2019 Gumbo final - Book - Page 38
Tanzania Project
Professor studies effects on coastline
SU’s College of the Coast and Environment travelled
to Tanzania to study the effects of economical and
socio-economical impact on the coastline. Graduate
students Xiaochen Zhao and Mario Hernandez, along
with several other students, traveled with oceanography and
coastal sciences associate professor Victor H. Rivera-Monroy to
evaluate 13 different villages across the Pangani and Rufiji districts
of Tanzania. They analyzed the local mangrove ecosystems with
human influence and interaction.
Africa is a continent where poverty is even more [widespread] than
in the Americas.”
Rivera-Monroy has done work in tropical areas with mangroves,
which are one of the dominant wetlands around the world. He
chose to travel to Tanzania because “it’s right there.”
“Everything related to environmental issues has a mix of different
factors coming from the environment itself and how humans use
the environment,” Rivera-Monroy said. “In order to do a really good
job in trying to understand the relationship between poverty and the
ecology of wetlands you have to have a multi-disciplinary team.”
“The coast of Tanzania is undergoing major social changes, and
it has a very challenged economy,” Rivera-Monroy said. “The
National Science Foundation has several projects for implementing
an understanding of how natural systems are affected by society,
especially how that occurs in developing countries.
Rivera-Monroy said they all wrote a proposal to work with economies
with scientists who do coastal ecology including fisheries.
Rivera-Monroy said the team was lucky to secure funding for the
project because of competition from other scientists. The NSF
funded the project because of the project’s potential to examine a
link between the economic struggles and the environment.
Given the opportunity to do this project, the University was invited by
the University of Rhode Island for this project, which was the prime
institution in initiating the idea of having a multi-disciplinary project.
“It was a very good match, because with environmental economists and
the expertise of hydrology that they have we [had constructed] a very
good team,” Rivera-Monroy said.
Mangroves have a lot of utilities in the tropical areas, according to RiveraMonroy, through ecosystem services, which include the production of fish
and protection from storm surges. Although they are ecosystem services,
they also serve as a service to society.
Deforestation is one of the biggest issues in African countries because the
wood is required to cook for the locals. The researchers purposely went to
an area that suffered greatly from deforestation.
get an idea on how ecology will help their own life so they can get a more
positive strategy for management.”
Rivera-Monroy wanted to emphasize how they wanted to study poverty
traps actually become an effect in sustainability to the source, including
fisheries and wetlands. They wanted to identify the issues of conservation,
and the importance of restoration long-term.
“What we learn from the mangroves in Louisiana, we are also transporting
that information to places like Tanzania,” Rivera-Monroy said. “We have to
think globally in order to have conservation otherwise it won’t work.”
“Unfortunately in the area where [the researchers] were in the northern
part of Tanzania the incidence of deforestation was very high,” RiveraMonroy said. “That was one of the major reasons why we wanted to go
there to measure the dimension, the extension and what is going to be
the future for that type of resource they’d need and how we could help to
conserve and restore.”
Tanzania has numerous policies designed to protect the wetlands,
according to Rivera-Monroy. However, with the social pressure given by
poverty, the laws aren’t enforced.
“People cut the mangroves, but there isn’t much we can do besides
highlight the dimension and the data because they don’t have the
information.” Rivera-Monroy said. “We try to create a sustainable
management for these forests.”
Rivera-Monroy grew up in Mexico, so he has been exposed to developing
countries with coastal areas that are poor. He said the poverty in Africa is
difficult to conceptualize until it is seen up close.
“One of the things that really, really impacted me was the level of poverty
that Africa as a continent goes through,” Rivera-Monroy said. “You can
read about it, someone can tell you about it, but until you are actually
there, you realise what poverty is, and that gives you a very humble
experience because you have to be a little more realistic in the type of
things that you can recommend to estates.”
Rivera-Monroy felt the trip has motivated him because he learned that
the only way to free people in terms of economics was to enhance
their education.
The people who live on the coast of Tanzania greatly depend on fish not
only to eat, but to create a livelihood. Rivera-Monroy said he was struck
by how content and happy the people of Tanzania seemed while fishing,
despite the poverty level and dying coastlines. He knows he and his
researchers are obligated to help the country because they have the tools
necessary to make a difference.
“With different researchers and graduate students in our community, I feel
that we have an impact on the community, and that’s very rewarding for us,
but we need to follow up,” Rivera-Monroy said.
LSU Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Associate Professor
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy stands with his grad students Xiaochen
Zhao and Mario Hernandez on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018.
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Mario Hernandez took part in researching the local fish ecology and
fisheries, and Xiaochen Zhao took part in studying the distribution of
mangroves in wetlands and factors that regulate their ecosystems along
side Rivera-Monroy.
“[The locals] heavily rely on the mangrove forestry. The people have no
actual house,” Zhao said. “I hope that [the research] will help themselves
LSU Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Associate Professor
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy stands with his book "Mangrove
Ecosystems: A Global Biogeographic Perspective" on Monday,
Sept. 17, 2018.
Story // Brittney Forbes
Photo // Bella Biondini
Design // Dakota Baños
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