CRC Joins Hundreds of Fishers for World Fisheries Day Celebration in Ghana

 

Dignitaries at high table
Dignitaries at the high table: From left – Paramount Chief of Cape Coast (Osabarima Kwesi Atta II – with microphone in hand); USAID/SFMP Chief of Party (Dr. Brian Crawford); President, National Fish Processors and Traders Association (Mrs. Regina Solomon)

The Coastal Resources Center (CRC), through its USAID-supported Sustainable Fisheries Management Project in Ghana, joined many around the globe to commemorate World Fisheries Day 2016, centered on the theme empowering fishing communities.” The event culminated with fishing communities signing a pledge to promote and commit to responsible fishing practices, in Cape Coast; close to the Castle visited by President Obama several years ago. World Fisheries Day is celebrated every year on November 21. The celebration in Ghana however took place on Tuesday November 22; because Tuesdays are traditional fishing holidays for artisanal fishers in Ghana. The event was organized by the major fishermen and fish processors associations in Ghana and is by the fisher folk and for the fisher folk to express their concerns about declining fish stocks in Ghana’s marine waters and their commitments to support sustainable and responsible fishing practices to rebuild Ghana’s marine fisheries; the marine sector makes up approximately 80% of the country’s domestic landings, employs over 140,000 people and provides 60% of the animal protein in local diet. For more information, click here

US EPA Administrator lauds SFMP Smoker Initiatives during visit to Ghana

Administrator Gina McCarthy of the US Environmental Protection Agency, says 17,000 Ghanaians die annually from air pollution. “Women and children are more vulnerable; 200,000 children in Ghana keep suffering from air pollution. When children suffer, the economy suffers. It is therefore important and ideal to continue developing technologies like clean cook stoves that reduce air pollution.” She made the remarks at a public lecture in Cape Coast after a visit to a focal site of the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project – SFMP – in Elmina on Monday, October 10. The visit, forms part of a series of tours in Ghana, to foster greater collaboration and commitment between the US and Ghana Governments relative to climate change.  Click here for full story

“Fishing Communities in Ghana to Benefit from Micro-Insurance”

Coastal Resources Center, four others sign agreement

The Coastal Resources Center of the University of Rhode Island and four other organizations signed an agreement Tuesday, October 11, 2016, in Accra to provide life micro-insurance for fishing communities in Ghana. This initiative is under the auspices of the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project, a US Government Feed the Future Initiative. The initiative also forms part of a commitment to transform and develop Ghana’s Fisheries and Agricultural sector. It is also aimed at supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for poverty and hunger reduction. Read full story

CRC Welcomes Graduate Students as Milestone in Major Effort to Strengthen Africa’s Coastal Management Expertise

Ghana Grad studentsThe University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center (URI CRC) is proudly hosting seven graduate students from Africa, with affiliations at several colleges, who are, with CRC guidance, pursuing URI master’s and doctoral degrees in varied fields to ultimately help build the capacity of their own communities to engage in innovative coastal management planning and practice. CRC is engaged in extensive coastal management and fisheries related projects in the countries of Ghana and Malawi; bolstering the professional development of emerging leaders and in-country practitioners is a critical aspect of the work — a focus emphasized by URI President David M. Dooley at his recent meeting with University of Cape Coast/Ghana (UCC) leadership to initiate a learning exchange between the schools. Funding for the graduate student effort is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While one student, Evans Arizi of Ghana, is already well underway with his URI study program, six more are embarking this semester. From Ghana: Rosina Cobbina, Ivy Gyimah, Vida Osei and Evelyn Takyi. From Malawi: Innocent Gumulira and Elliot Lungu. Please join CRC in extending a warm welcome to this student group.

US Ambassador to Ghana Urges Ghanaian Fisher folk to Maintain Children in Home Environment

August 12, 2016 – The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P Jackson on Friday, appealed to fisher folk in Elmina, an important fishing port in the Central Region, to maintain children in their home environment with their families and offer them good education instead of trafficking them into child labor-related activities that affect their health and ability to develop properly in life. Ambassador Jackson made the call when he visited the fishing community, which is a focal site of the USAID-funded Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), implemented by the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. Read the full story

Global Impact for Good

URI President Dooley blogs about his visit to CRC project sites in Ghana.

An important outcome of the projects is the development of partnerships in Ghana and the West Africa region involving government agencies, universities, and NGOs. Our two key partners in Ghana are the University of Cape Coast (UCC), with the SFMP, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), with the ASSESS project.

 

Hundreds Attend President Dooley’s Lecture in Ghana

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President Dooley signs a memorandum of understanding with University of Cape Coast, Ghana, colleagues Friday in Ghana. (credit: Patricia Mensah, CRC/SFMP)

Hundreds of people attended Friday’s public lecture by URI President David M. Dooley at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana and later witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CRC/URI and UCC’s Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and Centre for Coastal Management, during the president’s first trip to the West African nation.

During his talk, President Dooley said his vision upon assuming office as president of URI was to vastly increase internationalization and globalization of the school and its students because the world we live in is not just interconnected but interdependent and hyper-connected. Such hyper-connectedness includes a global economy and society in which citizens communicate in seconds and not in days or weeks. The complexity of the modern world includes great challenges, such as climate change, which is beyond one single nation’s ability to solve alone, he continued.

“With these global challenges also come global opportunities. We need to focus more on the opportunities,” he told the audience.

He continued: The less-developed world is not responsible for the lion’s share of atmospheric changes, but it and the entire world have to live with the consequence. That is not the only challenge with global consequences: War in one country affects the entire world; the outbreak of diseases, quality of the air we breathe, sustainability of the food supply, disputes and conflicts are all global issues, he said.

“We are no longer insulated by borders and oceans as we once were, but in all this, are global opportunities and demand for higher education,” President Dooley said.

During the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, President Dooley received a gift of rich local Ghanaian kente cloth and sandals. The entire URI delegation received souvenirs from UCC as a symbol of friendship.

President Dooley meets with incoming URI graduate students from Ghana Saturday. (credit: Patricia Mensah, CRC/SFMP)
President Dooley meets with incoming URI graduate students from Ghana Saturday. (credit: Patricia Mensah, CRC/SFMP)

President Dooley continued his inaugural trip to Ghana Saturday when he met with four doctoral and two master’s students bound for URI on a USAID-funded scholarship program. The graduate students went through an intensive and competitive selection process to emerge as recipients of the scholarships. President Dooley congratulated and welcomed the students in advance to URI and hoped they make the most of the experience.

Two USAID projects, USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) and USAID/UCC Capacity Strengthening Project are collaborating in this effort.

Also Saturday, two research assistants from UCC supporting SFMP’s research and improved data quality systems activities demonstrated how they collect fish stock data.

 

CRC Gives Grad Student from Ghana Opportunity to Make a Difference

Evans Arizi, Ph.D. student from Ghana shown at GSO in March. (Credit: Allison Farrelly)
Evans Arizi, Ph.D. student from Ghana shown at GSO in March. (Credit: Allison Farrelly)

As a young boy growing up in a coastal village in Ghana, URI graduate student Evans Arizi could see the economic importance of fish.

He saw local fishermen  in Metika and Anlomatuope — fishing villages near the border of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa — paddle their canoes into the waves and watched international boats cast nets into the water to reel in Ghana’s main source of protein.

He also saw how frequently fishing resources were exploited.

“The challenges are many,” Arizi, 29, says. “Some fishermen are using inadvisable methods of fishing, and the territorial waters are not protected due to insufficient logistics, so anyone can come in there and fish.”

In Ghana, lack of government investment in sustainable fishing policies has created a plethora of problems with illegal fishing. Because fishing laws are not properly enforced, vessels frequently use incorrect gear, like nets that are too small to free bycatches and immature fish, therefore increasing their catch and profits but depleting the stock of young fish before they can reproduce. Though fishermen are supposed to report juvenile catches, many do not out of fear of punishment. Arizi says local fishermen sometimes adhere to practices that pollute waters and lead to species degradation.

“Local authorities back these illegal practices out of greed,” he says. “(They think,) ‘Let me think of my stomach, let me not think of others.’ ”

Arizi aims to help change that culture at home, and the path to that goal has taken him to URI. He was introduced to the university through CRC. As an undergraduate, he participated in a fish stock assessment training program that was part of a CRC sustainable fisheries project in Ghana, which “provided many useful relevant materials” to local fishing communities, he says.

CRC currently leads a group of partners in the five-year Sustainable Fisheries Management Project in Ghana funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Ghana SFMP). The project aims to improve conditions for sustainable local fishing practices, help fishing communities become stewards of their resources, strengthen information systems for managing fisheries and increase awareness for protecting fisheries ecosystems and the people who rely on them for their livelihoods, among other goals.

To help create the next generation of fisheries scientists and leaders in Ghana, the project is facilitating student exchanges and scholarship opportunities at URI in collaboration with the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Arizi’s alma mater. Through CRC, Arizi applied for a scholarship to earn a PhD in Biological and Environmental Sciences at URI. He was accepted and moved to URI to begin the three-and-a-half-year program in January. It was his first time outside of Ghana.

“When the opportunity came for me to come here I was so excited,” Arizi says. “I felt that by coming here I would get the necessary materials and resources to be equipped to handle the opposition (to implementing and enforcing sustainable fishing laws in Ghana).”

Before coming to URI, Arizi worked as a principal research assistant for the Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. That experience, his fieldwork with CRC and his course work as an undergrad and graduate student at the university in Ghana brought the fisheries challenges into sharp focus. Much of it comes down to competition, Arizi says.

“When an individual spots a friend doing such an unwarranted act (like illegal fishing practices), he will decide to do the same,” Arizi says. While he believes the government needs to implement and enforce fishing laws recommended to them by many — including SFMP, which helped the country draft the recently adopted National Fisheries Management Plan — the most important change needed is in the behavior of fishermen.

“The fishermen have to change their behavior and also put their trust in others, he says.

Arizi hopes that his wife, whom he married a month before moving to Rhode Island, eventually can join him. Currently, however, his main focus is his studies. “I don’t want to get any Cs, not at all, so I have to work hard,” Arizi says. “My wife keeps on encouraging me to do well.” He is the first member of his family to go to college; however, he hopes his six siblings can follow his lead.

Though Arizi says that working to excel in his five classes often means waking up early in the morning and staying up late at night, he likes graduate school.

“God has done a lot for me, because of all my friends who started out in school at the same time, I’m the only one who made it to this level,” Arizi says. “I like education; knowledge is power.”

— Allison Farrelly

 

 

CRC’s Crawford Quoted in Coverage of Journalists for Sustainable Fisheries Workshop

African news outlets, including Ghana’s Graphic Online and All Africa.com have been reporting on the multi-day African Journalists for Sustainable Fisheries workshop in Accra, Ghana, and quoted CRC’s Dr. Brian Crawford, chief of party for the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), regarding policies that have led to overfishing, the need for measures to reverse over-exploitation and the need to share  stories of success in sustainably managing fisheries in Africa.

Ghana University Officials to Visit URI As Part of $24 Million Sustainable Fisheries Project

Fishing canoes crowd a landing site in Dixcove in the western region of Ghana. (Credit: Ellen Harasimowicz)
Fishing canoes crowd a landing site in Dixcove in the western region of Ghana. (Credit: Ellen Harasimowicz)

A delegation from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana will visit the University of Rhode Island next week as part of a $24 million sustainable fisheries project led by the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

The Ghana delegation will meet with URI President David M. Dooley Jan. 27 to expand on a memorandum of understanding that the universities signed in May 2015.

The agreement includes opportunities for cooperative research as well as faculty and student exchanges in Ghana and at URI. The West African university has a longstanding partnership with URI through CRC-led coastal management and food security projects in Ghana. Currently, CRC is leading the implementation of the five-year, $24 million United States Agency for International Development Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project. The USAID grant is the largest ever awarded to URI.

Two fisheries experts from URI’s coastal center, Brian Crawford, in-country project director, and Najih Lazar, senior fisheries advisor, have been living in Ghana for the past year to help lead the project. Its goal is to revitalize marine fisheries stocks through responsible fishing practices and improved governance and ultimately benefit the more than 100,000 women and men involved in the Ghana fishing industry.

As part of this project, CRC and URI are working to build the research, educational and outreach capacity of the University of Cape Coast in coastal and fisheries management.

“Collaboration with the University of Cape Coast is an important element of the project, as one of the critical objectives of it is to build the skills and knowledge of Ghanaian stakeholders so they can continue the vital work of sustaining their fisheries sector and coastal communities long after this URI-led project has ended,” said Donald Robadue, sustainable fisheries project manager at CRC.

Leaders from both universities will discuss several aspects of the collaboration, with particular emphasis on student and faculty exchanges. These include developing an undergraduate program for URI students in Ghana during J Term, identifying areas of joint research among faculty, exploring opportunities for professional development and examining other areas of potential cooperation in marine fisheries, aquaculture and coastal resources.

The University of Cape Coast delegation also will visit URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus to meet with Graduate School of Oceanography Dean Bruce Corliss and talk with CRC colleagues about the details of the ongoing collaboration.