Marine

Millions of people and billions of dollars depend on healthy oceans, but human actions create complex interactions that endanger oceans The combination of overfishing and climate change may be putting the oceans’ health – and our own wellbeing – at risk. As State of the World 2015 contributing author Katie Auth explains, protecting lives and livelihoods will require urgent and concerted ...

A panel of 35 experts convened by the Abidjan Convention Secretariat in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, gathered recently to examine how port and maritime activities affect biodiversity and ecosystems in the Convention region. The three-day workshop on the strategic assessment of environmental issues, policies and ports’ programmes in West, Central and Southern Africa was organised by the Abidjan Convention Secretariat with ...

CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Naoko Ishii last week announced at a gathering of global leaders in Apia, Samoa, the largest amount of GEF resources ever provided for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in its new four-year funding cycle.  For the period 2014-18, the GEF will make available a total of $256 million for projects to improve the ...

Conservationists have underlined the need to take practical action aimed at curbing sea level rise and save the environment. At a recent gathering (the 2014 Fauna and Flora Fancy Dress Competitions) in Lagos to observe the World Environment Day, they underscored the importance of joining the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and other groups’ effort on climate change enlightenment campaign aimed ...

The disclosure that oil has been discovered in commercial quantity in the Lagos offshore, within the confines of the Dahomey Basin, has been greeted with mixed feelings. Activist and President, Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey, made this known recently at a workshop in Lagos titled: “Oil in Lagos: What is in it for the planet?” Bassey said the ...

The idea of sustainable development has formed the basis of the Green Economy, which looks outward from land to the ocean space as a limitless horizon with unending resources. The Blue Economy, on the other hand, views a sustainable ocean economy as an integral part of the Green Economy. Alison Borgess, founder of the International Ocean Institute, sums up this ...