The Editorial Board of the Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science (WIOJMS) is pleased to announce the release of Special Issue 1/2021 on Socio-ecological change in estuaries of the Western Indian Ocean(WIO). The Special Issue has been guest edited by Dr Johan Groeneveld.
The special issue is based on research undertaken by the Estuarize-WIO project (2016-2019), which was funded through the Marine and Coastal Science for Management (MASMA) Programme of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA). Estuarize-WIO adopted a regionalised trans-disciplinary approach from the onset focusing on three typical estuarine systems across a broad latitudinal gradient in the WIO region – the Bons Sinais Estuary in Mozambique, the Ruvu Estuary in Tanzania and the Tana Estuary in Kenya. These estuaries form part of the socio-ecological systems that are threatened by disruption of fresh water flow, local exploitation patterns (increasing societal needs) and climate change effects. In accordance with this trans-disciplinary approach, the 9 papers in Special Issue 1/2021 address a range of interlinked biophysical, natural resource use and socio-economic aspects along a transitional gradient from sparsely populated rural settings to denser urbanised communities.
A key conclusion of the Special Issue is that research, management and governance will benefit from greater regional cooperation, given the similarities of estuarine systems along the 2000 km of tropical coastline in the WIO and the different levels of disturbances resulting from anthropogenic activities in upstream catchment basins and estuaries.
The articles and full issue is available for download on the AJOL site.
