761 research outputs found

    Fisheries production systems, climate change and climate variability in West Africa: an annotated bibliography

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    This bibliography is intended for people who are involved in fisheries, aquaculture, climate change, disaster management and policy development in West Africa or interested in one or more of these issues. The literature in this bibliography includes peer-reviewed journals, books and book chapters, grey reports and institutional technical papers, but is restricted to literature in English. They were gathered through an extensive web search using fisheries, fish, coastal, inland, aquaculture and/or in combination with climate change and impacts, climate variability, specific country names, West Africa and Gulf of Guinea as the main keywords.Fisheries, Climatic change, Aquaculture, Inland fisheries, Bibliographies, Disasters, Africa, West,

    Climate change and the mitigating tool of salvage archaeology: The case of the Fort Kongensten site at Ada Foah, Ghana

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    In the ongoing attempts at lessening the hydra-headed impacts of climate change, this paper explored the strategic use of salvage archaeology in the scientific retrieval and documentation of heritage remains and sites under the threat of climate change. In doing so, the research examined the effects of climate change and global warming on coastal heritage resources. Specifically, in Ghana, sea levels have been steadily rising over the centuries leading to the erosion of coastlines and the submergence of historic coastal settlements to about 110 metres inland. A historic Danish Fort Kongensten constructed in 1783 along the coast of Ada-Foah in Ghana, for example, has been totally eroded away by the rising sea water. This paper assesses how salvage archaeology was used to retrieve, document and conserve cultural materials associated with the fort. It also explored the extent to which salvage archaeology and anthropology can be used as tools in climate change mitigation projects in impacted zones

    The adaptation continuum: groundwork for the future

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    The focus of the program was to understand the challenges posed by climate change and climate variability on vulnerable groups and the policies needed to support climate adaptation in developing countries. The aim of the book is to share this experience in the hope that it will be helpful to those involved in shaping and implementing climate change policy

    Rapid Climate Adaption Assessment (RCAA) of water supply and sanitation services in two coastal urban poor communities in Accra, Ghana

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    This study assessed the impact of different hydrological scenarios on existing vulnerabilities of water and sanitation services in Chorkor and Shiabu, two coastal urban poor communities in Accra, Ghana. The hydrological scenarios were developed from the literature on climate change projections. This paper recommends adaptations for community members, service providers, and the municipality based on the impact assessment. Chorkor and Shiabu are vulnerable to an increase in rainfall because of the lack of adequate solid waste management and hydrological sound drains. Shiabu's topography and the indiscriminate sand mining along its beach make it vulnerable to an increase in sea level. Looking beyond Chorkor and Shiabu's community boundaries, the urban water utility which supplies water vendors in both communities may be severely impacted by a decrease in rainfall, which would lead to water scarcity and a shortage in hydroelectricity. Regardless of which climate change scenario emerges, many of the recommended adaptations are good water management practice, for example, increasing the number of household connections and reducing non-revenue water. Putting climate change high on the agenda has the potential to generate additional funding to help address Chorkor and Shiabu's water and sanitation problems, and climate-proof services for the future. However, the study method does not address the governance of these adaptations

    Vulnerability and Resilience in West Africa: Understanding Human Mobility in the Context of Land Degradation

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    The loss of productive land is often one of the key drivers of human mobility. Land degradation might lead to increases in migration because of the need to diversify incomes, but it can also cause reduced mobility by eroding the financial or physical assets and capital required to finance migration. When on-site adaptation is either impossible or undesirable, migration allows people to modify their exposure to climate and environmental stressors. On one hand, temporary and circular labour migration, internal and international remittances, and family relocation are among the most common strategies used throughout history, and increasingly so in the past decades, to cope with harsh climatic variations, increasingly hostile natural environments, and natural disasters. On the other hand, land abandonment and out-migration can lead to further isolation and marginalization of both vulnerable rural populations (increasing their vulnerability if migration occurs in unplanned ways) and migrants who relocate toward areas of high environmental risk, such as resource-scarce or urban areas within insecure expanding cities. Based on existing evidence on the West Africa region, the research in this paper aims at gaining a better understanding of how land degradation interacts with drivers of migration by analysing the factors determining vulnerability at individual, household, and community levels, as well as those factors affecting capacities—whether inherent or acquired—and strategies that contribute to building resilience

    Turning the wheel away from biophysical indicators in coastal zone management : Towards a stakeholder-based systemic framework

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    Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MCoastal zone management is a pressing matter, especially in developing countries, which are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Human systems are underrepresented in the vast array of indicators aimed at assisting coastal zone management decisions. Clearly, there is room to better capture natural and human system relationships and interactions in coastal area assessments. A case in point is the well-known Coastal Hazard Wheel (CHW). Hence three main objectives guide this paper: (i) Analysing the existing set of indicator themes and categories in coastal areas; (ii) Contrasting this set of indicators with the perceived needs of local coastal stakeholders from a developing country; and (iii) Proposing indicator categories to be included as part of a systemic coastal zone management framework. To this end, we undertook an automated content analysis of 1116 peer-reviewed articles on the subject matter. The analysis and a stringent set of criteria led to 40 articles that were reviewed to identify suitable indicators. In parallel, field research in Ghana allowed for a set of indicators from the quadruple helix stakeholders operating in coastal zones to be elicited. Contrasting the two sets of indicators resulted in three situations. The first involves 14 indicator categories that co-occur in the literature and the detected needs from local coastal stakeholders. In the second situation, the categories mentioned in the literature were those not mentioned at local level. A third situation appeared when the local coastal stakeholders mentioned categories of indicators that were not identified in the reviewed literature. After examining each case, we advocate for the indicators in the first situation to be incorporated into the current coastal indicator monitoring frameworks (for example by upgrading the CHW). The unique contribution of this paper is the combination of literature and stakeholder-based indicator sub-categories that should be added to the current set of coastal monitoring frameworks

    Male reproductive health challenges, fertility desire and coping strategies among young couples

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    There is a dearth of information on strategies that wives employ in a marital relationship that involves husbands with sexual challenges neither are there popular interventions to enhance enduring conjugal relationships where such problems exist in Nigeria. This study examined the incidence of male sexual diseases, the influence of fertility desire and coping strategies among young couples in Nigeria. The data was extracted from a 2010 survey of 435 couples in the southwest Nigeria. Data were analyzed using univariate and logistic regression techniques. The common male sexual diseases identified include erectile dysfunction (10.5%), gonorrhoea (12.7%), low sperm count (0.1%), testicular cancer (6.3%), prostate (3.2%) and prostate cancer (1.6%). Where the husbands experience erectile dysfunction, prostate or gonorrhoea, the couples are 0.064, 0.898 and 0.583 times (respectively) less likely to enjoy marital satisfaction. The study concludes that marriage counselors, social and health workers need to focus on erectile dysfunction, gonorrhoea and prostate as major determinants of sustainable marital satisfaction. It recommends public awareness on male sexual diseases and establishment of robust specialized reproductive healthcare services to cater for health needs of men who are experiencing sexual problems
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