Ro McConnell was a pioneer biologist studying the ecology and evolution of the rich diversity of freshwater fishes in African lakes. One focus of her research was how tilapia, which evolved in African waters but now are an important food fish worldwide, lived in their original habitats. The tilapia trail : the life story of a fish biologist tells the story of her research with accounts of field...
Light micrograph of Vorticella parasite in Lake Ngami tadpole
HOORC's Library recently received a copy of the proceedings of the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa Conference held in Gaborone this year. The volume includes two papers about aquatic life in Lake Ngami, Tadpole ciliophorans of Lake Ngami, Botswana by L.L. Van As and J.G. Van As and Succession of zooplankton re-establishment in...
A copy of Botswana's new fisheries regulations has arrived in HOORC's Library. Statutory Instrument no. 41 of 2008, the Fish protection regulations, 2008 set out for the first time detailed instructions for both commercial and recreational fishing under Botswana's Fish Protection Act. Included are regulations related to licensing, restriction of gillnet size, importation and sale, open seasons,...
Nineteen University of Botswana undergraduate students completed their work for HOORC's Winter Course this week, wrapping up their fieldwork assignments with presentations of the results of their research. This year's work included economics studies from Mbakile P. Seabe - Household attitudes and willingness to pay for the conservation of Lake Ngami, Botswana -- Kaelo Galeage - The impact of...
In
Economics,
Education,
public health,
Livelihoods,
Research,
Vegetation,
Cultural Resources,
Community Based Natural Resource Management,
Pollution,
Water Resources,
fisheries
Recently published as Number 6 in HOORC's Okavango Report Series is the Socio-economic survey of subsistence fishing in the Okavango Delta, Botswana by HOORC researchers Barbara Ngwenya and Keta Mosepele. The report argues for development of a national fisheries policy that could support and safeguard traditional basket fishing as an important livelihood activity in the Delta. Dr Ngwenya also...
Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, (FEOW) aims to provide a global biogeographic regionalization of the Earth's freshwater biodiversity. Covering virtually all freshwater habitats on Earth, this ecoregion map, with associated species data, is to be used for underpinning global and regional conservation planning efforts, particularly to identify outstanding and imperiled freshwater systems; for...
Dr Liesl van As, fish parasite specialist from the University of the Free State, has alerted us to Large allozyme variation within populations and isozyme differences between Clarias gariepinus and C. ngamensis from the Okavango Delta, Botswana by University of Johannesburg scientists Herman van der Bank and Nico Smit, published in the African Journal of Aquatic Science in 2007. The authors...
Fishing on the Thamalakane River 2007
Integrating gender and livelihoods in a biodiversity project : a case study of the invisible stakeholders in the Okavango Delta Panhandle, a Master's thesis by Barbara Herrero Cangas for the University College London, looks at how women are participating in the fisheries co-management work of the BIOKAVANGO Project. Cangas' interviews with women who fish...
As incredible as it may sound, the world's oceans are running out of fish [ark]. Terribly wasteful and unsustainable industrial harvest of natural, wild fisheries [search] has led to much of humanity's swollen population eating ever smaller fish from inexorably shrinking populations. "Ninety years of industrial-scale exploitation of fish has... led to 'ecological meltdown'. Whole biological food chains have been destroyed."
Remaining high quality fish stocks are being stolen by rich nations from developing countries, and neither politicians nor consumers have invested much in developing a sustainable wild fish industry. Solutions including marine reserves [search] and greatly diminished harvests, including bans on some species as they recover, are possible and needed immediately. If not...
Dr Barbara Ngwenya, HOORC livelihoods specialist currently on sabbatical leave at the at the Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University, made two presentations at Ohio State at the end of April. Dr Ngwenya delivered “An Overview of Research Opportunities and Challenges at the Okavango Research Centre ,...
Inception workshops for research to support the BIOKAVANGO project were held last week in Maun.
5th December 2007: Consultancy for the preparation of the Okavango Delta aquaculture guidelines. Water Farming Botswana is the consultant.
7th December 2007: Usufruct rights framework for joint management systems for fish and veldt products in the Upper Panhandle. S Thapelo Attorneys is the...
Trichodina magna parasite of Cichlid fishes
Professor Jo G. Van As and Dr Liesl L.van As of the Dept. of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, South Africa, visited HOORC's Library today with copies of published work from the last ten years of their research on fish parasites in the Okavango system. The Van As team is looking at the interactions among parasites and their hosts...
The African Water Resource Database (AWRD) is a set of data and custom-designed tools, combined in a geographic information system (GIS) analytical framework aimed at facilitating responsible inland aquatic resource management with a specific focus on inland fisheries and aquaculture. The AWRD was designed based on recommendations of the Committee on Inland Fisheries for Africa (CIFA) and is...
Recent publications issued by HOORC academic staff and associates make a multidisciplinary contribution to natural resources issues relevant to Okavango Delta planning and management. Dr Lapologang Magole's paper in the conservation and human rights special issue of the IUCN's Policy Matters, The history of conservation evictions in Botswana : the struggle continues, with new hope provides an...
HIV/AIDS nutrition specialist Alastair Duncan reports his travels in northern Botswana, noting the value of fish in the diet of people living on the banks of the Chobe River. You can read about his observations in his weblog, HIV Nutrition Information Exchange. In HOORC's Library, you can find Artisanal fishing and food security in the Okavango Delta, Botswana by HOORC researchers K. Mosepele...
Tilapia ruweti from the Atlas
The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)'s Atlas of Southern African freshwater fishes was created with GIS tools from specimen records collected between the years 1885 and 2000 in 11 countries of southern Africa. Two hundred and fifty four fish species from catchments of the Zambezi, Okavango and Cunene are represented. Each species...
HOORC Senior Librarian Monica Morrison is in Lilongwe, Malawi with delegates from Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi Tanzania and Europe for the third biennial meeting of the African Regional Group of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers. The meeting this year is hosted by the Bunda College of Agriculture, whose Aquaculture and...
HOORC has recently added two new fact sheets to its series of publications that explain the workings of the Okavango Delta: Water Balance of the Okavango Delta and Fishes of the Okavango Delta. The fact sheets, written in plain language and illustrated, can be downloaded from HOORC's web...
Winter Course Student Presentations
HOORC’s 2007 class of University of Botswana Winter Course students were completing their project reports this week, following six weeks of intensive study and fieldwork in the Okavango Delta and Ngamiland. Seanokeng Kedisaletse and Boikanyo Mokgweetsi looked at different aspects of solid waste management with Solid waste management in Maun, and Household...
A new policy brief from the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (with a West Africa focus) reviews the uses and potential impact of existing and emerging information and communications technologies in fisheries and fishing communities.
It argues that there is an urgent need to focus strategically on ensuring that:the exploitation and spread of the new technologies in fisheries is...
The Africa Science web log recently passed on a news story from SciDev.net about the disease that killed fish in parts of the Zambezi River last year. A team of scientists from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Thailand's Inland Aquatic Animal Health Research Institute, and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in the Asia-Pacific identified the disease as Epizootic...
The June 2007 issue of the Spatial Data Infrastructure - Africa Newsletter reports completion of fundamental geo-spatial datasets for Africa by the Mapping for Africa Initiative -- you can find out more at the geoinformation site of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The newsletter also highlights the SADC Water Resource database, the MDG Mapper that visualizes staus of the...
An early morning walk along the banks of the Thamalakane River at Matalapana in Maun on Sunday found local people busy harvesting fish brought close to the surface by the drying of the river. Plastic buckets and bags, home-made spears, sticks, nets and traditional fishing baskets were being used to capture bream, pike and barbel, and children were breakfasting on freshly cooked fish over an...
Aquatic and marine science librarians and information specialists will meet in Florida for the 33rd IAMSLIC Conference. Topics on the agenda include:
Digital archiving, repositories and technology
Author’s rights, open access publishing and open data
Grey literature
Web 2.0, a catch phrase or a new phase for your library?
Natural disasters: is there any way to be ready?
Geographic Information...
IAMSLIC (International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers), FAO,and other partners are working towards the establishment of a coordinated 'aquatic commons' - to include a digital repository and harvester for fisheries and marine science.
The proposed model includes an 'open access OAI compliant repository' and a 'thematic harvester' offering federated...
Simon Wilkinson and Jean Collins recently authored a set of excellent guidelines on digital publishing for small organizations.
Published by the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, the guidelines tackle the need to disseminate and share the results of [fisheries] research, especially where reliable, high speed and cost-effective Internet access is limited.
The guidelines are based on the...
HOORC’s project, Building Local Capacity for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in the Okavango Delta (BIOKAVANGO). is inviting motivated, dynamic and experienced people to serve in one of its three Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) representing the fisheries, water, and tourism sectors. The advisors will provide technical advice to the project implementation process, and ensure...
Fishes from the Okavango courtesy Aquarap Project
World Wetlands Day activities in the Okavango on February 2nd included a HOORC Biokavango Project staff guided tour of three Okavango village sites for Botswana journalists. This year's theme, Fish for Tomorrow, was explored through meetings with artisanal, commercial and sports fisher folk in Nxaraga, the Panhandle and Moremi Game Reserve....
From 8-12 October 2006, members of IAMSLIC will hold their annual conference in Portland, Oregon.
Bringing people together from "every continent and every ocean", discussion topics include:The role of librarians as catalysts in narrowing the digital divide - with speakers talking of experiences in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Ongoing regional digital repository projects are also profiled - including the 'ODINCARSA' Latin-American and Caribbean Digital Repository that collects, inputs and disseminates scientific production of member institutions into a digital, web based, and open access repository; and the African 'OdinPubAfrica' e-Repository with content from 14 participating countries.
Beyond these e-repositories, open access projects strongly feature on the programme,...
A 2004 paper by Simon Wilkinson, Sih Yang Sim and Yoothana Suansook introduces how the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) has developed and implemented a low cost ICT-based communications network and online community. Visiting the NACA web site today is an eye-opener with the whole presentation framed around online tools and online community - news, publications, forums and rss feeds all feature prominentlyThe key components of the 'eNACA' strategy are:Community driven – participants can contribute to the content of the website, and interact with one another through online forums;Use of a multi-media approach to repackage knowledge for distribution in a wide variety of formats;A web-based digital library to store, organize and share full-text publications;An email...