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News Mangroves of Western Africa threatened by global warming
afrol.com, 11 September - Global warming, a rising sea level and human exploitation threaten the fragile mangrove habitat of Western Africa. Due to the loss of habitat, significant losses of endemic species are expected. "Many tropical species may be unable to move quickly anyway," professor Jay R Malcolm told
afrol.com.
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Global warming
The Oceans are coming ashore
Award-winning writer and U.N. consultant Don Hinrichsen focuses on how in this century increases in sea levels of just one meter could displace up to one billion people and cause countless ecological tragedies in Africa and around the world. This article addresses global aspects of the climate change problem and why governments have been slow to act
on this disaster waiting to happen.
The Gambia would only lose around 10,000 hectares, but unfortunately that includes all of Banjul, its capital city. The entire city is no more than a
meter above sea level.
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Ecology
The Mangroves - an undervalued biotope
The mangroves are a characteristic forest biotope in tropical river estuaries and tidal zones. They constitute an incredible adaptation to the environmental conditions of entering salt, sea water and escaping sweet, riverine water. The forests are highly productive areas and in many places an underdeveloped resource. They still are widespread along the West African
coast from Senegal to Congo and locally in East Africa.
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Land
use
Major Gambian Land Use
Zones
The patterns of land use in The Gambia are related to the different
vegetation zones. These again depend heavily on the fluvial influence and soil conditions,
as the climatic conditions are relatively homogeneous all
over the country. In an overview, it can be stated that the mangroves are
fairly untouched by human action and the floodplains are used for irrigated
agriculture (e.g. rice) and to some extent for grazing and firewood gathering.
The plateau, on the other hand, is subject to rain fed agriculture (mainly food
staples and groundnuts) with fallow periods of differing duration, large scale
extensive grazing, firewood gathering and different types of human settlement
and edification.
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A griculture
The Gambia: The complexity of modernizing the agricultural Sector in Africa
Our library presents a thorough
analysis (Fyhri, 1998) of the modernising process of the
agricultural sector in Africa, the case studied being The Gambia.
From the summary:
Real "modernisation" is not dependent on the success of modernising strategies performed by the national authorities. On the contrary, this study has shown, through comparing different geographical and
decision making levels that the farmers are important decisionmakers in this process through their responses to external conditions. In fact the farmers seem to be the real exponents of modernisation; a modernisation defined by their own needs.
The farmers are responding in such a manner that their economical situation is stable and uncertainty is limited. Further, focusing on the differences in perceptions between the agricultural authorities and the farmers has shown a rather modified picture of the development, which not at all is strictly negative for the farming household. Contrary to conventional wisdom, with the basis at a household scale, the agricultural sector of The Gambia is not stagnant, but transforming....
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