The Global Youth Convention 2023 is an annual gathering designed to engage and empower students and professionals to talk about climate change, the importance of education, and how young people can be empowered as successful social entrepreneurs to contribute to their communities. 

#GYC2023 #HISA #HISAGYC2023 #hisayouthconvention 

The convention will feature keynote speakers, interactive workshops, panel discussions, and networking events. Attendees will gain insight into the latest trends and strategies, learn new skills, and get inspired to make a positive contribution and make positive impact on their communities.

 It is being organized by the Headway Institute of Strategic Alliance (HISA) and will take place in Casablanca, Morocco from May 17-20^th, 2023.

#GYC2023 #HISA #HISAGYC2023 #hisayouthconvention

I am so excited to announce that I have applied to be one of 25 Fully Funded Delegates to attend Global Youth Convention 2023 – which is taking place in Casablanca, Morocco. Applications are ongoing, and yes, you can be one of those 25 Fully Funded applicants too. Visit www.headwayinstitute.org/GYC2023 for more information.”

 

Be My Eyes is a free app that allows blind and partially sighted people to demand volunteers for visual support.

Be My Eyes, which is available on both iOS and Android platforms since launching in 2015. The app is available in 120 languages and in more than 150 countries. At present more than 100,000 blind and partially sighted people have downloaded the app.

The registered users can connect to more than two million sighted volunteers around the world at any time in the day or night for support, by pointing their smartphone camera at the object they need help to see.

Thus, through a live video call, the volunteers assist the user by providing visual assistance for daily tasks. These volunteers will be selected by matching the native / required languages.

The following types of tasks are usually demanded from sighted volunteers around the world
1. Search for fallen or lost objects.
2. Describe images, paintings, or other artistic pieces.
3. Match or describe colors.
4. Read labels.
5. Fix IT issues.
6. Buy groceries.
7. Identify the expiration date of food products.
8. Getting acquainted with new surroundings or moving around a new space.
9. Distinguish between different objects.
10. Discern the arrival and departure of public transport.
In 2018, Be My Eyes have added a service called Specialized Help that lets users contact businesses with enquiries about their products and services.

Specialized Help

Through Specialised Help, users can also make calls directly to partnering companies. The call works exactly like regular Be My Eyes call, but instead of being connected to a random volunteer, users with sight loss are connected to a company representative, who can assist with requests concerning their specific products or services. Microsoft was the first company to join this service, followed by Google.

If you want to be a user/ volunteer >>> download the Be My Eyes application for free which currently available at:

"Freerice" is an educational trivia game

"Freerice" is an educational trivia game that supports enhancing English vocabulary online while earning food for hungry people around the world. Every correct word , it adds 10 grains of rice for the World Food Programme (WFP) to support its donations for poor.
How does this work ? sponsors and donors match the rice grain donations generated within Freerice through this game , triggering a financial payment to WFP as per the data records in the gaming website. This collection of payments that generated via Freerice go to the World Food Programme.
Since 2010, Freerice has raised more than 214 billion grains of rice for people in need. In cash equivalent, that is US $1.5 million.
Therefore, this is a good game to play which supports your knowledge and the stomach of poor in around the world.
Thus, please share the link with your pals

https://freerice.com/categories/english-vocabulary

Diminishing return of information/ thresholds _ Observational thought

Information act as a motive for a specific action. When the information exceeds the threshold requirement of the intended action, people would respond. Considering the recent Covid 19 outbreak, a certain level of information i.e severity of the damage, the number of deaths, pandemic nature, etc. have required to perform the precautionary actions. After refining this information further, the stimuli has been reduced making diminishing outcomes.

This would be one of the reasons for the disregarding later warnings by the general public. People have shown strong responses to the issue was new. Therefore, even though the news agencies had provided accurate information later, people might have ignored i.e. repeating the same information many times with the addition of a little new information. As a result, it has narrowed the information and accumulated only a little more than the threshold level. But this new refinement had taken less and less attention-demanding due to this diminishing returns. So, it requires more efforts to keep people adopting good health practices. Therefore, it can conclude that people have threshold levels related to information. After trespassing it, it needs additional emphasis to convey the message to more people since it has a diminishing return of stimulus after the every little refinement.

 

Traditional knowledge and Covid 19

Traditional knowledge has provided the basis for the  most modern knowledge systems. Traditional knowledge covers a large extent of the  activities in a typical ancient village. Traditional knowledge has been accumulated within the communities for a long period of time of their history. Such knowledge bases have been passed from generation to generation through oral communication. This knowledge base basically developed with the hand on experience of the ancient people and the daily observations on various topics. Usually , this traditional knowledge consists of the observations regarding food production, climate, medicine , irrigation,etc.  Nonetheless, most of the rural societies rely on these knowledge bases even today. For instance, primitive societies use their own healing methods using plant extractions or natural materials like soils. Similarly, the developed sectors like Ayurvedic medicine also use such plant extractions or natural components.

Therefore, scientists search possible integrations of modern and past knowledge while searching solutions for the modern day issues. In this backdrop, due to the recent Covid 19 pandemic, researchers seek solutions for the virus from such knowledge bases also. The reason for such a quick search was, the higher death count across the world during the last few months. As an example the Corona Virus Dashboard has shown the severity of the treat across the world.  Most of the sudden deaths have demanded a new quick remedy and urge to find it. As an example the death toll has been reached at 348,528 By 26, May ,2020 according to the Corona Virus Dashboard.

Therefore, research institutes like Ayurveda medical colleges and hospitals have developed some fundamental treatments to boost the immune activity against the virus and stop the symptoms of the virus based on natural materials . However, these drugs or the treatments are also not able to cure the diseases completely or find a complete solution to control the severity of Covid 19 pandemic yet..

Keeping a proper supply during Covid 19 - a real challenge.

Supply chains are under a severe threat due to the recent Covid 19 pandemic. According to the recent statistics, about 2,512,489 Covid 19 positive active cases have been reported globally. The pandemic has created a situation where people cannot work in their regular duties. This would impact badly on the supply of the most essential services like food and beverages. The supply chains have a number of places that require human intervention.

The supply chains are important in not only the local economy, but the global economy also. The supply chains simply deliver the essentials to the users and make money to the producers and service providers who are within it. However, the top most economies i.e USA has reported 1,450,366 Covid 19 positive cases which could affect its active workforce. Maintaining the regular duties in the supply chains while keeping the social distance is becoming a real challenge.
On
the other hand, the replacement of labor is not easy with the machineries or other modes of electronic devices all the time. Most of the essential items like medicine, food and beverages are needed to supply without any delay to the final user. In most of the supply chains, the supplier is in a developing country or far away from its users. Most of the transportation services, courier services, delivery systems are carried out with a minimum number of people, Therefore, the management of the supply of such products is a real challenge. The health of the workers is also an important matter that needs to be considered when working in the open environment. The tiny invisible virus can be entered to the workers’ body from a contaminated environment easily. Nonetheless, this virus is long lasting on many of the substances.
Thus, sanitizing the workplaces and use of germ killers are essential to safeguard the workers. Therefore, additional efforts are required to keep these supply chains active than ever.

In a nutshell, the covid 19 pandemic has impacted on the most of the countries and it has a severe threat to keep the regular duties of people. As a result, it is evident that supply chain management has become a real challenge.

Volunteering during Covid 19 pandemic

Working without financial benefits or social benefits other than self-satisfaction are simply called volunteering. Volunteering is performed individually or by groups for many purposes. It may consider healthcare, child care, wildlife protection, cleaning the environment or any support decided by the doers. Why do most of us want to do some work without proper gains? It may be due to the extreme importance of the task or the severity of the importance of such actions.

Does Coivd 19 pandemic create such requirements? Certainly, yes. According to the statistics of the health sector, the virus has affected about 2,512,489 people globally by today. This will require volunteers in some disciplines than ever. One example is health sector. The specialized workers and tasks may not replace with the untrained volunteers. But, it was observed that retired professionals’ volunteer engagement in such specific activities in most of the countries where the Covid 19 pandemic was severe i.e Italy. Retired medical professionals reported to their duties back in search of a cure or helping to the fellow medical staffs.

In this backdrop, young inventors, billionaires, celebrities, leading scientists have come forward to help the needy people all over the world when it started to rise the death toll day by day. According to the recent data, the Covid 19 virus has spread into most of the regions of the world. Some countries like Brazil has reported 197,838 positive cases of the virus which were impacted by the virus recently than the other countries. This kind of surge of patients may require volunteers.

Volunteering is not only limited to, health sector during this pandemic situation. The contribution to other areas like health research, producing manuals on safety instructions, making awareness videos, publishing health information is also possible voluntary activities. Some NGOs and intergovernmental organizations seek such assistance from the public who are in good health to support particular activities according to the need i.e. UN volunteers. Therefore, voluntary activities which conduct online is a really beneficial task in this emergency situation.

Old practices to modern day agriculture.

Agriculture is the oldest industry of the mankind. The industry has been developed by generations of forefathers. finally, it has some repercussions due to the wrong mix of technology and inputs at present. 

The traditional community based knowledge is expressed as local , place specific knowledge. On this regard, Sri Lanka has a rice based culture and its own cultivation traditions. 

Therefore, it is time to turn back and pick the early sustainable methods from the history to mitigate the experiencing negatives of wrong doings. I contributed to the below book which explains the importance of applying early knowledge bases to modern day agriculture as a writer. 

The book contains the details of sustainable methods what Sri Lankans practiced early and its suitability to address most of the recent issues in Sri Lankan farming systems.

Contribute to a science project & Be a Community Scientist

Volunteering is not always limited to the works which can contribute with the presence of you . It is available on virtual platforms also.

If you are really passionate to help others or contribute to the scientific community, there are some opportunities to join and help leading scientists. These are called people powered research projects. Large data sets are available with these projects from various sources like telescopes, handwriting, reports of the field officers. The scientists seek volunteers' support in recognizing small objects like handwriting, a series of pictures and series of rays. These projects seek human support to cut down the operating costs and to increase the accuracy of the tasks. In these programmes , the participant will be provided a short guide to the relevant tasks. As an appreciation of the participation, some of these projects were allowed to publish the name of the contributor with the findings of the project. I.e. a project related to find dust particles of starlets by using a bulky images has offered the volunteer an opportunity to name the particle with his name. These are good opportunities to learn science and keep the desire towards the science of kids and students. I have shared a similar link that you can try and find a chance to participate in a such programme. There are many projects available related to space science, Botany, Climate change, Psychology, Physics etc.

You can try some projects here >>> https://www.zooniverse.org/#projects

Climate Smart Agriculture

Climate change has serious impacts on all species including the humans. It has proven the possible damages on many sectors including agriculture. Since agriculture depends directly on the nature and climate, changes in the climate has an utmost pressure on it. Farmer level adaptation strategies to overcome adverse effects of climate change have taken a due attention of most of the National and international policy dialogues.

Awareness on the issues and the actions to be implemented against the upcoming negatives have been discussed within the scientific community a long time ago all over the world. With parallel to this global trend, local researchers and policy makers also have started programmes on farmer awareness and adaptation building. However, it is noticed that many of the research findings, reading materials and policy briefs are not available in sihnala language in printed manner to get an overall idea reference to rural farming community in Sri Lanka.

Therefore, the “Climate smart agricultural practices ” has been written in a simple language by specifically focusing the farmers. The aim of the book is to educate the farmers on the reasons for climate change, possible damages along with the overall impacts and measures to build the resilience and farmer level adaptation effectively at the end.

 The UNESCO was funded for the publication and this is the first book of a series of books that focus on the education of farmers on climate change impacts. If you are interested in reading, the e-copy of the book is attached herewith.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A7_g6HRT4GPNo_UgFIWJvxnMbZryjbxC/view?fbclid=IwAR1T2VL2liipeievwT3OFcMSCrX19WFR5peixKnFvvCbMrOnn5-z7twnmDQ

Climate Smart Farmers to Against the Climate Threats.

Global warming; culprit of the hazards events

Climate change is a foremost word in today’s socio-political debates due to its tremendous importance in many fields including agriculture. Carbon dioxide emission mainly due to modern day industries and transportation has resulted global warming and finally the climate change. Climate change has created a series of endless dangers to the mankind and its well being. In this connection, temperature rise. Sea level rise, droughts, flash floods, landslides, are in the forefront. Nevertheless, many industries that depend directly on nature, have affected heavily due to the unpredictable climate and its extreme conditions.  

Impacts of Climate Change and expected shortfalls in Agriculture

Agriculture as the oldest industry was practiced without much problems and worries for centuries. The industry was encompassed its sustainability with the help of favourable climate conditions. However, recent climate change has started to make significant damages and losses.  Nevertheless, it is predicted that irrigation will be a severe problem in the future. Changes in the monsoon patterns have been noticed alarming us that all these projections are not nightmares. Negatives of climate change have a severe impact on crop production. Further, low yield and quality losses are expected due to the extreme heat conditions. The food security has been identified as a global challenge with these issues. The   policy dialogues have been set off both in regionally and internationally to suppress the negative impacts of climate change. However, the climate change is concerned as a man made catastrophic event lead the entire mankind in to a severe condition.

On this backdrop, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has suggested Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices as a remedy. As at present, approximately 50 countries including Sri Lanka have been endorsed, or identified that CSA actions build capacity of adaptation against climate change. In Sri Lankan context, the Island experiences extreme climate conditions annually since the recent past. As a result, it has ranked as the fourth in the global climate risk index in 2018. Hence Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is extremely important to Sri Lankan Agriculture.

The promoted actions under CSA

The concept of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was introduced by FAO at The Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010. The CSA approach   guides for the transformation and redesign of Agricultural systems to ensure food security aspects against the impacts of climate change. 

Many thematic areas and possible practices have been identified under the CSA.  Among them, sustainable crop production and farming practices like use of good quality seeds and planting materials of resistant varieties; crop mix, intercrops or crop rotations; integrated pest management, integrated chemical use can be identified.  The sustainable crop production mainly coupled with integrated practices to reduce the need of external inputs while increasing the efficiency   of resource utilization. The recycling and reuse have been promoted to minimize the cost of production and the negative impact on the environment.  

Sustainable livestock industry is also vital against the climate change impacts. Deep-rooted grasses and legumes have suggested improving the sequestration of soil carbon in grasslands. Restoring organic carbon in grasslands and reduce the reduction of grassland degradation are expected by adopting the particular practice. Further, it has suggested to use improved species and breeds, improved feed management, sustainable grazing practices where integrating trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way (silvopastoralism). Nonetheless CSA suggests on and off-farm diversification to withstand the impacts of climate change.

Sustainable value chain approach is recommended to make food systems more environmentally sustainable and climate-smart. In this regard, the food system’s carbon footprint will be considered in the applicable places. For instance, measures and strategies are needed to reduce the food losses at each step since they have been produced by emitting greenhouse gases during the production process. The existing food supply chains consume more energy at different steps. Therefore, the CSA recommends using sustainable methods to overcome the massive use of resources. In this regard, reduction of energy loss and the use of rational modes of energy use at possible steps have been emphasized as good practices. For instance, it is recommended using biomass instead of fossil fuel in appropriate steps of the food supply chains.

Climate change mitigation through the improved use and development of genetic resource is also considered under the CSA.  Crop wild relatives are expected to use in the purpose of developing crop characteristics like water stress tolerance, drought resistance and resistance to pest or diseases.

Climate change impacts result higher evaporation and transpiration rates, reduce groundwater recharge and soil moisture, and a higher incidence of soil Stalinization. Hence, sustainable soil and land management practices are promoted under the CSA to ensure the soil moisture and organic carbon content in the soils.

Climate change has a significant    impact on the components of the water cycle.  Changes and variations in the   rainfall    patterns will affect   irrigation sources like river runoff and groundwater recharge.  Sustainable water use and adaptations are introduced to ensure the water availability. In this regard, rainwater harvesting, minimal use of water and wastewater treatment, increase water use efficiency and watershed management procedures are some examples of options promoted under the CSA.

Sustainable practices have been introduced to fisheries and aquaculture sector also. The fisheries sector is predicted to be vulnerable to many shortfalls due to climate change and sea level rising.   Sustainable water management practices; selective breeding and genetic improvements; improved feed management; strengthened emergency procedures and bio security measures have been included in the recommended steps under the CSA.

Climate change is expected to be impacted on the forests and forest-dependent people. Climate smart forestry has been introduced in the regions where majority depends on this primary industry. For the sake of forestry, sustainable management of forests, Reduce Deforestation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) have been concerned under the CSA.

How to blend the CSA practices to existing Sri Lankan Agriculture sector?

The requirements can be identified with respect to implementation, adaptation, knowledge dissemination and institutional arrangements for CSA.  in this regard, Climate information is needed to be provided to the farmers. That is extremely important since CSA is mainly backed by the technology and modern science including scientific weather forecasts.  In this connection, farmer specific reliable climate information source is an essential. That has been identified in Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016- 2025.   Spatial and timely requirement of climate information of farmers are essential to develop such farmer centric climate information dissemination systems.  Identifying the communication gaps in climate information dissemination is another vital fact, when catering to the to the demand of information. Integrated Climate Information Systems which links the traditional knowledge and modern scientific knowledge can be used to help farmers to practice CSA.    Enabling feedbacks and collecting data from farmers can be used to ensure the credibility of information and upgrade information system. FAO has identified this information need. as a result, it has conducted many programmes.    i.e. FAO has provided climate information, measuring tools and   communication tools for young farm women in rural Nepal to crop management against frequent weather changes.  Maintaining climate data banks is also important. Such data collections at farmer level can be an asset to both farmers and policy makers to practice and promote suitable techniques under CSA.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has identified youth and children as one of the major groups that could act as the care-takers of the environment. They are dynamic and well educated than the previous generation.  In this connection, the Article 6 on education of The UNFCCC has highlighted the importance of, training and   awareness of such groups. These youth can transfer the knowledge and information to the farmers about modern day practices and technology. The youth groups are needed to motivate to develop enterprises, especially in rural areas to promote green jobs and generate such opportunities that emit less amount of Carbon Dioxide. The UN has implemented such programmes to avoid the impacts of climate change in some areas especially in Africa. Moreover, promoting green jobs among youths in agricultural areas under CSA, also have started in some areas. i.e Nepal. These green jobs will produce less amount of emissions while value adding to the natural products. This is needed to be promoted in Sri Lanka also. The entrepreneurship development can consider such possible opportunities.

Policy frame work and evaluation:   Assessment, monitoring and evaluation are identified as essential components of CSA. Assessments of both past and future impacts of climate variability and the needs of vulnerable of communities have to consider under CSA as a prerequisite. Moreover, CSA options should be assessed for their effectiveness in achieving desired other developmental goals related to food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation. The commitment and collaboration of all   stakeholders that involved in agriculture sector planning is required to formulate country specific CSA policies. However, adaptive management approaches would require that includes innovation, real-time monitoring and evaluation, learning among stakeholders, and strategizing due to the dynamic nature of climate.

Since CSA has   many stakeholders, disciplines and different spatial and time requirements, the transition to CSA requires changes at many levels of policy making. To adders these requirements, FAO has recommended few major steps to follow when integrating the CSA practices in the national policy dialogues. These steps ensure the CSA objectives at local, national and regional levels. In this connection, the development of an evidence base to motivate, support and monitor change; continuous dialogue with stakeholders; the formulation of tools to enable change; innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to create and sustain change in food and agricultural systems are the suggested steps.

Conclusion

CSA is a timely related adaptation practice which has been already implemented Sri Lanka as a good move, with the recommendations of FAO and other international organizations like the World Bank. i.e. Agriculture sector modernization project under the ministry of agriculture.  The suitable blend of the aforementioned measures is needed during the implementation, adaptation, knowledge dissemination and institutional arrangements to obtain the expected results under the CSA approach.  

Key Reference

1: Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook Summary, Second edition, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2017

2: World Bank; CIAT. 2015. Climate-smart agriculture in Sri Lanka. CSA Country Profiles for Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean Series. Washington D.C.: The World Bank Group.

3: National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016 -2025, Climate Change Secretariat Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment

Buzzing Signal or UVB-76 " ??? What is it ???

"buzzing Signal or UVB-76 " ? Interestingly found many radio listeners like to listen this monotonic buzzing signal. Some of them keep on eye to break the code and others just for fun or relaxation even(??). However, nobody knows exactly what is it and what for .This monotone signal consists of a buzzing sound that lasts 1.2 seconds, pausing for 1–1.3 seconds, and repeating 21–34 times per minute. This has slightly changed since its start(1970's ). Some regular listeners have recorded few commands and small conversations. This can be listen on 4625kHZ (AM). This link will show the recording in Wikimedia.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped…/commons/2/…/UVB-76.ogg

This is a widely spoken topic and many people have researched on this.See the description on the following sites

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/The-mystery-Russian-buzzing-si…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

These two audio clips of the monotonic buzzer were recorded by me on 2018/2/17 at 14:33 and one hour after (15:33). The buzzer is poorly audible ( Need to use headphones) .Reason may be that AM Modulation is poor in contrast to FM and it comes from a long distance .Generally, AM frequency modulation uses to transmit to long distances (mainly not for commercial purposes ) . This Russian radio station in St.Petersbrug transmits signals as shown in the above sites and carry the same tone within 24 hours.

Human Elephant Conflict - A talk on current context in Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese language)

On Air at Rajarata FM. " Thirasara Mandapaya" Speaking about HEC- Human Elephant Conflict

Socio economic approaches to strengthen the fisheries sector against the impact of climate change

Climate change is considered as a global threat. Moreover, the mitigation actions are becoming a challenge due to many global geopolitical reasons. On this backdrop, climate change impacts are expected to increase in the coming years, alarming some industries like fisheries, causing socio economic issues. This global threat is not a nightmare. Therefore, Sri Lankan policies should be enforced to ensure the wellbeing of fishermen.

Fisheries Sector and Sri Lankan economy

The fisheries sector is of importance to the Sri Lankan economy. According to Fisheries Statistics of 2016 Sri Lanka has 190,960 marine fishing households and 48,900 land fishing households. Fisheries sector has contributed to 1.4 % of GDP in 2015. Marine fisheries have the largest share of 1.3% and Inland fisheries 0.1% (Fisheries Statistics,2016).In addition to these monetary aspects, nutritional aspects like providing proteins and nourishing the nation prove the importance of the industry. Fisheries industry has been identified as a vulnerable sector to climate change in the National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016-2025 (NAPCC, 2016).Similarly, agriculture and farmers are also subjected to the same climate change impacts. However, some protection mechanisms like crop insurance, crop loss compensations, and irrigation etc., have already been introduced to the agriculture sector. Hence, it is important that the fisheries sector too is sufficiently supported. This article has attempted to point out possible impacts on fisheries sector due to climate change and some research findings in the other sectors in order to show the importance of linking scientific methods and social science methods as a practice in Sri Lankan context.

Evidences of Climate change impacts on coastal areas and fisheries

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has shown that marine fisheries production peaked in the 1980’s and is expected to decline due to climate change impacts (FAO, 2007a). To support this statement, as an example The Mean Sea Level (MSL) has increased by 0.19 meters (globally) during the last century and it is expected to rise rapidly in this century (IPCC, 2014).

The greenhouse effect has increased the temperature in the ocean. Studies have shown the impacts on the global fisheries due to conditions like rising temperature and changing biogeochemistry. This could affect the reduction of fish harvest and income losses to the big companies as well households. (Brander,2007; Cheunet al., 2010).Growth and reproduction of fish can be affected by changes occurring in the ocean.(Pörtner, 2007) As an examplefishes in warmer waters are expected to have a smaller maximum body size and smaller size at first maturity. (Pauly,2007). Similarly, many marine species have moved towards the poles and into deeper waters underocean warming places like in the Northeast Atlantic(Perry et al., 2005).These factors are directly important to the productivity of fisheries and may cause high costs in the industry and income losses etc., in the future.

Sea level rise issue in Sri Lanka and existing national scientific actions

Sri Lanka is vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise because the Asian region usually experiences marginally higher sea level rise than global level. However, the exact sea level rise has not yet been specifically studied in the Sri Lankan context(NAPCC, 2016).Fisheries industry is susceptible to such impacts and it could affect the country’s economy (Senarathneet al., 2009). This has an impact on livelihoods and food security in the country as well.

Existing NAPCC 2016-2025 has included the coastal and marine sector action plan, highlighting adaptation needs. One such adaptation need is coastal zone management to face the impacts of sea level rise. This requires basic studies on the impacts in order to establish a monitoring system that strengthens the coastal protection and management in the vulnerable areas. Another identified adaptation need is enhancing the resilience of coastal systems against extreme events. Introduction of scientific support on intensive fishing methods, technology, sustainable use of fishing sites and proper fishing gear has been done in order to strengthen the fishermen to increase fishing productivity.

Importance of socio economic approaches against experiencing climate change and expected sea level rise impacts

There is a close link between the biophysical components of marine ecosystems and the socio-economics of fisheries. Global ocean–atmosphere changes could effect on multiple levels of organization of marine ecosystems and human society. It may cause many impacts on the economics of fisheries, creating larger global issues like global food security, energy supply and food prices. (Sumailet al., 2011)

As shown in one of research articles, actions solely based on science, especially which are practiced in less developed parts of the world would not solve the problems in marine ecosystems and coastal management (Rice et al., 2011). Thus, adaptation of similar practices to Sri Lankan context will not address or totally incompatible with required actions for future food security needs.This highlights the importance of incorporating the socioeconomic aspects in addition to the natural science approaches, especially to build the resilience or awareness and adaptation against the risks in national level plans. It helps to meet the food security goals and the socio economic wellbeing of fishermen.

Socio economic approaches: how it works.

Reducing the vulnerability to climate change via planned adaptation is such an approach. To assist in this, understanding of current response mechanisms to climate variability, recognition of the opportunities that climate change could bring to the sector and risks like loss of livelihoodare important. Therefore, multi sectorial adaptive strategies which include adaptation and recognition of fisheries potential are important. (Badjecket al.,2010).

Approaches to Identify the different sensitivity levels of fishermen, most vulnerable groups, within the fisheries sector, demographic characters of people who are more vulnerable etc.(Cinner,2012) are important. These kinds of approaches have revealed that the vulnerability of fisheries and fishing communities depend on their exposure and sensitivity to change, and on the ability of individuals or systems to anticipate and adapt. This adaptive capacity depends on the culture or marginalization and on reactive or anticipatory actions by individuals or public institutions. Similarly, the level of vulnerability varies between demographic groups within society. Generally, the poorer and less empowered individuals are more vulnerable to climate impacts, and the vulnerability of fisheries is likely to be higher where they already suffer from overexploitation or overcapacity. (Cochrane et al., 2009)

Options to increase resilience and adaptability through improved fisheries and aquaculture management include the adoption of standard practices of adaptive and precautionary management. Aquaculture insurance is one of the options for frequent severe weather events. Strategies for reducing vulnerabilities of fishing and fish farming communities have to address measures including investment and capacity building on improved forecasting; early warning systems; safer harbours and landings; and safety at sea. More generally, adaptation strategies should promote disaster risk management, including disaster preparedness, and integrated coastal area management. (Daw et al., 2009)

The socio economic index approaches have been introduced to lead sustainable farming and livestock systems. These indicators can be modified and used to monitor the fisheries sector performance as well to scale up the adaptation activities of Sri Lankan fishermen. Researchers have identified social stability, economic stability and environmental stabilityas the essential components of such indicators. The input management, natural resources management, wellbeing of farm community and overall sustainability are measured by these indicators. These could also be adapted to the fisheries sector.

Further, some studies have shown that although the communities have adapted to climate change throughout history, projected climate change includes multiple additional risks to fishery dependent communities that might limit the effectiveness of past adaptive strategies. Therefore, some adaptation strategies will require to be context and location specific and to consider impacts both short-term (e.g. increased frequency of severe events) and long-term (e.g.reduced productivity of aquatic ecosystems). Adaptation of communities will clearly require and benefit from stronger capacity building, through creation ofawareness on climate change impacts on fisheries and aquaculture, promotion of general education and targeted initiatives in and outside the sector. (Daw et al.,2009 )

How the link should perform

A practice is required consisting of multi sectorial methods. In this regard, the socio economic knowledge should be coupled with scientific actions. The link needs to be built in many prominent areas. One such area is scientific weather forecasting and dissemination. There is a dire necessity tofill this communicating gap in scientific climate information systems.People should be given accurate details via proper channels which have easy access and reliability etc. This increases the adaptation capacity of the fishermen.

The concept of sustainable fishery should be practiced with available farm assets with technology. In the same time, the socio economic wellbeing should be improved with introduction of livelihood improvement activities like differentiation of incomes, entrepreneurship development etc. In this regard, micro credit facilities, investment opportunities, gender based economic activities like processing maldive fish and infrastructure development are essential. Some of these things have already started in Sri Lanka. However, building awareness and resilience via suitable adaptation is needed to improve. In this regard, location specific characters should be identified in both scientific and socio economic parameters. The culture and historical background are important in such mobilizations.

Education and extension are major components of the socio economic approach. The fishermen need to be aware about the scientific methods and advance management practices to withstand the losses and damages. This link could help them to be more updated.

Fishermen need to introduce good management practices to prevent the possible quality and quantity losses. At the same time, knowledge in financial management and business is important. The youth need to be provided training and more opportunities to get the technology and available practices to catch export markets. In this regard, as a socio economic approach, the fishing community based organizations need to be provided training sessions on packaging, quality assurance, value addition etc.

Community mapping can be done based on the vulnerability levels by considering both geological and socio economic characteristics. The proposed socio economic indicators are important in this regard. This could help to identify the needy people and establish small villages with different production levels.

Conclusion

The socio economic approach and scientific approach should link to avoid the potential climate change impacts on fisheries sector and people. This will help them to withstand the possible income losses due to production loss, high cost and loss of original livelihoods.

References

Badjeck, M.C., Allison, E.H., Halls, A.S. and Dulvy, N.K., 2010. Impacts of climate variability and change on fishery-based livelihoods. Marine policy, 34(3), pp.375-383.

Brander, K.M., 2007. Global fish production and climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(50), pp.19709-19714.

Cheung, W.W., Lam, V.W., Sarmiento, J.L., Kearney, K., Watson, R.E.G., Zeller, D. and Pauly, D., 2010. Large‐scale redistribution of maximum fisheries catch potential in the global ocean under climate change. Global Change Biology, 16(1), pp.24-35.

Cinner, J.E., McClanahan, T.R., Graham, N.A.J., Daw, T.M., Maina, J., Stead, S.M., Wamukota, A., Brown, K. and Bodin, Ö., 2012. Vulnerability of coastal communities to key impacts of climate change on coral reef fisheries. Global Environmental Change, 22(1), pp.12-20.

Cochrane, K., De Young, C., Soto, D. and Bahri, T., 2009. Climate change implications for fisheries and aquaculture. FAO Fisheries and aquaculture technical paper, 530, p.212.

Daw, T., Adger, W.N., Brown, K. and Badjeck, M.C., 2009. Climate change and capture fisheries: potential impacts, adaptation and mitigation. Climate change implications for fisheries and aquaculture: overview of current scientific knowledge. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, 530, pp.107-150.

NAPCC, Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment (2015) National Adaptation

Plan for Climate Change impacts in Sri Lanka 2016-2025, pp. 3

http://www.climatechange.lk/NAP/NationalAdaptationPlan_RevisedFinal.26.10.2015.pdf

Pauly, D. and Kinne, O., 2010. Gasping fish and panting squids: oxygen, temperature and the growth of water-breathing animals (Vol. 22). Oldendorf, Germany: International Ecology Institute.

Perry, A.L., Low, P.J., Ellis, J.R. and Reynolds, J.D., 2005. Climate change and distribution shifts in marine fishes. science, 308(5730), pp.1912-1915.

Pörtner, H.O. and Knust, R., 2007. Climate change affects marine fishes through the oxygen limitation of thermal tolerance. science, 315(5808), pp.95-97

Rice, J.C. and Garcia, S.M., 2011. Fisheries, food security, climate change, and biodiversity: characteristics of the sector and perspectives on emerging issues. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, 68(6), pp.1343-1353.

Senarathne,A.,N.Perera and K.Wickramasinghe (2009).Mainstraining Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Sri Lanka; Towards a National Agenda for Action .Research Studiies;working paper series No.14.institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanaka, Colombo,Sri Lanka

Sumaila, U.R., Cheung, W.W., Lam, V.W., Pauly, D. and Herrick, S., 2011. Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries. Nature climate change, 1(9), pp.449-456.

Unseen Negatives of Human Elephant conflict: Daily News paper article of Kapila Premarathne

Unseen Negatives of Human Elephant conflict: Article published in Daily News paper by  Kapila Premarathne

Unseen conflict of seeing Human Elephant Conflict (HEC)

F

armers and elephants are being struggled each other to protect their territory from a couple of decades in Sri Lanka. The struggle is being taken a vast attention on the local News columns frequently due to property damages, crop raiding and injuries. Further, death incidents of both elephants and humans reported frequently showing the severity of the struggle. People’s voice is being raised from decades in search of measures and sustainable solutions. These ongoing arguments emphasize the necessity of a dialogue on mitigation of Human Elephant Conflict (HEC).

Respective government agencies have concerned the issue in to a great extent. However, the implemented mechanisms like electric fencing have not addressed the issue completely. This failure has created many negative impacts on both elephants and humans by today. According to the statistics of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), a huge losses and damages have been reported annually due to this struggle.

Year	Elephant Death count	Human death count	Property damage incidents	Human Injuries
2008	224	71	684	63
2009	228	50	827	40
2010	227	81	1997	83
2011	255	60	1225	55
2012	250	79	3183	60

Source: Performance Reports : Department of Wildlife Conservation

The department of wild life showed a huge amount of public money has been using for the compensation for the damages annually. This is the known and frequently spoken picture of the study in most of the cases.

However the unseen picture tells something differently yet critically, in this concern, many things can be critically concentrated. If we focus on them, the existing monetary compensation schemes (what we generally speak) may help victims to build their livelihoods in to a certain smaller extent. However, the unseen and uncompensated cost components will lead them to a problematic situation in many ways. In this concern, Cost components like incurred labour and incurred time for the crops and plantations, house buildings would not be considered in the existing compensations. For instant, a significant damage to a mature coconut cultivation that caused by elephants ,which  gives nuts may not be compensated without considering the labour, effort and the incurred lifespan of the farmer. Moreover, the actions that are made on protection of crop lands, adaptation measures and risk mitigating practices on personal desires may not be accounted and will be remained as unseen costs. These unseen costs would be rest upon the shoulders of the individual farmers.

On this backdrop, Monitory compensations purely based on the market values and estimations are smaller than the actual damages. The existing monetary compensation schemes help farmers to build the resilience inadequately and somewhat slowly. A severe shock may take many years to recover with this small compensations and supports. Thus the compensations must be given to cover at least some portion of unseen costs by considering the ideas of victims. Stake holder discussions and farmer centric strategies are needed to be implemented to identify the appropriate compensations. For instance, similar issues have been researched in African countries and have identified the importance of unseen cost components.

Nevertheless, the restoring process after a shock may require some other supports like house building materials, farm equipments, proper coordination, awareness and management. These non monetary supports are also critical even though, the highly liquidize money is mostly preferred by farmers and   frequently offered as a compensation.  

 Development of lands and investments are also risky choices as a result of the perusing conflicts with elephants in areas where struggle exists. Further, it has reduced the land values and created poor markets for real estates. Migration or selling their property in search of new safe habitats has been limited by the conflict itself. Thus, they have trapped in a frame which is uncommon and unseen in generally elsewhere in the Island. All these matters are needed to be uncovered by opening a proper dialogue on behalf of the victims.

The frequent encounters and expectations of such situations could affect badly on the mind sets and reduce the mental freedom what we experience normally in our lives. This fear and unpleasant situations may cause to the disappointment and limited the expectations of farmers. This also has been researched in African countries where similar issues exist .it has been observed that the affected people have poor mental freedom in particular studies.

 Moreover, Farmers’ farm investment decisions have been affected by this phenomenon badly and has resulted poor income opportunities from their factors of production comparing to other farmers who share similar characters. For instance, their decision making criteria has an additional risk component due to elephant encounters in contrast to other farmers. This may result limited selection of crops and combinations. This opportunity cost of selection   would add poor financial returns in comparison to other farmers. Nevertheless, their daily routings have to be planned by considering the unexpected elephant encounters. Therefore,   actions like carrying children to schools in the morning and carrying after school, taking a patient to a hospital in the night times have to perform in a more careful manner with mandatory supervision. These actions may require additional efforts, labour and time than to other rural people elsewhere in the Island. Therefore, in the economic perspective, they have a high cost and time consideration for their day today actions.

When considering the elephants as a resource to a particular area, two parties can be identified clearly that benefited differently at the same time. In contrast, one party is positively benefited because of the presence of elephants. Those are tourist hotel owners and shop owners, especially near the park areas. Due to the highest tourist attraction, those parties are enjoying financial benefits and better-off due to the elephants. On the other hand, farmers are worse-off due to the same group of elephants because of crop raiding and property damages. They experience threats and struggle to live while sacrificing their leisure and happy against elephant threats .This emphasizes the necessity of a proper monetary compensation to the people who take the negative externality of the resource. However, this hidden cost component is not addressed or no measure has taken into concern effectively to distribute the benefits equally yet. Thus it is good to use a proper benefit transfer method such as an additional hotel fee or fund to take care the victims in the corresponding areas. In this regard, the awareness of the all the stakeholders and their mutual understanding is important. Farmers don’t engage or benefited usually from tourism. Thus, opening chances for selling their harvests to hotels or arranging special markets will distribute some benefits to the farmers.  Promoting non agricultural income activities via small industries like handicraft making etc, focusing on tourism may divert their income sources. Such activities   may contribute to change their attitudes towards the elephants in a good direction and reduce   cruelty towards them.

When considering the elephants, they are the opposite side of the same coin. They seek food and drinks when they face a scarcity in the jungle. Especially, it is observed   frequent crop raidings and encounters during the drier seasons. This emphasizes the importance of consideration of the ongoing climate change turbulences when planning elephant conservation mechanisms and farmer adaptation mechanisms. These adaptation mechanisms may require precise weather forecasts or climate information products (CIP). Thus, these actions may have aggregated costs to the society as an example for the research and development of such farmer specific weather information dissemination systems. Nevertheless, individual costs also may result due to certain adaptation practices like irrigation and cultivate crops which have less elephant attraction etc. to avoid perusing risks.

Importantly, some farmer practices also have been observed which causes losses to the farmers themselves, as an example, many farmers have cultivated up to the margin of the protected lands without considering the importance of established buffer zones. Nevertheless, elephants’ favoured crops have been cultivated very close to the electric fence which provides a certain inspiration for the elephants to trespass the fence boundary. These kinds of cultivations are highly vulnerable to damages and losses. Therefore, it can be mentioned clearly that some farmer actions too have contributed to create conflict situations.

Some available protection mechanisms require more public participation (effort) and attention for their successive use. As an example bio fencing process may require more public attention. This Palmyra bio fences are efficient in controlling the elephant trespass the park border. However, certain   actions like uprooting the young Palmyra trees for sending cattle to feed in the jungle prevent the fututure successive role of the fence. In this regard, the cattle owners usually uproot them at seedling stage ignoring its importance. This wastes public money which used in the establishment of the bio fence system and again calls for public money for compensations.

 Some plant species have law elephant attention and inherent dislike .in this regard, fruit plants like lemon and  medicinal plants like Malabar nut (Adhathodavasica) (Sinhalese Pawatta/ Adathoda)  can be cultivated to discourage elephant trespass. These plants help to earn a small income while repealing elephants. These actions need more effort and farmer dedication   because the successes of these things are more farmers depended. These additional actions usually remain as unseen component behind the big picture.

This information was found by a research that conducted in Udawalwe National Park area in 2016. Even though, the research has been carried out in Udawala area, this information and context have a validation to many areas in Sri Lanka where this struggle exists. Moreover, the particular findings fitted with the similar research findings which have undergone especially in the African region also.

Finally, as possible remedial measures, socio economic approaches are important to link with the scientific actions like electric fencing etc. The integration can lead the society towards the seeking sustainable solution. For instance, proper compensation mechanisms that included hidden costs are required as highlighted to build the resilience of those who were affected already. The climate and weather related information gap must be filled with suitable research actions to forecast possible threats early. Social welfare and equal deviance of the benefits from the elephants must ensure among the all the beneficiaries via proper price mechanisms and externality charges. Farmer adaptations to avoid elephant threats by cultivating suitable low attraction crops and possible practices should be promoted to help them. Participatory management approaches like already existing “Gaja mithuro” programme must be promoted along with suitable extension works.    

By Kapila chinthaka

Lecture in Department of Agricultural systems, Faculty of Agriculture, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka