Flipflopi embarks on its second voyage in Africa
Umber Studio/Flipflopi / 12 Mar 2021
The Flipflopi, a dhow made from recycled plastic, has set sail on its second voyage, taking to riverine communities in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to highlight the importance of reversing the damage of plastic pollution to communities that depend on Lake Victoria.
Embarking from Kisumu, Kenya on 7 March, the Flipflopi crew will spend three weeks on the water, engaging with communities, activists and local entrepreneurs, and highlighting the challenge of microplastics and their impact on fish stocks and water quality.
Ismail Ali, a crew member, prepares the Flipflopi to set sail. Photo: Umber Studio/Flipflopi
Five things the world is saying about ecosystem restoration
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – set to launch during World Environment Day on 5 June – aims to rally citizens, governments and corporations around one common goal: preventing, halting and reversing the destruction of natural spaces.
The drive comes as experts warn that ecosystems around the world are facing collapse. The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Denmark – and over the past century, half of the globe’s wetlands have been drained.
“The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s mission is as important as it is daunting,” says Tim Christophersen, coordinator of the UN Decade with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Duck conservation takes flight in Jamaica
On January 20, 2021, the day of the inauguration of American president Joe Biden, two ducks named “Joe” and “Kamala” took flight from a remote wetland near Negril, Jamaica. And, like their namesakes, the fowl will be the focus of international attention.
That’s because Joe and Kamala are West Indian whistling ducks, the rarest duck species in the Americas, with fewer than 20,000 remaining, found only in the northern Caribbean. Conservationists released the pair, which were outfitted with GPS trackers, into the wild on 20 January, kicking off a study to learn more about their species and, researchers hope, ensure their survival.
Can coral reef restoration save one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change?
Photo by CRIB / 18 Jan 2021
Coral reefs are some of the most ecologically and economically valuable ecosystems on our planet. Covering less than 0.1 per cent of the world’s ocean, they support over 25 per cent of marine biodiversity and serve at least a billion people with a wide range of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, fisheries production, sources of medicine, recreational benefits, and tourism revenues.
We can’t afford to lose this valuable ecosystem. As we strive to accelerate climate action to halt global warming, there is great urgency to protect our remaining reefs. How to do this is the subject of a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), which concludes that well-planned, well-funded and long-term coral reef restoration can be a useful tool to support coral reef resilience.