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Abstract This study applies statistical cost accounting method to a sample of 106 sub-Saharan African microfinance institutions (MFIs) during 2014–2018 to investigate the relationship between asset-liability management and financial performance. The result shows that the composition of assets and liabilities has both positive and negative effects on the returns of the MFIs in the sample. Net loan portfolio, other current financial liabilities and MFI size are significantly and positively related to return on assets of listed MFIs. Deposits, borrowings and other liabilities, on the other hand, are significantly and negatively related to financial performance. Overall, the study suggests that adequate attention needs to be paid to asset-liability management to ensure better financial performance.

For millennia humans have extracted biological and physical resources from the planet to sustain societies and enable the development of technology and infrastructure. Growth in the human population and changing consumption patterns have increased the human footprint on ecosystems and their biodiversity, including in fresh waters. Freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity face many threats and it is now widely accepted that we are in a biodiversity crisis. One means of protecting and restoring freshwater biodiversity is to better manage the exploitation of freshwater biota and aggregate resources (e.g., sand, gravel, and boulders). Here we outline the threats arising from such exploitation and identify response options to ensure that methods and levels of extraction are sustainable and allow recovery of over-exploited freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems. The guidance we provide will enable practitioners, policy-makers, and resource stewards to embrace effective, sustainable, and evidence-based approaches to resource extraction. Response options for managing species exploitation include strengthening assessment and reporting, using science-based approaches to reduce overexploitation and support recovery, embracing community engagement, and building or tightening legislation. Response options for managing exploitation of freshwater aggregate resources include reducing demand for harvest, strengthening governance, reporting, and monitoring of environmental impacts, and promoting the restoration of degraded ecosystems or compensating for losses. Diverse case studies highlight examples of where various management actions have been implemented in an effort to consider how they can be scaled up and adapted to other contexts. Managing exploitation will be a key aspect of broader initiatives needed to protect and restore freshwater biodiversity around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethiopia's largest freshwater lake, Lake Tana, is home to 21 endemic fish species, the majority of which are cyprinids in the genus Labeobarbus. The lake is undergoing numerous ecological changes, including an invasion of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (WH). The aim of this study was to predict the future fish productivity in Lake Tana by considering the increasing water hyacinth infestation. This was accomplished by analyzing a 12-year fishery-independent time-series data set of Labeobarbus, collected from sites infested and not infested by water hyacinth. The stationarity of the data was investigated using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test. First-order data differencing was applied to solve the non-stationarity data to stationarity. With the same standardized fishing gillnet and the same sites, the CPUE during the dry season decreased from 3,502 grams (3.5 kg/day) in 2010 to 360 grams (0.36 kg) in 2020 at the water hyacinth-infested sites, demonstrating a 90% decrease in the daily catch. A reduction in catch per unit effort (CPUE) is evident at the WH sites in all seasons, and the rate of fall in there was faster than at the non-infested site. Box Jenkin's auto-regressive integrated moving average models (ARIMA) modelling predicted that Labeobarbus CPUE will decline by a threefold % by 2032 compared to the current catch. Based on these results, the most suitable model for all the seasons and areas was confirmed to be ARIMA (0, 1, 0) using the lowest value of Akaike Information Criteria (AIC's). The fish production declines with expanding WH infestation will necessitate integrated water hyacinth reduction strategies, closed area and closed spawning seasons, and mesh size regulations to conserve and utilize the resource sustainably. As Labeobarbus is the only examined species in this study, forecasts should be made for other commercially significant fish species in the Lake, such as Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake Shala, endorheic Soda Lake in the Ethiopian Riftvally Lake, supports an enormous biodiversity, with a large human population and economic development. However soda lakes are under several ecological changes, with unexpected shifts in biodiversity composition and physicochemical changes. This study focuses on assessing the community structure of zooplankton in Lake Shala. Samples were taken at monthly intervals from January to December 2018. A total of 32 zooplankton species were identified, of which 23 species were Rotifers and followed by Copepoda (6) and Cladocera (3). The community was dominated by Brachionus dimidiatus, B. dimidiatus inermis, B. plicatilis and B. calyciflorus. Their abundance exhibit significant seasonal and vertical variations (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Zooplankton community structure of Lake Shala has changed over time, benthic harpacticoids (Nitocra lacustris) have become replaced by small-bodied and generalist-feeder rotifers (genus Brachionus). Such ecological shifts may be driven mainly by partial atelomixis in this deep tropical lake. Overall, zooplankton species distribution and abundance are influenced by various environmental factors such as conductivity, salinity, Chl-a and nutrients. This study concludes that the composition and community structure of zooplankton in Lake Shala has changed over time with the change in physicochemical and internal limnological dynamics (atelomix). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]