of the blue economy. But with the blue economy concept quickly gaining global attention as an opportunity for sustainable, transformative economic development, all that may soon change.

The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference (SBEC) will take place in Nairobi in late-November, bringing together almost all countries involved in the blue economy, civil society, the private sector, international financial institutions and other stakeholders.

The purpose: to find ways to accelerate the blue economy and to share more widely the prosperity, job opportunities and the promise the blue economy offers for transformative development. It’s a huge opportunity for SIDS and a potential game-changer for their future development path.

There have been many global ocean-related conferences, including several United Nations-led events, before – so what’s different about the SBEC?

For SIDS and other developing countries, for the first time global focus will move beyond an overarching preoccupation with one critical component of the blue economy on which all stakeholders agree – the urgent and imperative quest to protect the world’s oceans and waterways from further deterioration and to restore ocean health. Focus will also be on identifying how to best increase growth and jobs, reduce poverty and make blue economy opportunities available to a much wider range of countries and stakeholders.

For SIDS, the opportunity and the stakes could not be higher. A successful conference could help unshackle many of the constraints that have long held back their blue economy aspirations. It sets a course for a long-term systematic transformation from terrestrially-based economies, to ocean economies that integrate land, coast and sea space; and could put in motion a sustained process of transition.

Dr Cyrus Rustomjee says for SIDS, the opportunity and the stakes at Sustainable Blue Economy Conference could not be higher. A successful conference could help unshackle many of the constraints that have long held back their blue economy aspirations. Courtesy: Cyrus Rustomjee

Four key outcomes from the SBEC will serve as critical measures of success for SIDS and as key pointers to the pace and scale of their future progress toward the blue economy.

First, renewed, repositioned partnerships for SIDS. Through the U.N. SIDS and Ocean conferences, over 1,400 SIDS partnerships have already been established, with about a third focused on Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Underwater. But most focus on knowledge transfer and the bulk are yet to be implemented. Success at the SBEC will see accelerated implementation of existing commitments and the establishment of more partnerships directly focused on creating and supporting marine and coastal projects in SIDS.

Second, strengthened regional and international initiatives to ensure effective cross-border and multi-jurisdictional governance and oversight of the blue economy. The blue economy has little respect for national borders. Several fish species are themselves highly migratory and many blue economy activities, including fisheries, require cross-border, multi-jurisdictional oversight and cooperation. Overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, for example, have all severely limited SIDS and other developing countries’ ability to reap the full gains from fisheries. For SIDS, a successful SBEC will see many regional and international agreements across all traditional and emerging blue economy activities tightened, rationalised, simplified and made more effective.

Third, improving SIDS’ access to the scientific know-how, research and marine technologies needed to engage in emerging sectors of the blue economy, such as technologies to harness opportunities from marine biotechnology, bio-prospecting, marine renewable energy and seabed mining. These have remained largely the preserve of advanced economies. New initiatives agreed at the SBEC, to share these more widely, coupled with signature of a series of access and benefit sharing agreements that see a larger share of revenues and jobs from joint initiatives accruing to SIDS, will be a strong marker of success.

Fourth, new traditional and innovative sources of finance. Investing in the blue economy can come at high cost, particularly in investing in port infrastructure, marine transport and emerging sectors such as biotechnology and minerals prospecting.

And although international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the Caribbean, African and Asian Development Banks, and some SIDS themselves have successfully scaled up sources and volumes of blue finance, more needs to be done to establish the infrastructure needed to tap the transformative potential of the blue economy for SIDS.

SBEC outcomes that result in wider sharing of SIDS’ experiences in attracting innovative finance, particularly inter-regional sharing, together with greater uptake of existing international finance institutions, blue finance can both directly help accelerate progress for SIDS.

The full and multiple opportunities offered by the blue economy for transformation remain elusive for SIDS and have yet to be realised. These include:

• sustained, higher levels of output and growth;
• a transformation from terrestrially-based, low-wage to higher wage employment;
• a steady shift to higher value added production;
• greater diversification and external competitiveness;
• large-scale increases in infrastructure and investment;
• reduced reliance on imported energy, diversification; and
• reduced poverty and inequality.

All eyes are now on the SBEC in November, to see if the arc of sustainable development and resilience for SIDS can be shifted and their journey to the sustainable blue economy accelerated. For SIDS, the time for the blue economy is now.

Excerpt:

People at Gasi Beach in Kwale County, on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, wait for fishermen to buy their daily catch. Demand for fish in Kenya is on the rise courtesy of fast population growth of around three percent per year and increased awareness of the nutritional value of fish. Credit: Diana Wanyonyi/IPS

By Justus Wanzala
KISUMU/VIHIGA, Kenya, Nov 19 2018 (IPS)

Despite the humid late October midday weather in Kisumu County near the shores of Lake Victoria, Jane Kisia is busy walking around her fish ponds feeding her fish. As she rhythmically throws handfuls of pellets into the ponds, located within her homestead, the fish ravenously gobble them up.

Kisia, a retired teacher, has been rearing fish for six years. In 2016 she was enlisted in the Kenya Market-led Aquaculture Programme (KMAP), to boost aquaculture and protect Lake Victoria’s dwindling stocks. KMAP, which runs from 2016-2019, is a programme by Farm Africa, a charity organisation. It covers 14 counties in Kenya’s central and Lake Victoria regions.

“KMAP has been providing training on aquaculture which has enabled me to harness the sector’s opportunities,” Kisia tells IPS.

Aside from just the training, KMAP has also given her a valuable link to traders. “When my fish mature, buyers are just a phone call away,” says Kisia.

In her five ponds, she rears Tilapia and some Catfish. She harvests them twice a year and makes between Kenya Shillings 150,000 – 200,000 (USD 1,500 -2000).

Demand for fish in Kenya is on the rise courtesy of fast population growth of around three percent per year and increased awareness of the nutritional value of fish.

Unfortunately, the country’s fish production is heavily reliant on wild fish caught in its lakes whose stocks are sharply declining. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in April reported that over the last five years fish landed, including from lakes, marine source and fish farming, has declined from over 163,000 tons in 2013 to 135,000 tons last year. This has led to scarcity and high costs.

The scenario is unfolding despite the country having over 1.14 million hectares of land ideal for aquaculture as per the 2017 Aquaculture Report of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI).

Not even a government programme to boost the aquaculture sector that saw 48,000 fish ponds across the country almost a decade ago solved the problem of low fish supply. This is because the programme had only shown people how to dig ponds and stock them with fingerlings. While a few training sessions were held, the beneficiaries of those programmes were largely left to themselves.

An integrated fish and poultry rearing system. Poultry houses are built above fish ponds for chicken droppings to supplement feeds. NGO Farm Africa, are training rural farmers in Kenya’s 14 counties on how to start their own fish farms. The country’s fish production is heavily reliant on wild fish caught in its lakes whose stocks are sharply declining. Credit: Justus Wanzala/IPS

Teddy Nyanapa, Farm Africa’s coordinator, tells IPS they empower rural farmers through closely engaging with them, monitoring their progress, providing technical expertise, advice on markets and natural resources preservation. He adds that they also lobby for an improved legislative environment for the sector.

Nyanapa explains that the programme encompasses all players in the fish value chain. These include farmers, feed manufacturers and fish traders.

He says apart from fish husbandry practices, farmers are also trained on book keeping and financial matters. They have enlisted some 1,100 farmers.

Each of the 14 counties has agents who assist farmers in adhering to best practices. “The agents are aquaculture extensionists, mostly recent graduates from colleges, for we need personnel to promote aquaculture adoption with zeal,” Nyanapa tells IPS. This level of engagement is believed to be the reason for the success of this project.

He observes that fingerlings are in low supply, stating that there are only 12 official hatcheries in Kenya.

KMAP works with three large capacity feed manufacturers. They have been trained on feed quality standards and palpability.

Nyanapa laments that there is no standard size for juvenile fish sold to farmers, with some sold so small that they rarely survive, which causes losses.

He agrees with the three farmers that the cost of feed is a huge challenge, as it can account for 70 percent of the farming costs.

“We rely on commercial feeds which are costly, yet sometimes quality is poor and supply inconsistent,” explains Kisia.

At Ebenezer Children’s Home and Life Centre, a boarding school for both primary and secondary school children, KMAP is working with its management on an aquaculture initiative for nutrition and commercial purposes.

Martha Achieng, a teacher/farm manager at Ebenezer Children’s Home and Life Centre, which is also based in Kisumu County, says they started aquaculture in 2012.

“The initial aim was to rear fish for food, given that some of the children are living with HIV/AIDS, but after our first harvest we sold the surplus and made Kenya Shillings 200,000 (2,000 USD) and realised it is a lucrative venture,” Achieng tells IPS.

The centre which has some 1,000 pupils, has six ponds stocked with Tilapia and Catfish.

Achieng says that since wild fish stocks are dwindling, the government should subsidise the costs borne by aquaculture farmers.

“There is need for a shift in policy by curbing Chinese fish imports and lowering the cost of inputs to tap the huge potential of aquaculture,” she adds.

Locally there has been much controversy about Kenya’s importation of fish from China, which was used to fill the gap as the country’s own fish stocks have declined. According to United Nations commercial data, in 2017 Kenya imported USD 21 million of fish from China.

However, this October, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta proposed banning these imports that were competing with the livelihoods of local fishers.

But some local fish farmers under KMAP are opting to go large scale, thereby marginally increasing the local supply of fish.

Stephen Lukorito, a Farm Africa agent in neighbouring Vihiga County, says there are some 100 fish farmers in the county. He says the potential for aquaculture is huge.

Beauty Farm in Vihiga County has five ponds that serve as a training centre for youth keen on practicing aquaculture.

Wilson Ananda, the farm manager, tells IPS that the demand for fish in the area is so huge that every time they harvest, the whole catch is bought by local community members.

Also in Vihiga County, a farm run by a company called Bunyore Riverside Development (BRAD) rears over 19,000 fish in six ponds of 60 x 30 metres. It has an integrated fish and poultry rearing system. Poultry houses are built above fish ponds and chicken droppings create algae in the water, on which the fish feed.

Emmanuel Simiyu, BRAD’s manager, says they supply their fish to hotels, restaurants, schools and hospitals. He adds that they face a challenge of ready supply of fingerlings and will soon venture into their production.

Other organisations have partnered with KMAP to offer support on hatcheries management, monitoring and evaluation, while some like the World Fish Centre provide advice on suitability of various fish species in different ecological zones.

And training has been extended to government fisheries officers: 28 have been trained in the Lake Victoria region on modern aquaculture technologies.

Some farmers are also selected and trained as peer mentors.

Nyanapa says that before the project closes they want to mobilise farmers to work in clusters or groups to purchase inputs and access markets and finance.

Ultimately there is the hope that the fish farms will remain a thriving success once the project has ended. It brings Kenya one step closer to increasing its own production of fish.

While Africa is bordered by two oceans and two seas, African-owned ships account for a tiny fraction – just over 1 percent - of the world’s shipping. Much of Sierra Leone’s indigenous fishing continues to be carried out by traditional methods and, aside from boats’ engines, remains unmechanised and labour intensive. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS

By Ambassador Macharia Kamau
NAIROBI, Nov 15 2018 (IPS)

For many years now, the economic potential of the African continent has been discussed, promoted and hailed by everyone from economists to policymakers to world leaders – and with very good reason. After all, Africa is a vast, populous, developing continent with enormous natural and human resource riches and a raft of rapidly developing economies which are helping create prosperity and raise living standards and social opportunities through economic growth.

But those discussions and promotions have often focused heavily, if not exclusively, on the land-based economies of the continent, and little has been said about the equally vast potential of Africa’s blue economy.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi from 26 to 28 Nov., is helping to bring this potential into focus – and not just for Africa, but for the entire global community – by highlighting the economic opportunities the world’s oceans, seas and rivers offer.

The global blue economy, by some estimates, generates up to USD 6 trillion for the global economy and, if it were a country, would be the seventh-largest economy is the world. It helps drive economic growth and provides jobs for hundreds of millions around the world, often to those in the poorest communities, in industries as diverse as fishing, transport, tourism, off-shore mining and others.

Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Principal Secretary, at Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the coordinating Ministry of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, says more could be done by African nations to develop the continent’s blue economies.

But its potential is, so far, being underexploited in the countries which it could help most. This is no better exemplified than in Africa where almost three quarters of countries have a coastline or are islands, where the continent’s total coastline is over 47,000 km and with 13 million km2 of collective exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

Yet despite this, maritime trade among African countries makes up only just over 10 percent of total trade by volume. And while Africa is bordered by two oceans and two seas, African-owned ships account for a tiny fraction – just over 1 percent – of the world’s shipping. The International Energy Agency says ocean renewable energy can potentially supply more than four times current global energy demand. Africa could provide a significant share of that, but many renewable energy projects on the continent have so far focused on wind and solar or other renewable energy sources.

By any standards, Africa is at least underusing, possibly even drastically wasting, its blue economy potential. This must be rectified. By some estimates, the African maritime industry is already worth USD 1 trillion annually. But, with the right economic policies implemented, it could triple in just two years.

The good news is that Kenya, and other countries in Africa, are on the way to taking advantage of the blue economy’s potential and diversifying their economies to include a greater ‘blue’ share.

For instance, the Seychelles has established a Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy while the African Union has put the blue economy at the heart of its 2063 development agenda. In South Africa, a national development plan includes a key focus on the blue economy which is projected to add USD 13 billion to the nation’s economy and create a million new jobs by 2030.

This is all very encouraging, but more could, and should, be done by African nations to develop the continent’s blue economies.

Kenya, as co-host of this conference, is looking to lead the way in developing the blue economy’s potential, not just for itself, but for the rest of Africa and the entire global community.

But we can only do this with other countries. Thankfully, the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference provides an excellent opportunity for other countries, such as co-hosts Canada and Japan. Canada are further along with their integration of the blue economy into their wider economies – from the breadth and size of their shipping and fishing industry to innovative recycling projects that help clean the ocean as well as providing work in coastal communities – to exchange ideas and experiences, as well as technical advances, with states who are just beginning the expansion of their blue economy activities.

The conference will also provide a timely and much-needed opportunity for countries to look together at how both the private and public sector can help finance initiatives and projects in various blue economy sectors to achieve the best effect.

Indeed, the private sector’s contribution to the development of the blue economy, especially in poorer nations with more limited means to diversify their economies, is crucial. In some states, the public sector would be unable to shoulder such a financial burden on its own and innovative methods of finance will be necessary.

This, of course, is not to play down the importance of the kind of bold initiatives like the ‘blue bonds’ issued by the Seychelles to support its efforts in the blue economy.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will provide an excellent opportunity to hear about and discuss projects around the world which are both exploiting the economic potential of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, but at the same time helping protect and conserve them. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

But while the economic potential of the blue economy is clear, and the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will help underline it, we must not forget the most important part of this economy – that it is sustainable. And it must remain so.

For all the economic opportunity it offers, the blue economy will deliver nothing if it is seen simply as an economic resource to be plundered for monetary gain.

Yes, like any economy, it can help to drive greater prosperity and raise living standards, creating jobs and wealth. But those jobs and the industries that support them, must be fostered and developed on the basis of long-term environmental sustainability.

This conference will provide an excellent opportunity to hear about and discuss projects around the world which are both exploiting the economic potential of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, but at the same time helping protect and conserve them and discuss the best ways to put similar projects into practice, and to provide guidelines and draw up regulations to help ensure that economic growth, jobs and wealth are not being created at the expense of the environment.

This first Sustainable Blue Economy Conference  is a chance to set a course for an environmentally sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for Kenya, other African states and nations around the world. Kenya is proud that it will be at the helm as this journey starts in Nairobi.

Excerpt:

Peter Thomson, the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean. Credit: UNDP / Freya Morales

By Carmen Arroyo
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 14 2018 (IPS)

When Peter Thomson, the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, heard in 2010 there was going to be a 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, he knew he had to include the ocean question.

Thomson had just been appointed Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. that year. He had a long career as a civil servant for the Republic of Fiji, and was a diplomatic personality. So the work at the U.N. suited him.

At that time, the health of the ocean was becoming a priority among representatives from islands worldwide. So when the opportunity to impress this issue to the world came his way, Thomson did not miss it.

Thomson, along other representatives from the Pacific Islands, started to push for the inclusion of an ocean goal within the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Soon enough, other countries joined them. In 2015, they succeeded.

Now SDG14 reads: “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

In September 2016, Thomson became President of the 71st session of the U.N. General Assembly. The ocean was still a top concern of his. While other SDGs had supporting mechanisms in place (like the World Health Organisation for health or the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N. for food,) the ocean lacked a supporting mechanism.

So in June 2017, the U.N. Ocean Conference to implement SDG14 was held, with representatives from NGOs, firms, governments, and civil society.

Later that year, the Secretary General appointed Thomson as the Special Envoy for the Ocean, a task he was happy to take on.

Now, Thomson is working towards the implementation of some of the targets of SDG14 that mature in 2020. They include ending overfishing and protecting marine ecosystems. The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference that will take place in Nairobi by the end of the month will address these issues.

Thomson travels constantly for his job, and by the end of the week he is inevitably tired. However, his passion over ocean conservancy does not waiver. So when IPS asks him what his biggest concern is, he quickly replies: “At 3AM when I stare at the ceiling and worry about my grandchildren, I worry most about climate change. Because that is the course which we are now set upon.”

The Blue Economy presents a challenge of how to ensure economic development that is both inclusive and environmentally sound. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

Excerpts of the interview below:

Inter Press Service (IPS): What is your goal for the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi?

Peter Thomson (PT): The Nairobi conference is hosted by the governments of Kenya and Canada, and some other governments have given their support, including Japan. It’s not a U.N. conference, but it’s a very important conference. It’s the first time an Ocean Conference is being held on the African continent.

This is about the balance between protection and production of the ocean. In the case of the Nairobi conference, it’s not just the ocean, it’s lakes and rivers as well. It’s about SDG14’s goal to conserve but also to sustainably use the ocean’s resources. It’s about that balance.

IPS: In recent years, the U.N. has held a number of conferences and talks on the ocean. Do you think public opinion has changed?

PT: Yes, hugely. I compliment the media on that. Now, there are programmes on television and radio. Five years ago this was not the case, three years ago this was not the case. Today, ocean’s problems and solutions are on everybody’s lips. So I definitely think that this is much larger in the public perception as it used to be. As it should be, because the climate and the ocean are the two fundamentals on which life on this planet exists. Every breath that we take comes from oxygen created by the ocean.

IPS: How exactly are people more aware?

PT: Everyone is aware that there has to be a component of ocean action in their work for it to be regarded as complete. I can give no better example than marine plastic pollution. Everybody is now engaged in this battle against single use plastic. That has raised global consciousness, no doubt. But it doesn’t stop there. We have all the SDG 14 targets to attend to.

That is my job, to make people aware that is not just one or two issues on the ocean, it’s a gamut of issues for which we have targets. The other important part of our message is that we are continuing to see a decline in ocean’s health. Now our primary attention is in the implementation of that plan.

IPS: SDG14 is closely intertwined with the other SDGs. How do you work with them?

PT: When we do our ocean work, we think about the other SDGs. For example, SDG12, changing consumption and production patterns, is the core of 2030 agenda. If humanity doesn’t move away from unsustainable consumption and production patterns, we are stealing from our grandchildren.

Everything we are doing in SDG14 is about harmony with SDG12. But all SDGs relate in some way to the ocean. We are doing our bit and helping them, and everything they are doing is helping us. I don’t feel any artificial barriers at all.

IPS: You work with governments, the private sector, NGOs… As of now, are there countries that are doing nothing?

PT: Even landlocked countries have skin in the game, because they eat fish and breath oxygen. This is something that every human being should find relevant. This is work for the future, not the present.

IPS: And the private sector? How do you work with them towards SDG14?

PT: The co-presidents of the U.N. Ocean Conference of 2017 were Fiji and Sweden. I was then the Fiji ambassador to the U.N., and the Swedish Minister who was active was Isabella Lövin. She and I went to Davos in January in the wake of the Ocean conference, and we asked the World Economic Forum to serve as secretariat to a group called Friends of Ocean Action. The group was formed by leaders from firms, intergovernmental organisations, and academic institutions. This has proved a very good way of maintaining the involvement of the private sector in the implementation of SDG14.

IPS: What about NGOs?

PT: They’ve played a huge role in raising awareness of the need to put in place measures to assure that humanity doesn’t destroy the place where we live. If left unchecked we probably would.

IPS: And then there’s individuals. How can we contribute to the solution in our daily lives?

PT: Every human being has skin in the game here. Every breath we take comes from the ocean. I am no angel. I have been part of the problem. But for example I haven’t owned an internal combustion engine car in this century.

I love a hamburger as much as the next guy. But two years ago, my wife and I looked at our grandchildren and at what the beef industry was doing in the world. We love our grandchildren more than we love beef. So we gave up beef. It is a personal choice.

The same goes for single-use plastic. I am old enough to know a time when there was none of that nonsense of plastic covering everything. Who asked for it? We didn’t ask for it as consumers. Who is putting this on us?

IPS: What can we do as consumers?

PT: Consumers have the responsibility of speaking up. When I walk into a supermarket, I demand they keep the plastic they put around the product I wanna buy. Sometimes it has a plastic film around it, so it lasts for three months. But I don’t want it for three months! I want it for today. I rip it off, I give it to the cashier and say ‘that’s yours not mine’. If all consumers acted like that, you’d have a quick reaction in board rooms.

Excerpt:

Fishermen on the Ugandan side of Lake Victoria. Uganda has ventured into non-traditional methods of fishing on the lake with a few of companies using cage fishing. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

By Wambi Michael
JINJA, Uganda, Nov 12 2018 (IPS)

Colvince Mubiru had heard about cage fish farming on Uganda’s lakes. The small business owner decided to try his hand at it and spent USD8,000 to set up farming cages for Nile Tilapia on Lake Victoria, expecting to reap a huge profit. But just six months into his enterprise, he made huge losses.

“It was too costly to manage so I could not continue because I could have lost all I had,” Mubiru tells IPS.

Both Uganda and neighbouring Kenya have introduced cage fish farming as a sustainable method of ensuring a steady supply of fish stock from Lake Victoria.

Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria, is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. It has, according to the Lake Victoria Fisheries Management Plan III, “experienced dramatic ecosystem change over time resulting into loss of more than 500 endemic haplochromine fish species.”

Uganda began promoting cage fish farming in 2006. Cage culture encloses the fish in a cage or basket made up of floats, anchors and a frame, submerged to a depth of 10 metres.

In Uganda, small tilapia of no less than one gram are stocked in nursery cages at a density of 1,000 – 2,500 fish. These are reared to at least 15 grams in eight weeks, graded, and stocked in production cages and then reared for a further six to seven months to reach a weight of 350-600 grams before they are harvested.

Fifty-two-year-old Joseph Okeny first became a fisherman on Lake Victoria in 1997. But he abandoned wild fishing two years ago at a time when illegal fishing methods were rife and fish were scarce in Lake Victoria. He has since started a boat cruising business instead.

“You could stay on the lake for almost the entire day but could not get enough fish for consumption at home and for sale,” Okeny tells IPS.

But things have changed since Okeny stopped fishing for a living. According to the Status of Fish Stocks in Lake Victoria 2017, released in December by the NaFIRRI of Uganda, the Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) of Kenya and the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI), fish stocks in the lake have recovered by 30 percent compared to 2016 figures.

This also included the stock of Nile perch, a fish not native to the lake, which was introduced in the 1960s.

The increase in stock is noted also in a study by the Makerere University-based Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), which said aquaculture fish production in Uganda alone increased from approximately 10,000 MT per annum in 2005 to approximately 100,000 MT per annum in 2013 – accounting for around 20 percent of the total national fish production in Uganda. The study said 899 tonnes of fish were being produced in Uganda from cages in every six- to eight-month production cycle.

It also stated that there were 28 registered cage culture farmers in Uganda, with a total of 2,135 cages around Lake Victoria alone. However, KMFRI reported last month that this figure is now close to 3,696.

IPS travelled to Uganda’s Jinja district area on Lake Victoria and discovered that six cage fish farms are owned by foreign investors.

The largest of the six sells fish retail to residents around Bugungu where it has established several nursery ponds. It exports the rest to Kenya, DRC and Europe.

Asked why there were no local fish farmers with established cages on the lake, Okeny believes that adopting that technology requires financing that locals cannot afford.

Aside from the cost of the cage, which can start at USD 350, seed or fingerlings, depending on the size, can cost about USD 270, according to Uganda’s National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFIRRI). There is also the added cost of feed for the fish.

Fish farming cage on Lake Victoria. Cage culture encloses the fish in a cage or basket made up of floats, anchors and a frame, submerged to a depth of 10 metres. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

Dr. Richard Ogutu-Ohwayo, a Fish Biology and Ecology specialist with NaFIRRI, has worked in Uganda’s fisheries research for over 40 years, and agrees with Okeny about the cost.

“Cage fish farming is extremely expensive and you are keeping fish in a small area. If you don’t look after them very well, it is not only the environment which is going to lose, but you are also going to lose,” Ogutu-Ohwayo tells IPS.

“It is not cheap when compared to farming in ponds. And that is why cage fish farming must be practiced as a business just like you rear broiler chicken,” says Ogutu-Ohwayo.

Pointing to an abandoned cage floating within the area allocated to fish cages of an international company, Okeny says some locals tried to invest in cages but got their fingers burnt.

“They thought that cage fish farming brings money and they also started fish farming without having enough capital to buy feed,” explains Okeny.

“These people started without consulting those who have experience. So they failed and most of them withdrew from the business. So that is why you see only one cage remaining,” says Okeny.

Researchers of the survey “Prospects of Cage Fish Farming in South Western Uganda” published in June suggest that lack of funds is the main constraint in cage aquaculture and not lack of feed and fingerlings, as has been suggested in other studies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Gerald Kwikirizaa, one of those involved in the survey, told IPS that the results suggested that lack of funds to purchase inputs was the main constraint in cage aquaculture in South Western Uganda.

He suggested that the government could boost cage fish farming through subsidising feed cost for small-holders, especially if quality floating feed is produced locally.

This cage fish farmer plans to harvest fish from the fishing cages on Lake Victoria. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

Fishery development is one of the key global development goals in Agenda 2030, which comprises the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with countries seeking to support the restoration of fish stocks to improve safe and diversified healthy diets.

Ending hunger, securing food supplies and promoting good health and sustainable fisheries are among the topics to be discussed at the first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference being held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28. Over 7,000 participants from 150 countries will be discussing, among other things, how to build safe and resilient communities and to ensure healthy and productive waters.

According to Ogutu-Ohwaayo, cage fish farming is common in the Great Lakes of North America. He said Africa should utilise its inland waters to produce more fish instead of relying on declining wild fish populations.

He added that if properly and systematically developed, it can be another means of food production, explaining that 21 percent of Uganda is made up of fresh water, meaning land for food production is scarce. “So we must use our water to produce food. And cage fish farming is one way of using our waters, in addition to other services, to actually produce food,” Ogutu-Ohwayo further explains.

He said Uganda’s population, which is growing at over three percent a year, cannot survive only on wild fishing, which has stagnated.

Ogutu-Ohwayo said aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry in the world and provides an option for meeting the deficit in fish production.

Uganda’s fisheries production for capture fisheries and aquaculture is estimated at 400,000 tons per year, which is not sufficient to meet growing demand. The six kg per capita fish consumption is far below the FAO-WHO recommended level of 17.5 kg.

“My conviction is that Africa should not be left behind in cage fish farming. And we have the capacity not to be left behind if we do it well,” said Ogutu-Ohwayo, also a board member of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), a scientific organisation made up of researchers studying the Laurentian Great Lakes, other large lakes of the world, and their watersheds.

There have been regional efforts to address the declining fish stocks through innovative technologies.

Ogutu-Ohwa told IPS that he is mobilising fellow researchers from the African Great Lakes region to develop best practices for what he described as an “important emerging production industry.”

“You must follow best management practices. Just like you would manage a zero-grazing cow. You must put in adequate management. We as scientists are doing our best to develop these best management practices,” says Ogutu-Ohwayo.

A project known as Promoting Environmentally, Economically and Socially Sustainable Cage Aquaculture on the African Great Lakes (PESCA) is part of the efforts to address social and environmental concerns related to cage culture.

It operates in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi and generally in the African Great Lakes. PESCA has been operational since the beginning of June 2018.

“There have been concerns that cage fish farming is going to spoil the quality of the water. We want to develop tools that would promote cage fish farming in an environmentally and social way,” said Ogutu-Ohwayo.

Meanwhile, Okeny tells IPS that the introduction of cage fish farming and the efforts by the government to fight illegal fishing seem to be paying off.“Now when people go fishing they come back with good fish because that bad practice has been controlled,” says Okeny

He has seen the negative and positive aspects of cage fishing farming. “I think cage fish farming is very productive going by the amount of fish harvested by [a cage fishing company] fish. And because of that, they are paying their workers very well,” Okeny tells IPS as he docks his boat after a busy day.

Japan joins Kenya as a co-host of the Blue Economy Conference. Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma (left) met the Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on October 6, 2018 in Tokyo. Credit: The Nation

By Siddharth Chatterjee and Toshitsugu Uesawa
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 6 2018 (IPS)

With good reason, Africa is excited over the prospects of sharing in the multi-trillion maritime industry, with the continent’s Agenda 2063 envisioning the blue economy as a foremost contributor to transformation and growth.

The United Nations has described Africa’s oceans, lakes and rivers as the “new frontier of the African renaissance”.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is happening in Nairobi from 26 November to 28 November 2018. We commend the Governments Kenya and Canada for spearheading this important initiative.

The UN family is pleased to be part of this and Japan is honoured to join this as a co-host.

The theme of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference and the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, will focus on new technologies and innovation for oceans, seas, lakes and rivers as well as the challenges, potential opportunities, priorities and partnerships.

Ambassador Toshitsugu Uesawa

“The conference presents immense opportunities for the growth of our economy especially sectors such as fisheries, tourism, maritime transport, off-shore mining among others in a way that the land economy has failed to do,” said Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Principle Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kenya.

The conference is anchored on the two conceptual pillars of: Sustainability, Climate Change and Controlling Pollution, and Production, Accelerated Economic Growth, Jobs and Poverty Alleviation.

Consider the potential: more than half of the countries in the continent are coastal and island states. Africa has a coastline of over 47,000 km and 13 million km2 of collective exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

Yet, very little of the potential of the blue economy is actually exploited. It is estimated that Africa’s coastline currently hosts a maritime industry worth $1 trillion per year, but could potentially be worth almost three times that in just two years’ time.

As the continent looks at the promise of prosperity from its maritime resources, it must keep an eye trained on the dangers that lurk when such resources are not properly managed.

With the narrative of oil discoveries, sustainable exploitation based on enforcement of national and international legislation must guide any strategies for exploitation of the blue economy.

Siddharth Chatterjee

Current realities in the sector justify the cautious approach: as a result of over-exploitation of the region’s fish stocks, it is estimated that Africa is losing US 1.3 billion dollars every year.

Globally, laissez faire activities around marine resources result in pollution that compromise biodiversity and human health. It is estimated for instance that between five and 13 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year, causing at least $13 billion annually in economic losses.

For the more than one-quarter of Africa’s population that lives within 100 km of the coast and derive their livelihoods there, climate change, rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification and rising sea levels, all present further challenges.

These are the challenges that SDG 14 on conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources seeks to confront.

It is clear that if the continent is to establish a viable blue economy, African countries must begin with focus on the current limited infrastructure and capacities to assure maritime security and coastal protection.

The second imperative is to establish partnerships, including innovative financing models, preferably driven by the private sector.

The initial signs are encouraging. Already, more than half of the countries in Africa have adopted the African Charter on Maritime Security and Development (“Lomé Charter”), agreeing on continent-wide marine protection and security measures. This will include cooperation in training, establishment of national maritime coordination agencies, and most importantly, harmonisation of national maritime legislation.

The above will be part of the continent’s long term vision for the development of the blue economy, elaborated well in the Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIM Strategy).

We must come together to deal with the complexity of the task ahead. Challenges abound in the numerous negotiations, planning, coordination and stakeholder engagement tasks that must be achieved first.

Investors will be convinced in participating in the African blue economy, when some of the above are taken care of. The absence of data, policy and legal frameworks will be obvious impediments to the large-scale maritime infrastructure investments needed to realize the ambitious goals of the 2050 AIM Strategy.

At the internationalSustainable Blue Economy Conference that takes place in Nairobi, many investors and countries will have an opportunity to examine which sector of the blue economy they can realistically focus public and private investments in.

With proper regulatory frameworks, the blue economy sector will not only present pathways out of poverty for the continent, but they will also ensure an environmentally sustainable future.

The Blue Economy can be a driver of Africa’s structural transformation, sustainable economic progress, and social development.

Excerpt:

The Fisheries Sector in the Caribbean Community is an important source of income. Four Caribbean countries have done an inventory of the major sources of mercury contamination in their islands. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Jewel Fraser
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Nov 5 2018 (IPS)

Four Caribbean countries have done an inventory of the major sources of mercury contamination in their islands, but a great deal of work still needs to be done to determine where and what impact this mercury is having on the region’s seafood chain.

Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and St. Lucia recently concluded a Minamata Initial Assessment project, funded by the Global Environment Facility, that enabled them to identify their top mercury polluters. The assessment represents a major step for the countries, all of which share the global concern over mercury contamination of the seafood chain that led to the ratification in August 2017 of the United Nation’s Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Public education on the issue is vital, said Tahlia Ali Shah, the assessment’s project execution officer. “When mercury is released it eventually enters the land or soil or waterways. It becomes a problem when it enters the waterways and it moves up the food chain. Mercury tends to bioaccumulate up the food chain,” she said.

“So if people continue to eat larger predatory fish over a period of time” the levels of mercury in their body could increase. Mercury poisoning can lead to physical and mental disability.

Ali Shah works for the regional project’s implementing agency, the Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean (BCRC), which held a seminar in Trinidad in early October to apprise members of the public about the dangers posed by mercury. The seminar also shared with participants some of the results of the initial assessment and what citizens can do to help reduce mercury in the environment. The four countries plan to roll out public awareness campaigns on the issue, Ali Shah said.

Meanwhile, Jewel Batchasingh, the centre’s acting director, is concerned that the public not overreact to the fear of mercury contamination. She pointed out that fishing and tourism are important industries for the region, “and people tend to panic when they hear about mercury in fish.”

For now, no fish species commonly eaten in the Caribbean has been flagged as a danger,  Ali Shah told IPS. “It is only after years of testing the fish and narrowing down the species that we will be able to better inform consumers in the Caribbean about which fish are safest to eat and give fish guidelines.”

She said the current fish matrix developed by the Biodiversity Research Institute to provide guidance regarding safe consumption levels for various species does not readily apply to the Caribbean. A similar matrix is used by the United States Food and Drug Administration to provide guidance to U.S. consumers.

The main source of mercury contamination for Trinidad and Tobago is its oil and gas industry, which is responsible for over 70 percent of the mercury released into that country’s environment. For Jamaica, the important bauxite industry is the main source of mercury pollution, whereas for St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia, the main source of contamination is consumer products.

Though St. Kitts and Nevis and Jamaica are parties to the Minamata Convention, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia are exploring what steps need to be taken to become signatories.

St. Lucia wanted to take part in the MIA as a preliminary step. It recognised “that the problem of mercury pollution is a global problem that cannot be addressed adequately without the cooperation of all countries and that our population and environment was not immune to the negative impacts of mercury, [so] we wanted to be a part of the solution by ratifying the Convention,” said Yasmin Jude, sustainable development and environment officer and the national project coordinator for St. Lucia’s assessment.

“However, it was important to us that the decision to do so was from an informed position regarding our national situation and in particular, capability to implement the obligations articulated in the Convention.”

The MIA helped Saint Lucia “to get information on the primary sources of Hg [mercury] releases and emissions in the country, as well as an appreciation of the gaps in the existing regulatory and institutional frameworks as it relates to the implementation of the country’s legal obligations under the Minamata Convention on Mercury”, on its way to becoming a signatory, Jude explained to IPS via e-mail.

She added that at this stage “it is premature” for St. Lucia to state what its goals are with regard to controlling mercury contamination or to give a timeline for reduction of mercury in the environment, but the government’s chief concern is to ensure “a safe and healthy environment for our people.”

On the other hand, St. Kitts and Nevis, as a signatory to the Convention, “will adhere to the timelines for certain actions as laid out in the Minamata Convention,” Dr. Marcus Natta, research manager and the national project coordinator for St. Kitts and Nevis, told IPS. He said, “We will endeavour to meet the obligations of the Convention through legislative means, awareness and education activities, and other innovative and feasible actions.”

Keima Gardiner, waste management specialist and national project coordinator for the Trinidad and Tobago project, said one of the biggest challenges her country will face in becoming a signatory to the convention “is to phase out the list of mercury-added products” that signatories are required to eliminate by 2020. “This is very close for us. We are a high importer of CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs and these bulbs are actually on that list of products to be phased out.”

As for the energy sector, which the recently concluded assessment shows is the country’s main mercury polluter, “the idea is to try and meet with them directly to try and encourage them to change their practices and use more environmentally friendly techniques…and monitor their emissions,” Gardiner said.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 4,000 participants from around the world are coming together to learn how to build a blue economy.

Stingrays, which can be found in the Indian Ocean which surrounds the Seychelles. This flattened fish is closely related to sharks. The Seychelles has become the first country in the world to issue a blue bond, focused on funding sustainable use of marine resources. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Oct 31 2018 (IPS)

The Republic of Seychelles announced on Monday that it has issued a 10-year blue bond to finance fisheries projects, making it the world’s first country to utilise capital markets for funding the sustainable use of marine resources.

Seychelles Vice President Vincent Meriton told IPS that the bond was officially issued Oct. 9 and that its sales have so far raised 15 million dollars from three institutional investors: Calvert Impact Capital, Nuveen, and Prudential.

“At least 12 million dollars of the proceeds will be allocated for low-interest loans and grants to local fishermen communities, while the remainder will finance research on sustainable fisheries projects,” Meriton told IPS in a telephone interview on Sunday.

The news comes ahead of the first-ever global conference on the blue economy, which will be held at the end of November in Kenya.

Participants from around the globe will gather in the country’s capital, Nairobi, and attend the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference to discuss ways of building a blue economy that harnesses the potential of oceans, lakes and rivers and improves the lives of all.

At the conference participants will also showcase latest innovations, scientific advances and best practices to develop economies while conserving the world’s waters.

The Seychelles’ blue bond will likely be a mechanism of great interest to participants.

“We are honoured to be the first nation to pioneer such a novel financing instrument,” Meriton said when announcing the bond on the first day of the Our Ocean Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, a one-hour flight east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

“The blue bond, which is part of an initiative that combines public and private investment to mobilise resources for empowering local communities and businesses, will greatly assist Seychelles in achieving a transition to sustainable fisheries and safeguarding our oceans while we sustainably develop our blue economy,” Meriton continued.

Grants and loans to Seychelles fisher communities would be provided through the Blue Grants Fund and Blue Investment Fund, managed respectively by the Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) and the Development Bank of Seychelles (DBS).

An archipelagic country in the western Indian Ocean, Seychelles has 115 granite and coral islands spreading across an exclusive economic zone of approximately 1.4 million square kilometers.

After tourism, the fisheries sector is the country’s most important industry, contributing significantly to annual GDP and employing 17 percent of the population, with fish products accounting for around 95 percent of the total value of domestic exports.

From right to left: Nico Barito (Special Envoy of the President of Seychelles), Vincent Meriton (Vice President of Seychelles), Laura Tuck (Vice President of World Bank Washington DC), James Michel (Former President of Seychelles), and Justin Mundy (World Resources Institute and former director of HRH The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit).

According to Meriton, the idea of a blue bond was first floated under former president James Michel in 2011, but the concept for a blue bond to support a transition to sustainable fisheries was conceived in 2014 only with the help of HRH The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit.

Since then, a World Bank team comprising experts from its Treasury, Legal, Environmental and Finance groups has worked with investors, structured the blue bond, and assisted the Seychelles government in setting up a platform for channeling its proceeds.

A joint statement issued by the Seychelles government and the World Bank said the blue bond is backed by a five million dollar guarantee from the World Bank and a five million dollar concessional loan from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It will also pay an annual coupon of 6.5 percent to investors, but the GEF concessional loan would cut the cost to Seychelles to 2.8 percent.

The statement also said proceeds from the bond sales would finance the expansion of marine protected areas, improved governance of priority fisheries and the development of the Seychelles’ blue economy, and contribute to the World Bank’s South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth Program, which supports countries in the region to sustainably manage fisheries and increase economic benefits from their fisheries sectors.

World Bank Vice President and Treasurer Arunma Oteh called the blue bond a milestone that complements other activities aimed at supporting sustainable use of marine resources, including particularly the fishery sector.

“We hope that this bond will pave the way for others …. The blue bond is yet another example of the powerful role of capital markets in connecting investors to projects that support better stewardship of the planet,” Oteh said in a joint statement.

World Bank Vice President of Sustainable Development Laura Tuck said the blue bond could serve as a model for other countries in mobilising funds to finance sustainable fisheries projects.

“The World Bank is excited to be involved in the launch of this sovereign blue bond and believes it can serve as a model for other small island developing states and coastal countries. It is a powerful signal that investors are increasingly interested in supporting the sustainable management and development of our oceans for generations to come,” Tuck said.

SeyCCAT Chief Executive Officer Martin Callow was quoted as saying that the bond would support the country’s ambitions to create a diversified blue economy.

“We are privileged to be working with the many partners involved in this unique transaction, and we are excited about the possibilities to back pre-development and growth stage projects in support of Seychelles’ blue economy. With these new resources, our guiding principles, and the blended finance structure that we have developed, we will support Seychelles’ ambitions to create a diversified blue economy and, importantly, to safeguard fisheries and ocean ecosystems,” said Callow.

Daniel Gappy, CEO of DBS, expressed similar sentiments and vowed to support the government’s quest for sustainable development. DBS will co-manage proceeds from the bond via the creation of the Blue Investment Fund.

“Establishing the Blue Investment Fund will bring additional exposure both locally and internationally for the bank and will provide opportunities to enhance our competency in fund management for positive environmental, social and governance outcomes,” said Gappy.

Meanwhile, Pietra Widiadi, Green and Blue Economy Strategic Leader at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, said the blue bond offers huge potential as an alternative financing source, but many things need to be done to ensure the projects achieve their targets.

“Awareness on the importance of the blue economy is still relatively low in island nations, especially those in the south. For that reason, I think any blue bond project should start with building the capacity of people involved,” Widiadi told IPS.

Indonesia and other island nations, Widiadi said, could use Seychelles’ blue bond structure as a model in tapping the bond market for financing sustainable fishery and marine projects.

“Projects funded with blue bond, just like green bond, are rigidly regulated, but Seychelles’ blue bond can serve as a model on how we can move forward,” he said.

Edo Rakhman, a national coast and ocean campaigner for the Indonesian Forum for Environment or Walhi, a leading civil society organisation that champions environmental issues, hailed the world’s first blue bond but stressed that any sustainable fishery and marine project should start with protecting the rights of local fisher communities and mangroves along coastal areas.

“Island nations should designate fishing grounds or zones where all forms of extractive activities are prohibited and mangroves protected to ensure the sustainability of fish stock for local fishermen communities,” Edo said.

The sprawling informal community of Lord Howe Settlement, in Solomon Islands’ capital city of Honiara, lies along the Mataniko River. The piped sewerage system in the capital does not extend to unplanned settlements as waste, especially untreated sewage, has become a dire threat to coastal waters and their fisheries. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Oct 29 2018 (IPS)

At the mouth of the Mataniko River, which winds its way through the vibrant coastal port town of Honiara to the sea, is the sprawling informal community of Lord Howe Settlement, which hugs the banks of the estuary and seafront. A walk from the nearby main road to the beach involves a meandering route through narrow alleys between crowded dwellings, homes to about 630 people, which are clustered among the trees and overhang the water.

An estimated 40 percent of Honiara’s population of about 67,000 live in at least 30 squatter settlements. Sanitation coverage is about 32 percent in the Solomon Islands and in this capital city the piped sewerage system, which does not extend to unplanned settlements, is dispersed into local waterways and along the coastline.

For centuries, coastal fishing has been central to the nutrition, food security and livelihoods of Pacific Islanders, as it will be in the twenty first century. But, as population growth in the region reaches 70 percent and cities and towns expand along island coastlines, waste, especially untreated sewage, has become a dire threat to coastal waters and their fisheries.

“Areas of high population density, such as cities and tourism areas, are associated with excess release of poorly treated wastewater onto reefs. Many coastal communities rely heavily on fishing for their subsistence and household income and endangering the lagoons and fishing areas will threaten their livelihoods,” is the personal view of Dr. Johann Poinapen, who also holds the position of director of the Institute of Applied Sciences at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.

Subsistence fishing in near shore areas, typically of finfish, trochus, molluscs, clams, crabs and bêche-de-mer, accounts for 70 percent of all coastal catches in the Pacific Islands and 22 percent of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Sewage waste pollutes the oceans

Sewage waste is a global issue, accounting for about 75 percent of pollution in the world’s oceans, and every Pacific Island state has identified it as a cause of environmental and health problems, ranging from marine ‘dead zones’ and the loss of reefs to outbreaks of seafood poisoning.

Critically its discharge in coastal areas leads to the loss of habitats for marine life, according to Associate Professor Monique Gagnon, an expert in ecotoxicology at the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University in Western Australia.

“Effluent, or nutrient pollution, produces eutrophication and the growth of algae can change marine habitats, threatening local fish populations and encouraging invasive species,” Gagnon told IPS.

A semi-submerged graveyard on Togoru, Fiji. Sewage waste is a global issue, accounting for about 75 percent of pollution in the world’s oceans, and every Pacific Island state has identified it as a cause of environmental and health problems. Credit: Pascal Laureyn/IPS

Health and environmental issues

Human effluent generates the over-production of algae and cyanobacteria in waterways and the sea. Toxic algal blooms can infect all types of fish and shellfish and lead to the demise of coral reefs and their fish stocks. Sewage also depletes oxygen in aquatic ecosystems, leading to the condition of Hypoxia, which causes the death of fish through paralysis. And the consumption of fish contaminated by biotoxins can cause serious illnesses, such as paralytic shellfish poisoning and ciguatera.

A study of marine pollution in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2016 found that nine of ten ocean and lagoon sites surveyed were heavily polluted, particularly with disease carrying bacteria from human and animal waste.  In Samoa, the Ministry of Health has connected typhoid cases with seafood collected near shore which has been spoiled by effluent from coastal villages.

Lack of sewage treatment facilities and collection services for households in Pacific cities, together with mostly unimproved sanitation in rural areas, are leading to increasing amounts of effluent entering coastal waters or conveyed there from rivers and streams.

The problem is acute in urban areas where under-resourced civic services are struggling to cope with a high influx of people migrating from less developed rural areas. Urban centres are growing at a very high annual rate of 4.7 percent in the Solomon Islands, 3.5 percent in Vanuatu and 2.8 percent in Papua New Guinea.

The situation in Honiara in the Solomon Islands is typical of many other Melanesian towns and cities in the southwest Pacific.

“Upstream [of the Mataniko River] there are sewerage outlets which are coming directly into the river. Then, as you come down, you see these little houses on the riverbanks; these are toilets,” Josephine Teakeni, president of the local women’s civil society group, Vois Blong Mere, told IPS.

Lack of resources restricts improved sanitation

The Honiara City Council is involved in manufacturing affordable toilet hardware items, especially for people in settlements who are on low incomes, and provides a septic tank collection service. But lack of resources severely restricts their operations.

“We don’t have the capacity to do this for the whole city, but we can empty septic systems for anyone who can pay the fee of SB$400 (USD51),” George Titiulu in the Council’s Health and Environment Services told IPS.

He admits that there is an environmental problem.

“We have done some studies of the Mataniko River and there is a high level of E.coli in the water,” Titiulu elaborated.

The proportion of people in the Pacific Islands using improved sanitation rose by only 2 percent, from 29 percent to 31 percent, over the 25 year period from 1990 to 2015, reports the World Health Organization.  This leaves a shortfall of 6.9 million people who lack this basic service across the region.

In the Solomon Islands, as in other developing Pacific Island states, the obstacles to better progress include lack of basic infrastructure, expertise, technical capacity and reliable funding. The challenges are even greater to extend basic services into informal settlements because of complex customary land rights and insecure tenure for residents, as well as their frequent location in natural hazard and disaster prone areas, such as flood plains.

Subsistence fishing in near shore areas, typically of finfish, trochus, molluscs, clams, crabs and bêche-de-mer, accounts for 70 percent of all coastal catches in the Pacific Islands and 22 percent of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Significant economic losses expected if pollution is not addressed

Yet the issue will have to be tackled with experts predicting that habitat destruction, together with climate change and over-exploitation of marine resources, will drive a continuing decline in coastal fisheries in the coming decades. For Pacific Islanders, this could lead to significant economic losses, a rise in the cost of fish and diminishing food. The regional development organisation, the Pacific Community, predicts that within 15 years an additional 115,000 tonnes of fish will be needed to manage the food gap.

“Tackling sewage pollution in the Pacific Island region is not an easy feat,” Poinapen told IPS. His personal view is that all stakeholders, not just governments, must be involved in developing and implementing appropriate solutions, as well as educational, policy and legislative approaches.

But, to begin with, he believes that “one of the biggest gaps related to sewage pollution is the lack of baseline data to inform the stakeholders on the severity of the issue.”

“We know there is sewage pollution in many receiving waterbodies, but we do not know the extent of this pollution as we have not conducted a robust and systematic quantification of the various contaminants and their effects,” Poinapen emphasised.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 4,000 participants from around the world are coming together to learn how to build a blue economy.

Rahti Begum a fisherwoman sells fish on a roadside in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir state in India. She says she will be the last woman in her clan to sell fish. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
SRINAGAR, India, Oct 25 2018 (IPS)

Much has changed since Rahti Begum, a fisherwoman in Kashmir, now in her late 60s, first began wandering the streets with a bucketful of fish on her head. She was 17 when her father roped her into the business that became the source of her livelihood for the remainder of her life.

Living in a houseboat on Dal Lake, one of Kashmir’s famed water bodies, Rahti says catching fish and selling it to people has been the sole source of income of her family for centuries.

“Even when I was a child, I knew I was going to sell fish. Every one in our family does that. The lake on which we live was been fulfilling all our needs,” she says. 

Her family belong to a tribe in Kashmir called ‘Hanjis’ who live in houseboats and eke out a living from the lakes and rivers the region had in abundance. A majority of the members of the tribe are involved in tourism as they take tourists in the lavishly decorated boats called ‘Shikaras’ to explore the beauties of the rivers and lakes.

Others amongst the tribe catch fish and sell it directly to the public. Rahti belongs to the latter group. The men during the early hours of the morning cast nets into the lake, catch fish and pass on the stock to their women who sell it by roaming around in different areas.

“When my father asked me join him, I was reluctant to say yes but there wasn’t anything else through which we could have earned a living. Gradually, selling fish became an integral part of my life and hence the family legacy continued,” she tells IPS. 

However Rahti, now afflicted with ailments that come with old age, is confident that she is going to be the last woman in her tribe to sell fish.

“My death will end the legacy for ever. No one wants to do this business again as the lake has all of a sudden turned monstrous for us; it is becoming a cesspool and fishes underneath its belly are vanishing with each passing day,” Rahti explains. 

Fish production and agricultural activities in this Himalayan region contribute 23 percent of GDP and are the mainstay of the economy.

According to a study conducted by researchers Neha W Qureshi and M Krishnan, the total fish production in Dal Lake registered a negative compound growth rate (CGR) of -0.34 percent for the period 1980-1990. But for the period 2000-2010, fish production in Dal Lake showed a negative compound growth rate of -2.89 percent. Wullar Lake showed a negative compound growth rate of -8.78 percent from 2000-2011

The study blames the decline in numbers on the negative externalities of tourism, excessive fertilisation of vegetable crops on floating gardens that lead to algal blooms, and the spike in pollution due to the dumping of waste in both lakes.

These have all led to a consistent decline and destruction of the breeding grounds of the local fish species schizothorax.

Furthermore, the consumption of fish has outnumbered actual fish production in the region.

While the annual consumption is 25,000 tons of fish, production stands at 20,000 tons per year in both lakes combined. Of this, Dal Lake produces no more than 5,000 tons a year. 

Rahti, who now struggles to earn enough for one full meal a day, says she vividly remembers the times when during her childhood, fish under the diamond-like transparency of the lake used to swim in shoals and flocks of ducks with emerald necks used to swim on the surface.

“Those were the days when we used to earn a decent livelihood and the lake produced no less than 15 thousand tons of fish every year. It is now a thing of a past,” she rues. 

Rahti, who has two daughters and a son, says the reason that her children wouldn’t go into the business of selling fish is the dreadful decline in fish production in the lake. Her daughters are homemakers and her son has a job at a local grocery store. Her earnings, Rahti says, have declined from 500 dollars a month to a mere 100 dollars a month at present.

“There isn’t enough produce that I could sell and with merge income in hand, why would I push my children to the precipice of a disastrous living?” Rahti tells IPS. 

Another fisherwoman, Jana Begum, has similar fears. In her 50s now, Jana says her only concern is how the family would survive if the situation were to remain the same.

“Our sole income is selling fish. My husband, a fisherman catches fish and I sell it. We have been doing this for 30 years but it looks like the difficult times have begun to dominate poor people like us,” Jana tells IPS. 

She says almost every day, her husband returns home with empty nets and a glum face as there aren’t any fish left to be caught in Wullar Lake — another famous water body located in the north of Kashmir.

“Why would my daughters do this business? What is left for them to earn. With us, the profession shall end and we are already long dead,” says Jana. 

According to a study by Imtiaz Ahmed, Zubair Ahmad and Ishtiyaq Ahmad, Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir, the main reasons for the depletion of fishery resources in these water bodies are over-fishing and encroachment.

It suggested that the entry of domestic sewage, solid wastes and agricultural wastes into these water bodies needs to be controlled and properly managed.

“Also aquatic weeds present in these aquatic ecosystems must be  cultivated and  should be  properly utilised because  of its  high  nutritional  values  and  economic  values. A separate  authority  needs  to  be  established  to  monitor the physico-chemical and biological characteristics of Dal Lake.” 

The management of waterbodies and marine life is one of the topics under discussion during the first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is co-hosted with Canada and Japan.

The director of the Department of Fisheries, Ram Nath Pandita, gives similar reasons for the decline in fish production in Kashmir’s lakes and rivers, attributing it to increasing pollution and encroachment.

He says because of the dumping of waste in water bodies, fish larvae do not grow into fry, resulting in the decline.

Pandita tells IPS that in order to address the decline in fish production, the government is supplying larvae to the water bodies and is continuously monitoring the process.

“The government is keeping closer watch on the entire process of increasing the fish production in Kashmir’s lakes and besides increasing the supply of larvae, it is also ensuring that no illegal fishing is allowed,” Pandita says.

He added that due to the massive floods that occurred in Kashmir in 2014, a large quantity of silt and sewage accumulated in the lakes, affecting fish production directly.

Pandita said awareness campaigns are being carried out about the importance of keeping the water bodies clean and not dumping household solid and liquid wastes in them.

“There are even seminars and road shows being conducted by the government in which people from cross sections of the society are educated that the fish can turn poisonous and will extinguish if water bodies aren’t protected through the unanimous efforts of the people and the government,” Pandita tells IPS. 

The government in February banned any illegal fishing in Kashmir’s water bodies and claims that the law will help curb the decline in fish production and help secure the livelihood of people involved in the sector.

Under the new law, only those permitted by the government can fish in the water bodies and any one found violating the norm shall be liable to three months of imprisonment and a fine of 500 Indian Rupees (about 90 dollars.)

The Department of Lakes and Water Ways development authority – a government department tasked with the protection of lakes in Kashmir – reports that various plans are underway to save Dal Lake and various species that live in it.

The department is uprooting water lilies with traditional methods and is de-weeding the lake with the latest machinery so that the surface of the lake is freed from weeds and fish production will rebound.

However, according to a study by Humaira Qadri and A. R. Yousuf from the Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, despite the government spending about USD170 million on the conservation of the lake so far, there is no visible improvement in its condition.

“A lack of proper management and restoration plan and the incidence of engineered but ecologically unsound management practices have led to a failure in the conservation efforts,” says the study.

It concluded that the lake is moving towards its definite end and that conservation efforts have proved to be a total failure. It adds that official apathy and failure to take the problems seriously on the part of the managing authorities have deteriorated the overall condition of the lake.

The study says a united effort is needed by the government as well as the people so that instead of turning the water bodies into waste dumping sites, they are saved for the greater common good of Kashmir.

But Pandita is optimistic that the lakes can be restored to their past glory. Though, he admitted, that due to the high level of pollution in the lakes, it is feared that they may turn into cesspools. However, he said the government was working to combat this through various methods, which included awareness campaigns and lake clean-up drives.

But among the uneducated communities living around the lakes, many do not understand the measures taken by the government. When IPS spoke to local community members, all they talked about were the lack of fish. They were unaware about whether the government’s efforts will bring about any change in the lake.

As IPS asked fisher-person Jum Dar whether the government’s measures were bringing any positive change, Dar said he has seen many government agencies taking water samples for research from the lake and but there hadn’t been any visible change. His livelihood, he says, continues to remain in danger.

As IPS spent an entire day with Dar, and he only caught two fish which weighed no more than half a kilogram.

“See yourself the hard times we encounter everyday. How could we survive when such a catastrophe has engulfed our lives?”

With the high demand for fish by the tourism sector, Barbados imports the majority of the fish consumed here. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Desmond Brown
CONSETT BAY, Barbados, Oct 24 2018 (IPS)

Allan Bradshaw grew up close to the beach and always knew he wanted to become a fisherman. Now 43 years old, he has been living his childhood dream for 25 years.
But in recent years Bradshaw says he has noticed a dramatic decline in the number of flying fish around his hometown of Consett Bay, Barbados.

“Like in most other places the fishing stock has declined over the years, especially the flying fish,” Bradshaw tells IPS.

As is the case for all Caribbean islands, fishing and associated activities have been integral components of the economic fabric of Barbados for many years. And flying fish, which are common to most tropical seas, are found in the warm waters surrounding Barbados.

In a typical year, flying fish account for around 65 percent of the total fish catch, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

Bradshaw says not all of the fish have gone but there is a definite change and this is negatively affecting the industry.

“The mahi-mahi or dolphin, somehow they have increased in numbers but not in size, in the sense that we have a lot more abundance but smaller ones. There is a lot more juvenile fish around,” Bradshaw says.

He argues that the government needs to step in to save the industry from further collapse.

Allan Bradshaw says he has noticed a dramatic decline in the number of flying fish around his hometown of Consett Bay, Barbados. Courtesy: Desmond Brown

Four years ago, there were just over 1,000 vessels registered and 2,200 fishers involved in harvesting with 6,600 people working in associated businesses – market vendors, processors, traders etc. – according to information provided by the FAO office in Barbados.

FAO reported that approximately 2,500 metric tonnes of fish were caught between 2013 and 2014, and noted that the catch appears to have been going down in recent years.

Flying fish catches have been shrinking due to the influx of Sargassum seaweed.

Barbados mainly exports high-value tuna (approximately 160 metric tonnes) and the exports have been marginal in comparison to the catches.

But with the high demand for fish by the tourism sector, Barbados imports the majority of the fish consumed here.

Since taking office in May this year, the new administration of Prime Minister Mia Mottley has heeded calls for Barbados to look beyond the island’s 166 square miles of land for sources of wealth. The suggestion is that the island needs to look beyond its traditional sugar and banana industries to the sea to develop an economy there.

Mottley has included a Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy (MABE) within her administration, a decision hailed by many. Some have recommended that this ministry should be replicated further afield in the Caribbean.

“FAO supports development of the Blue Economy in Barbados through providing assistance over the coming year for both the fisheries and aquaculture sectors,” Regional Project Coordinator at FAO Dr. Iris Monnereau tells IPS.

“This will be achieved through updating legislative frameworks, assessing the feasibility for utilisation of rest raw material from fish processing for direct human consumption, animal feed or fertiliser, training of 70 small-scale farmers in aquaponics, capacity building of fisherfolk and fisherfolk organisations, and providing assistance to implement sustainable value adding activities throughout fisheries value chains.”

Monnereau says Blue Economy development is considered key to the long-term sustainability of healthy coasts and oceans and is inextricably linked to the long-term management, social inclusive development and improved human well-being of coastal and island populations.

In this approach, oceans and coasts can be seen as “development spaces” whereby traditional uses (e.g. fisheries and aquaculture, transport, ship building, coastal tourism and use of offshore oil and gas) are combined with new emerging sectors (e.g. bioprospecting, marine renewable energy and offshore mining) while at the same time addressing the challenges the oceans and coasts are facing.

“For example: fisheries overexploitation, pollution of coastal waters, [Illegal], Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, invasive species, habitat destruction, coastal erosion, and climate change impacts,” Monnereau says.

MABE was only developed after the elections, on May 24, and Monnereau says it is too early to measure changes.

However, she says that with this move, the government is clearly indicating they would like to develop the Blue Economy in Barbados.

Over the past few months, the government has been actively seeking partnerships with FAO and other international organisations and private partners to develop Blue Economy activities.

The move comes as Kenya is set to be co-host, along with Canada and Japan, the first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference from Nov. 26 to 28. The high-level conference will bring together over 4,000 participants who support a global agenda to build a blue economy much in the way Barbados wants to.

Meanwhile, Minister of MABE Kirk Humphrey tells IPS he wants to see a greener and bluer Barbadian economy. This, he explains, will involve the island becoming the centre for seafaring across the Caribbean, an end to overfishing, and greater protection mechanisms put in place to guard the coral reefs.

He further expressed concern that Barbados presently imports 80 percent of the fish consumed locally, and that the sector is affected by overfishing.

He explains that the ministry was presently in the process of building out its strategy, and there was a desire to capitalise on the island’s sea space, which was 400 times greater than its land space.

In terms of the blue economy, Humphrey also stressed the need for a baseline study, so that Barbados could ascertain what is in its oceans and then assign a value to these assets so as to be able to measure the contribution to Gross Domestic Product.

The pastoralists of Ethiopia’s Somali region make a living raising cattle, camels and goats in an arid and drought-prone land. They are forced to move constantly in search of pasture and watering holes for their animals. Ahead of COP 24, African experts have identified the need to speak with one unified voice, saying a shift in the geopolitical landscape threatens climate negotiations. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By Friday Phiri
NAIROBI, Oct 18 2018 (IPS)

In December 2015, nations of the world took a giant step to combat climate change through the landmark Paris Agreement. But African experts who met in Nairobi, Kenya at last week’s Seventh Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA VII) say the rise of far-right wing and nationalist movements in the West are threatening the collapse of the agreement.
The landmark Paris Agreement focuses on accelerating and intensifying actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future, through greenhouse-gas emissions mitigation, adaptation, finance, and technology transfer among others.

And as Parties struggle to complete the implementing measures needed to get the Paris regime up and running, African experts have identified the need to speak with one unified voice, saying a shift in the geopolitical landscape threatens climate negotiations.

“The rise of ‘the inward-looking nationalist right-wing movement and climate deniers’ in the West is a signal of hardening positions in potential inaction by those largely responsible for the world’s climate problems,” Mithika Mwenda, secretary general of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, told the gathering.

Mwenda said civil society organisations were seeking collaboration with governments on the continent and stood ready to offer support as Africa seeks homegrown solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“Our leaders who hold the key for the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement should remain candidly focused and resist attempts to scatter the unified African voice to deny Africa a strong bargain in the design of the Paris rulebook,” Mwenda told IPS in an interview.

The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Katowice, Poland in December, is earmarked as the deadline for the finalisation of the Paris Agreement operational guidelines.

But there are concerns from the African group that there is a deliberate attempt by developed parties to derail the process as the operationalisation of the agreement implies a financial obligation for them to support the adaptation and mitigation action of developing countries.

Since 2015 when the Paris Agreement was reached, the world has seen a shift in the geopolitical landscape, ushering in a climate-sceptic Donald Trump as president of the United States, and several far-right wing nationalist movements gaining power in Europe.

“Two strong groups have joined forces on this issue – the extractive industry, and right-wing nationalists. The combination has taken the current debate to a much more dramatic level than previously, at the same time as our window of opportunity is disappearing,” said Martin Hultman, associate professor in Science, Technology and Environmental studies at Chalmers University of Technology and research leader for the comprehensive project titled ‘Why don’t we take climate change seriously? A study of climate change denial’.

For his part, Trump made good on his campaign promise when he wrote to the UNFCCC secretariat, notifying them of his administration’s intention to withdraw the United States from the treaty, thereby undermining the universality of the Paris Agreement and impairing states’ confidence in climate cooperation.

With this scenario in mind, the discussions at the recently-concluded climate conference in Africa were largely dominated by how the continent could harness homegrown solutions and standing united in the face of shifting climate political dynamics.

In his opening remarks, which he delivered on behalf of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s environment and forestry minister, Keriako Tobiko said climate change was a matter of life and death for Africa.

And this was the reason why leaders needed to speak with a strong unified voice.

“We have all experienced the devastating and unprecedented impacts of climate change on our peoples’ lives and livelihoods as well as our national economies. Africa is the most vulnerable continent despite contributing only about four percent to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but when we go to argue our case we speak in tongues and come back with no deal,” he said.

He said given Africa’s shared ecosystems, it was essential to speak in one voice to safeguard the basis of the continent’s development and seek transformative solutions.

This climate conference was held just days after the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius which warned of a catastrophe if immediate action is not taken to halt GHG emissions.

And commenting on the IPCC report, Tobiko reiterated the resolutions of the first Africa Environment Partnership Platform held from Sept. 20 to, under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the technical body of the African Union, which emphasised the need to turn environmental challenges into economic solutions through innovation and green investments.

Tobiko said that Kenya would be hosting the first Sustainable Blue Economy Conference from Nov. 26 to 28 to promote sustainable investments in oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers.

Just like the Africa Environment Partnership Platform — which recognised “indigenous knowledge and customary governance systems as part of Africa’s rich heritage in addressing environmental issues” — indigenisation was also a trending topic at the CCDA VII.

Under the theme: ‘Policies and actions for effective implementation of the Paris Agreement for resilient economies in Africa’, the conference attracted over 700 participants from member states, climate researchers, academia, civil society organisations and local government leaders, among others.
Experts said that local communities, women and the youth should be engaged in Africa’s efforts to combat the vagaries of climate change.

James Murombedzi, officer-in-charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre of the U.N. Commission for Africa, said African communities have long practiced many adaptation strategies and viable responses to the changing climate.

However, he said, “there are limits to how well communities can continue to practice adaptive livelihoods in the context of a changing climate”, adding that it was time they were supported by an enabling environment created by government-planned adaptation.

“That is why at CCDA-VII we believe that countries have to start planning for a warmer climate than previously expected so this means we need to review all the different climate actions and proposals to ensure that we can in fact not only survive in a 3 degrees Celsius warmer environment but still be able to meet our sustainable development objectives and our Agenda 2063,” added Murombedzi.

Murombedzi said it was sad that most African governments had continued spending huge sums of money on unplanned adaptations for climate-related disasters.

And these, according Yacob Mulugetta, professor of Energy and Development Policy, University London College, “are the implications of global warming for Africa which is already experiencing massive climate impacts, such as crop production, tourism industries and hydropower generation.”

Mulugetta, one of the lead authors of the IPCC special report, however, noted that “international cooperation is a critical part of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees,” but warned African climate experts to take cognisance of the shifting global geopolitical landscape, which he said is having a significant bearing on climate negotiations.

Meanwhile, the African Development Bank (AfDB), pledged continued support to a climate-resilient development transition in Africa through responsive policies, plans and programmes focusing on building transformed economies and healthy ecosystems.

James Kinyangi of the AfDB said the Bank’s Climate Action Plan for the period 2016 to 2020 was ambitious, as it “explores modalities for achieving adaptation, the adequacy and effectiveness of climate finance, capacity building and technology transfer – all aimed at building skills so that African economies can realise their full potential for adaptation in high technology sectors.”

Under this plan, the bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach USD5 billion a year by 2020.