Search

Our study of periodic octopus closures helps to fill an empirical gap in community-based marine protected area (MPA) research on socially-diverse multidimensional wellbeing impacts. Human wellbeing provides a more meaningful and holistic measure of social impacts than previous economic measures while recognising equity- evidence that ultimately ensures support and enables long-term success in conservation. We trace the flow of benefits, costs and burdens from closures at three sites in Zanzibar and explore how different types of fishers and traders perceive impacts. This is done at a personal, livelihood group and village or community level, as well as in terms of ecosystem effects. Storytelling, photo-elicitation tasks and focused discussions prioritized participants’ emic descriptions and understandings of closures. We iteratively, qualitatively coded data using a three-dimensional (material, relational and subjective) social wellbeing approach. Despite different conditions and histories at the three sites, participants identified similar wellbeing attributes as affected by the closure. Themes included social conflict, non-compliance, income, education, food/nutrition, and communal benefits reflecting recent literature on MPAs and human wellbeing. Perceptions of inequity cross cut all three dimensions and gender was a strong dimension that emphasized procedural and distributional inequity between different types of livelihood groups e.g. small-scale traderwomen and male skindivers. Material wellbeing losses due to poor market environments highlighted how better alignment is needed between periodic closure activities and resulting value chain dynamics. Opening events intensely impacted wellbeing across all dimensions, suggesting that these moments are critical for creating positive perceptions or losing support for closures.

Abstract: Climate change is expected to profoundly affect key food production sectors, including fisheries and agriculture. However, the potential impacts of climate change on these sectors are rarely considered jointly, and when they are, it is often at a national scale, which can mask substantial variability in how communities will be affected. Here, we combine socioeconomic surveys and intersectoral multi-model simulation outputs to conduct a sub-national analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries and agriculture in 72 coastal communities across five Indo-Pacific countries. Our study reveals three key findings: First, we find that the overall potential losses to fisheries is higher than potential losses to agriculture, but there is substantial within-country variability. Second, while more than two-thirds of locations will bear a double burden of potential losses to both fisheries and agriculture simultaneously, mitigation could reduce the proportion of places facing a double burden. Third, lower socioeconomic status communities are more likely to experience potential impacts than higher socioeconomic status communities.

Climate change is expected to profoundly affect key food production sectors, including fisheries and agriculture. However, the potential impacts of climate change on these sectors are rarely considered jointly, especially below national scales, which can mask substantial variability in how communities will be affected. Here, we combine socioeconomic surveys of 3,008 households and intersectoral multi-model simulation outputs to conduct a sub-national analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries and agriculture in 72 coastal communities across five Indo-Pacific countries (Indonesia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Tanzania). Our study reveals three key findings: First, overall potential losses to fisheries are higher than potential losses to agriculture. Second, while most locations (> 2/3) will experience potential losses to both fisheries and agriculture simultaneously, climate change mitigation could reduce the proportion of places facing that double burden. Third, potential impacts are more likely in communities with lower socioeconomic status.

Responses of agriculture and fisheries to climate change are interlinked, yet rarely studied together. Here, the authors analyse more than 3000 households from 5 tropical countries and forecast mid-century climate change impacts, finding that communities with higher fishery dependence and lower socioeconomic status communities face greater losses.

The small-scale fisheries food system, in which individuals achieve food security independently or in small groups through fishing livelihoods and/or subsistence activities, provides food sovereignty for millions globally. However, this arrangement has inequitable engagement due to strictly enforced gendered roles in many communities, including coastal Kenya. Recently, critics across environmental research disciplines have called for social justice in science through anticolonial, feminist methodologies and interdisciplinary praxis. This resistance may take form through the “carrier bag” ability of fiction: an allusion to Le Guin's visionary analysis of containers as the first cultural device and evidence of the power of a story or personal sovereignty to tell one's story. Drawing from creative, service-driven methodologies emerging from collaboration among international research team members and Indigenous research participants, this project uses the “carrier bag” framework to support local environmental justice and food sovereignty goals through a science storybook resource created and shared with fishing families in Kilifi County, Kenya. We investigate how stories shape interpersonal relations in the context of this collaboration and how health knowledge, environmental science, and representational imagery can be tools for justice by examining the connections between social identity, family values, and social-ecological change in this food system. Having a deeper understanding of the experiences, changing ecosystems, and research feedback of these families allows this work to support fisheries management and nutrition interventions in Kenya and communities elsewhere.

Marine foods produced by small-scale fishers can make vital contributions to sustainable, healthy food systems with multisectoral considerations of public health nutrition, gender equity, economics, and marine ecology. This pilot study aimed to map the multidimensional determinants of fish food security and young child nutrition in four coastal communities of Kenya with a view toward designing a large intervention trial. We compared anthropometric and dietary diversity indicators of children under 5 years in fishing vs. non-fishing households. Mixed methods included household surveys, 24-h recalls for dietary intake, and anthropometric measures of children. Child dietary diversity score (CDDS) and height-for-age Z (HAZ) were primary outcomes tested in ordinary least square regression modeling. Stunting was widely prevalent (20.2%), as were morbidities for acute diarrhea (29.0%) and fever (46.5%), with no statistically significant differences in fishing compared to non-fishing households. High proportions of children showed nutrient intake inadequacies for vitamins A, C, and E, iron and zinc;

Introduction. Whilst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination rollout is well underway, there is a concern in Africa where less than 2% of global vaccinations have occurred. In the absence of herd immunity, health promotion remains essential. YouTube has been widely utilised as a source of medical information in previous outbreaks and pandemics. There are limited data on COVID-19 information on YouTube videos, especially in languages widely spoken in Africa. This study investigated the quality and reliability of such videos. Methods. Medical information related to COVID-19 was analysed in 11 languages (English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Nigerian Pidgin, Hausa, Twi, Arabic, Amharic, French, and Swahili). Cohen’s Kappa was used to measure inter-rater reliability. A total of 562 videos were analysed. Viewer interaction metrics and video characteristics, source, and content type were collected. Quality was evaluated using the Medical Information Content Index (MICI) scale and reliability was evaluated by the modified DISCERN tool. Results. Kappa coefficient of agreement for all languages was p

Multiple fisher groups target billfish species, each with different motivations and experiences, which can influence the effectiveness and sustainability of governance approaches. However, limited studies underscore the perceptions of billfish resource users in defining and implementing governance in the Western Indian Ocean region. We conducted 211 semi-structured qualitative interviews between December 2020 and September 2021, to explore how artisanal fishers perceive the performance and sustainability of governance approaches in Kenya, with a focus on billfish. Our findings show that artisanal fishers have adequate knowledge of fishing laws and regulations, as well as governing institutions and their performance. Further, artisanal fishers had a positive attitude and support for fishing rules, managing institutions, and effectiveness of governance intervention. Specifically, the fishers rated Beach Management Units (BMUs) as highly effective in implementing fisheries rules, indicating the involvement of fishers in co-management of fisheries and tendency for governance success and sustainability. This highlights the need to strengthen and support BMUs as an effective governance tool in the co-management of fisheries. We draw attention to our first-time study of the contribution of artisanal billfish fishers to governance of shared fisheries resources. We show that involvement of resource users promotes a bottom-up approach to the co-management of billfish which compliments the current regional and national efforts that have largely focused on commercial fisheries. Our research adds to the scientific body of knowledge on the importance of perceptions in the formation of natural resource governance interventions at varying scales, especially for transboundary species in data-poor areas.

BackgroundOne in five young children globally suffer the consequences of stunted growth and development and millions experience deficiencies in zinc, iron, iodine, vitamins A and B12, nutrients found bioavailable in fish foods. Small-scale fisheries have the potential to generate income and augment fish consumption while being environmentally sustainable if appropriately managed. However, those engaged in small-scale fisheries are often marginalized, poor, and malnourished. The Samaki Salama project seeks to better understand and address these challenges through a three-arm, longitudinal matched cluster study which evaluates the impact of an integrated nutrition social marketing and modified fishing trap intervention.MethodsThere will be 400 small-scale fisher households enrolled from Kilifi County, Kenya and residing in communities matched on location (rural), livelihoods, and child nutritional status. The sample will include mothers and other caregivers, children 6–60 months, and fishers in the family. Applying a cluster design, the matched communities will be divided into three groups: (1) control (n = 200); (2) multi-component nutrition social marketing intervention to fishers, mothers, and health workers (n = 100); and (3) multi-component nutrition social marketing intervention plus modified fishing traps and training (n = 100). Primary outcomes include child growth, fish food intakes, and fisheries yield of mature fish. Secondary outcomes are diet diversity, child diarrheal morbidity, and fisheries revenue. A process evaluation will be used to monitor and ensure fidelity of intervention delivery.DiscussionThis study builds on a growing body of literature illustrating the effectiveness of nutrition focused social marketing campaigns to promote active engagement of participants, high compliance to the intervention, and sustained behavior change. The second intervention element of modified fishing traps that allow immature fish to escape enables participants to act on the messaging they receive and promotes sustainable fishing through increased harvest efficiency and reduced catch of immature fish. The integrated approach of the Samaki Salama intervention provides an example of how to leverage multiple disciplines to address key challenges to human and environmental health and illustrates a pathway for scaling study innovations to other small-scale fisheries systems.Trial registrationhttps://clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05254444).

Biogas bioslurry, which is normally a bio-digestion product from livestock refuse, can be utilized as an inorganic fertilizer, thus boosting not only soil fertility but also crop growth and yield. Its use can mitigate climate change by reducing methane gas emissions, which are associated with the direct application of fresh animal manure. The current study was carried out on farmer’s fields based at Wusi-Kishamba and Werugha wards in Taita Taveta County, Kenya, and it aimed at investigating the effect of bioslurry coupled with synthetic fertilizer on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) growth and yield. There were four treatments: sole bioslurry, sole fertilizer (DAP), bioslurry + DAP, and control, which were replicated five times in a randomized, complete block-designed layout. Data were collected on plant growth (plant height and leaf length) and yield (marketable and unmarketable tubers and the number of tubers plant−1). The results indicated a general increase in plant height from week one to week seven, where peak values were noted with sole slurry, sole fertilizer, and bioslurry + DAP treatments, which recorded 9, 18, and 43% taller plants, respectively, relative to control. Further, the combined application of bioslurry and DAP fertilizer significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved potato growth and yield. For instance, there was a higher (23.3 t ha−1) yield in bioslurry + DAP treatment compared to the respective least record of 14.2 t ha−1 in control. Therefore, the study recommends a synergistic application of synthetic fertilizer (DAP) and bioslurry to potato crops for optimal crop growth and production.

This study examines barriers to fish consumption during the complementary feeding period in two coastal counties of Kenya with high rates of child malnutrition. Study findings indicate that young child fish consumption is impacted by factors related to accessibility, food preferences, and caregiver’s knowledge and beliefs about fish during the complementary feeding period. These factors are influenced by prominent community figures such as elder women and health workers, whose own beliefs and understandings are impacted by underlying cultural norms, potentially limiting fish consumption. To our knowledge, this is the first study conducted in the coastal region of Kenya to focus on understanding fish consumption attitudes and beliefs during the complementary feeding phase. Our findings represent a critical first step towards the creation of more effective policies and interventions to address the significant nutritional disparities that exist in the study population.