Lichens and their importance for the monitoring of environmental changes in Southern Africa : with special reference to soil-inhabiting lichens.

Lichens are the object of investigation within the framework of the BIOTA Southern Africa project, subproject S04 (http://www.biota-africa.org). This interdisciplinary research project, installed in 2000, focuses on the analysis of biodiversity and its changes along climatic and vegetation gradients (transects) in Namibia and in the Republic of South Africa. In the context of this project, studies on the diversity of lichens are carriedout. Special reference is given to the monitoring of lichens growing on soil, which form the so called biological soil crusts.Lichen diversity is assessed and analysed with respect to its spatial and temporal changes. These are related to various abioticand biotic factors such as climate, soil features and land use. The indicator value of certain terricolouslichen taxaand/or lichen groups (communities) is investigated for the study area, and it is intended to use itin a future long-term monitoring programme in the region. In this brochure, we whish to explain what lichens are, how do they live and where do they grow, and why they are so important as bioindicatorsin arid and semi-arid areas of the world. The activities of the S04 subproject along the BIOTA transect are described, as well as the methods used for monitoring environmental changes in Southern Africa using soil-inhabiting lichens

Geographic information system planning and monitoring best practices for West Africa

Phenomenal increases in the number and sizes of urban settlements across the West African coastal region are leading to massive reclamation of swamps and destruction of natural ecosystems. Poor urbanization policies, inefficient planning and monitoring technologies are evident. The consequences include some of the worst types of environmental hazards. Best urbanization practices require integrated planning approaches that result in environmental conservation. Geographic Information systems (GIS) provide the platform for integration and processing of multi-sector Geosciences data in order to accurately predict results of different planning options. This paper presents the West African urban environmental problems. Using some concluded studies, it illustrates the functionality of integrating data in GIS for efficient planning and monitoring while calling on the governments of West Africa to adopt GIS based planning for best results.Key words: GIS, Urban Planning, Urban Monitoring, West Africa, Best Practices, Pollution, floodin

Rent-sharing, hold-up, and manufacturing wages in Cote d'Ivoire

Labor costs in Francophone Africa are considered high by the standards of low-income countries, at least in the formal sector. Are they a brake on industrialization, or the result of successful enterprise development? Are they imposed on firms by powerful unions, or government regulations, or a by-product of good firm performance? The authors empirically analyze what determines manufacturing wages in Cote d'Ivoire, using an unbalanced panel of individual wages that allows them to control for observable firm-specific effects. They test the rent-sharing, and hold-up theories of wage determination, as well as some aspects of efficiency-wage theories. Their results lean in favor of both rent-sharing, and hold-up, suggesting that workers have some bargaining power, and that in Cote d'Ivoire workers can force renegotiation of labor contracts, in response to new investments.Economic Theory&Research,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences

Linking 'citizen scientists' to professionals in ecological research, examples from Namibia and South Africa

The use of trained members of the public (‘citizen scientists’) to help monitor and collect data in science-driven environmental research projects is not a new concept e.g. the Cornell bird program, USA, has been ‘partnering’ with the public since the 1960s (University of Cornell 2008). However, this concept has yet to find much following in developing countries where often the greatest need for conservation lies. We examine the effectiveness of citizen scientists (‘plant custodians’, ‘paraecologists’ and ‘eco-club volunteers’) in monitoring (e.g. species rediscovery, red list classification, range extension) and how it integrates with ecological research (e.g. ethnobotany, livestock census), citing examples from three biodiversity hotspots in Southern Africa (Namibia and South Africa). Information collected by custodians has helped to prioritise plant species that are in need of conservation attention. Paraecologists have played a key role in supporting the fieldwork of researchers. Various eco-club activities have been undertaken with schools, and a network of eco-club volunteers has been developed

Marine environmental monitoring programmes in South Africa: a review

South Africa uniquely lies at the junction of two major currents, the Agulhas and the Benguela. The waters overlying the continental shelf exhibit exceptionally high short-, medium- and long-term (days to inter-decadal) variability compared with most other shelf areas, and strongly contrasting oceanographic conditions are observed on the east and west coasts. South Africa is rich in fisheries resources and associated environmental data collected over more than a century. The South African marine scientific community has a history of multidisciplinary studies of marine foodwebs, from the driving forces such as wind, currents and solar heating, to the top predators, with the development of kelp bed, sub-tidal reefs and estuarine ecosystem studies in the 1970s; the Benguela Ecology Programme, which ran through four successive five-year stages, focused on the pelagic marine resources. Various approaches have been used to observe the continental shelf at different time and space scales, including: macroscale but frequent satellite imagery, mesoscale environmental and fishery surveys, dedicated crossshelf transects in key areas, measurements of dynamic processes, use of moored buoys and coastal weather stations, and integrated monitoring approaches, including modelling and simulation studies. Between 30 and 50 years of comprehensive marine data now exist, which are proving useful in the application of an ecosystem approach to fisheries monitoring and management, as decadal changes become discernible. These observations need to continue; even though the single-species stock assessment and operational management procedures have not yet formally used environmental factors for fisheries management advice, they help us to understand the factors affecting fish population fluctuations and early life histories and to identify large-scale regime shifts where marine trophic structure and functioning alter to a new state

Environmental Risk and Meningitis Epidemics in Africa

Epidemics of meningococcal meningitis occur in areas with particular environmental characteristics. We present evidence that the relationship between the environment and the location of these epidemics is quantifiable and propose a model based on environmental variables to identify regions at risk for meningitis epidemics. These findings, which have substantial implications for directing surveillance activities and health policy, provide a basis for monitoring the impact of climate variability and environmental change on epidemic occurrence in Africa

Measuring up - new directions for environmental programs at the World Bank

The World Bank's new environment strategy advocates cost-effective reduction of air and water pollutants that are most harmful to human health. In addition, it addresses threats to the livelihood of over one billion people who live on fragile lands-lands that are steeply sloped, arid, or covered by natural forests. The new approach will require accurate information about environmental threats to health and livelihood, as well as an appropriate resource-allocation strategy. Drawing on recent research at the World Bank and elsewhere, this paper attempts to apply an optimal investment approach. It develops a rule for optimal cross-country resource allocation that reflects the Bank's investment policy. Using this rule, the paper estimates optimal country shares of the Bank's environmental investments from two sets of variables: threats from outdoor air pollution, water pollution, and fragile lands; and estimates of the likelihood that Bank projects will succeed. The paper combines the country shares with the Bank's investment data to estimate optimal country allocations for each environmental problem. Finally, it aggregates the country results to allocations for the major regions in which the Bank operates. Combining optimal investments for pollution and fragile lands, it finds that the largest share of total investment goes to East Asia (44 percent), followed by South Asia (21 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (19 percent). Other regions get significantly lower shares.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Water and Industry,Earth Sciences&GIS,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Earth Sciences&GIS,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Water and Industry,Agricultural Research

Adaptive Environmental Management System for Lejweleputswa District: A Participatory Approach Through Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

Conference ProceedingsSouth Africa is home to some of the deepest mines in the world. Waste from gold mines constitutes the largest single source of waste and pollution in South Africa [2] Though mining industries develop environmental management systems/plans to identify and mitigate the impacts their operations has on the society, their outcome still poses a threat in terms of environmental pollution to communities around them. There are many ICT-based pollution monitoring solutions, but they do not address the needs of the affected mining communities. Some of the reasons for this include lack of relevant tools to access the systems (smartphones, computers) as well as lack of understanding and appreciation of the disseminated information. The mining communities around Lejweleputswa (South Africa) have learnt to depend on their own local knowledge to prevent or mitigate the impacts that mining operations has on them

Water quality and water-use conflicts in Lake Taabo (Ivory Coast)

The Lake Taabo (Ivory Coast, Africa) results of the construction of the Taabo dam on the Ban- dama River. The changes in the water level of the 69-km² lake depend on 1) the rainfall linked to alternating dry/wet seasons; 2) the extraction of water for human uses; 3) the discharge of water from the upstream dam and the volumes tur- bined by the Kossou dam; 4) the various an- thropic effects (discharge of untreated waste water from towns and industries, and leaching from agricultural land). The average concentra- tions of nutrients (NH4-N: 1.1 mg/L, NO3-N: 1.62 mg/L, PO4-P: 10 mg/L, SiO2: 15 mg/L) and chlo- rophyll a (from 4.8 to 16.5 μg/L, average 11.4 μg/L) indicates some degree of eutrophication. The cumulated effects that threaten the ecosys- tem (degradation of water quality and eutrophi- cation) are such that they are likely to interfere with various water uses. In a context of growing health and environmental concerns in Africa, this study demonstrates conflicts between dif- ferent uses of this water resource and the urgent need for an appropriate policy including specific monitoring of lake water quality, wastewater control, and a programme to reduce agricultural fertilizers