Human dimensions of conserving Kenya’s coral reefs\ud

We conducted a socio-economic assessment in nine coastal communities in Kenya to identify key socio-economic factors affecting inshore coral reef fisheries. Communities varied considerably in regards to their dependence on marine resources. Smaller communities had more than 60% of households engaged in the fishery, but the proportion of fishers was relatively small in the communities close to highly urbanized areas. Households that fished generally ranked fishing as their most important occupation.\ud \ud There was an array of marine resource governance structures either instituted or in development at the study sites. Four communities bordered established marine protected areas\ud (MPA) and two communities bordered a proposed MPA, and the level of appreciation of protected areas was lowest near the established areas. Despite legal prohibitions, a large\ud proportion of fishers at one site adjacent to each established MPA engaged in destructive fishing methods, particularly beach seining. There was poor understanding of the factors that influence fisheries and the means to improve them and the marine environment

Identifying management preferences, institutional organisational rules, and their capacity to improve fisheries management in Pemba, Mozambique

The potential to improve the management of fisheries in Pemba, Mozambique, were explored by evaluating stakeholder's preferences for management and the key institutional design elements of the fisheries organisations or community councils of fisheries (CCPs). We interviewed fishers, community leaders and government fisheries officers regarding (1) their perceptions about different fisheries restrictions, (2) their socio-economic conditions, and (3) the institutional design and rules of the CCP arrangements. Fishers had low levels of education (<4 years) and biweekly expenditures of around US$100, and they were permanent residents of their villages, being part of large households (9–12 members). Apart from effort restrictions, respondents' perceptions were similar and strongly supported a range of fisheries regulations, particularly gear and minimum size restrictions. The suggested minimum size of captured fish was 20.6 cm (SD 3.0), whereas the suggested size of closed areas was 8.4 km2 (SD 2.0). Fishers associated with community or conservation groups generally had more positive views of spatial closures and other less-preferred management restrictions. A number of the essential design principles for fisheries rules were in place with the exception of graduated sanctions. There is a need for strengthening groups, forums, leadership training in finance, and means to implement transparency and graduated sanctions

Management preferences, perceived benefits and conflicts among resource users and managers in the Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania \ud

Conflicts between resource users and managers are common and well documented on Mafia Island (Tanzania), where there has been a history of unresolved conflict over marine conservation initiatives. The perceptions of fisheries and park restrictions among resource users and managers were evaluated to try to understand the underlying causes of these conflicts. Responses concerning management preferences of government officials employed by the Mafia Island Marine Park (MIMP), personnel of the fisheries department, and heads of households in three villages in and out of the Park were compared. The largest differences in perceptions were found between villagers and managers, but all respondents agreed that minimum fish lengths and gear restrictions were beneficial and that benefits increased along the scale of the individual – community – national government. Villagers and government officials differed most in their perceptions towards area- based management, spatial and temporal closures, and species restrictions. Perceptions of management restrictions and benefits were only weakly correlated with the socioeconomic status of the villagers, but more strongly correlated with their living in or out of the Park and their family’s economic options. The most negative perceptions towards restrictions were found in villages near fisheries closures, where there was a heavy reliance on marine resources and a higher numbers of jobs per household, but less reliance on cash crops, animal husbandry and tourism. The lack of these three options appears to have produced lower levels of support for MIMP and associated restrictions, and might be overcome by (1) using gear and minimum size restrictions more than fisheries closures and (2) increasing access to tourism, cash crops, animal husbandry and salaried employment, \ud rather than simply increasing livelihood diversity. \u

Transitions towards co-management: the process of marine resource management devolution in three east African countries

Communities are increasingly empowered with the ability and responsibility of working with national governments to make decisions about marine resources in decentralized co-management arrangements. This transition toward decentralized management represents a changing governance landscape. This paper explores the transition to decentralisation in marine resource management systems in three East African countries. The paper draws upon expert opinion and literature from both political science and linked social-ecological systems fields to guide exploration of five key governance transition concepts in each country: (1) drivers of change; (2) institutional arrangments; (3 institutional fit; (4) actor interactions; and (5) adaptive management. Key findings are that decentralized management in the region was largely donor-driven and only partly tranferred power to local stakeholders. However, increased accountability created a degree of democracy in regards to natural resource governance that was not previously present. Additionally, increased local-level adaptive management has emerged in most systems and, to date, this experimental management has helped to change resource user's views from metaphysical to more scientific cause-and-effect attribution of changes to resource conditions

Arthrheuma Society of Kenya consensus report: Recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives: This study aims to recommend Arthrheuma Society of Kenya (ARSK) proposed Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) management and to compose a national expert opinion management of RA under guidance of current guidelines and implantation and dissemination of these international guidelines into our clinical practice.Materials and methods: A scientific committee of nineteen experts consisting of nine rheumatologists, three rheumatology nurses and seven physicians was formed. The recommendations, systemic reviews, and meta-analysis including pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment were scrutinized paying special attention with convenient key words. The draft ARSK recommendations for management of RA opinion whose roof consisted of international treatment recommendations, particularly the assessment of American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/ European League Against Rheumatism was composed. Assessment of level of agreement with opinions by task force members was established through the Delphi technique. Voting using a numerical rating scale assessed the strength of each recommendation.Results: Panel comprised of six basic principles and recommendations including pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods. All of the recommendations had adequate strength.Conclusion: ARSK expert opinion for the management of RA was developed based on scientifi c evidence. These recommendations will be updated regularly in accordance with current developments.Keywords: Arthrheuma Society of Kenya, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Management guideline

Resilience and Challenges of Marine Social–Ecological Systems Under Complex and Interconnected Drivers

In this paper, we summarize the contributions made by an interdisciplinary group of researchers from different disciplines (biology, ecology, economics, and law) that deal with key dimensions of marine social–ecological systems. Particularly, the local and global seafood provision; the feasibility and management of marine protected areas; the use of marine ecosystem services; the institutional dimension in European fisheries, and the affordable models for providing scientific advice to small-scale fisheries. This Special Issue presents key findings from selected case studies around the world available to educators, policy makers, and the technical community. Together, these papers show that a range of diverse ecological, economic, social, and institutional components often mutually interact at spatial and temporal scales, which evidence that managing marine social–ecological systems needs a continuous adaptability to navigate into new governance systems

Sustainable Poverty Alleviation From Coastal Ecosystem Services: Coral Reef and Fisheries, 2013-2017

Ecological underwater surveys inform us about the abundance of the coral, algae, and fish communities on the reefs at the coral sites in Kongowea, Mkwiro, Vamizi, and Pemba. The data provides a measure of the stocks of many of the ecosystem service chains and allows us to interpret how human activity has impacted on ecosystem processes. From a fisheries perspective, it is a second way, along with the fish catch surveys, to assess the status and sustainability of local fisheries. Landings data was collected on how many people are fishing, how long they are fishing, what types of fishing gear and vessels they are using, and how much fish they are catching and of what size and species.This project aims to better understand the links between ecosystem services (ES) and wellbeing in order to design and implement more effective interventions for poverty alleviation. We do this in the context of coastal, social-ecological systems in two poor African countries; Kenya and Mozambique. Despite recent policy and scientific interest in ES, there remain important knowledge gaps regarding how ecosystems actually contribute to wellbeing, and thus poverty alleviation. Following the ESPA framework, distinguishing ecological processes, 'final ES', 'capital inputs', 'goods' and 'values', this project is concerned with how these elements are interrelated to produce ES benefits, and focuses specifically on how these benefits are distributed to (potentially) benefit the poor, enhancing their wellbeing. We thus address the ESPA goal of understanding and promoting ways in which benefits to the poorest can be increased and more people can meet their basic needs, but we also identify conflicted tradeoffs, i.e. those which result in serious harm to either the ecosystem or poor people and which need urgent attention. Several fundamental questions are currently debated in international scientific and policy fora, relating to four major global trends which are likely to affect abilities of poor people to access ES benefits: (1) devolution of governance power and its impacts on local governance of ecosystems and production of ES, (2) unprecedented rates and scales of environmental change, particularly climate change, which are creating new vulnerabilities, opportunities and constraints, 'shifting baselines', and demanding radical changes in behaviour to cope, (3) market integration now reaches the most remote corners of the developing world, changing relationships between people and resources and motivations for natural resource management, (4) societal changes, including demographic, population, urbanisation and globalisation of culture, forge new relationships with ES and further decouple people from direct dependency on particular resources. Study sites have been chosen so as to gather empirical evidence to help answer key questions about how these four drivers of change affect abilities of poor people to benefit from ES. We aim for direct impact on the wellbeing of poor inhabitants of the rapidly transforming coastal areas in Mozambique and Kenya, where research will take place, while also providing indirect impact to coastal poor in other developing countries through our international impact strategy. Benefits from research findings will also accrue to multiple stakeholders at various levels. Local government, NGOs and civil society groups - through engagement with project activities, e.g. participation in workshops and exposure to new types of analysis and systems thinking. Donor organizations and development agencies - through research providing evidence to inform strategies to support sector development (e.g. fisheries, coastal planning and tourism development) and methods to understand and evaluate impacts of different development interventions - e.g. through tradeoff analysis and evaluation of the elasticities between ecosystem services and wellbeing. International scientific community - through dissemination of findings via conferences, scientific publications (open access), and from conceptual and theoretical development and new understandings of the multiple linkages between ecosystem services and wellbeing. Regional African scientists will benefit specifically through open courses offered within the scope of the project, and through dissemination of results at regional venues. Our strategies to deliver impact and benefits include (1) identifying 'windows of opportunity' within the context of ongoing coastal development processes to improve flows of benefits from ecosystems services to poor people, and (2) identifying and seeking to actively mitigate 'conflicted' tradeoffs in Kenya and Mozambique.</p