What's new for DiDEM?
School visit, Incomati delta, Mozambique @Dominique Vinckenbosch
The DIDEM team
Meet with the DIDEM team members!
Nourddine Mirhani
DiDEM coordinator in Comoros
Ravaka Randrianatoandro
PhD. student in geography, Univ. Antananarivo, Madagascar
Peter Ng'ang'a Gitau
PhD. graduated in Geography, Univ. Sorbone, Kenya & France
Katrin Perchat
The Futur of Plastic Waste coordinator in Seychelles
Zamil Maturaf Maanfou
Master Student in the MAB, Univ. Toulouse, France
Dercio Alberto
PhD student in History, Univ. Aix Marseille, France
"Images for a dialogue. Dialogue science-public decision and civil society, for an integrated management of the Betsiboka Delta in Madagascar"
A 28-panel exhibition valuing the photographic reportage that Rijasolo made in September 2022 on the Betsiboka River and the delta nested in its estuary, will be presented in Antananarivo on May 5 and in Mahajanga on May 12.
#Betsiboka #Photo exhibition #Rijasolo
Madagascar
The second SWOT mission will mobilize the DIDEM-Deltas-Madagascar team in April 2023
The second SWOT mission on the Tsirinbihina, the only navigable river in western Madagascar that flows into the Mozambique Channel north of the city of Morondava, will take place from April 2 to 16, 2023. A team of 13 scientists, 7 from France (IRD-LEGOS, CNES, CNRS, INSU, Hydromatters) and 6 from Madagascar (IRD-SENS, CNRE, IOGA) will embark for 9 days of navigation (April 5 to 13), from Miandrivazo to Belo Tsirinbihina. The boat will be equipped with sensors and will tow a slick to perform bathymetry of the riverbed and measure depth, current speed, and cross sections and bank mapping will be completed by zodiac.
This second SWOT mission on the Tsirinbihina River has this time the objective to validate the daily estimates of the SWOT satellite successfully launched in December 2022.
#Observatory #Madagascar #SWOT
On March 21, 2023, the Indian Ocean Expedition's restitution day was held in Monaco. It was an opportunity to look back on this campaign rich in scientific discoveries on board the S.A. Aghulas II.
Leaving Cape Town (South Africa) in early October, the ship made a first stop in Mauritius, before undertaking a circumnavigation in the region passing through Reunion, Aldabra and Mahé in the Seychelles, the Saya de Malha bank, St Brandon, before returning to Mauritius where almost the entire scientific team disembarked.
#Oceanigraphic Campaign #SayadeMalha
March 2023
Comoros
PAREO in Moheli, here we go!
Moheli is now hosting the PAREO project under Component C of the DIDEM program with the close collaboration of the Moheli National Park. Three schools are involved in this first phase of the project and will work on the establishment of an Educational Marine Area in the commune of Nioumachoi.
#EducationalMarineProtectedArea #PAREO
March 2023
Kenya - Article publication
Evaluating the combined impacts of hydrological change, coastal dynamics and human activity on mangrove cover and health in the Tana River delta, Kenya
By Peter N. Gitau, Stéphanie Duvail, Dirk Verschuren, in "Regional Studies in Marine Science", Volume 61, July 2023
From February 22 to 24, 2023 in Mauritius, DiDEM was invited to the first regional workshop of exchanges and training on environmental education organized by the project "Résilience des Écosystèmes du Sud-Ouest de l’Océan Indien" (RECOS), supported by the Indian Ocean Commission.
#SharingExperiences #EnvironementalEducation
February 2023
Kenya / France
PhD defence Peter Ng’ang’a Gitau
Environmental dynamics of the Tana River delta (Kenya) at multiple time scales: evidence from geomorphology, mangrove assessment, paleoecology and consequences for landscape management
The defence took place online and at the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA-Nairobi), on January 18th 2023
January 2023
The coordinators of The Future of Plastic Waste program in Seychelles are committed to educating the younger generation on the issue of plastic pollution and solutions to address the issue.
#RaisingAwareness #PlasticPollution #YoungGenerations
October 2022
The Education Marine Area (EMA) in the Curieuse Marine National Park supported by Monaco Explorations and coordinated by the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) in partnership with the Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority (SPGA), has been inaugurated by Francis Marsac, Monaco Explorations representative, Pascale Chabanet, IRD coordinator of the project PAREO EMA and Anto Suzette; Manager of the Curieuse Marine National Park.
October 28th, 2022
On the occasion of the "Mini symposium DIDEM project/LME SAPPHIRE project", held at WIOMSA 12 in South Africa, entitled "Contribution of marine science in areas beyond national jurisdiction in the Western Indian Ocean to the development of a regional ocean governance strategy", on October 11, 2022, it was decided to launch a multidisciplinary network of researchers on Seamounts, banks, shelves, and other national and international underwater structures (WIO N.O.I.S.E.).
#HighSeas #ResearchersNetwork #WIO
The DIDEM team is pleased to announce its participation in the symposium through the organization of a mini symposium on "The contribution of marine science in areas beyond national jurisdiction in the Western Indian Ocean to the development of a regional ocean governance strategy", by the DiDEM High Sea team as well as through 16 oral and poster presentations on the various themes of the program: deltas, coastal erosion, mangroves or coral reefs.
Global DIDEM
Next destination for Monaco Explorations: the Indian Ocean
The Monaco Explorations, one of DIDEM's main donors, is launching an oceanographic campaign in the western Indian Ocean in the fall of 2022. Part of our team will be on board. Attention, imminent departure!
September 2022
Discover the beauty and the use of the Incomati Estuary through its inhabitants.
This exhibition was made in the framework of the Estuary Festival in Macaneta in October 2021, in partnership with the French Embassy in Mozambique, the Eduardo Mondlane University, the District of Marracuene and the IRD.
October 2021
As soon as the DIDEM project was launched in 2021, exchanges with the partners of the Comorian Patsy University Centre led to a request for support in setting up a master's degree dedicated to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Workshops between the teaching staff and the DiDEM team led to the design of an interdisciplinary model validated by the central administration of the University of Comoros.
The opening of the Master's programme is scheduled for the academic year 2022-2023.
#capacity building #Sustainable development #Biodiversity Conservation #University of Comoros
A photographic report will be produced in September 2022, to show faces and bodies at work in the landscapes that link the Land to the Sea, and to give us a better understanding of the land-sea relationship through the rivers and deltas, as well as illustrating the research activities of the CNRE and IRD teams on the Ikopa and Betsiboka rivers and the questioning of the stakeholders interviews of the Boeny region and the Regional Centre for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (CRGIZC).
#Madagascar #PhotoReport #DialogueScienceCivilSociety
Planned in September 2022
Seychelles
The Future of Plastic Waste: what's new?
Two of the three TFOPW projects were launched in March/April 2022: Collect-Connect and Recycling Machine. The third project, an awareness campaign, will be launched in the third quarter of this year.
Seed money for the first two projects was received from the Société des Explorations de Monaco
#Seychelles #TheFuturOfPlasticWaste
June 22
The attack was observed in 2020 and became massive in 2022 in the Betsiboka estuary. The culprit is a defoliator caterpillar Hyblaea puera (Cramer, 1777) that specifically attacks the mangrove tree Avicennia marina that constitutes the monospecific stand of mangroves downstream of the Betsiboka delta.
The DiDEM/Deltas-Madagascar team was mobilised by the Boeny region to assess the situation.
#Madagascar #Betsiboka #Mangroves
June 2022
The Nairobi Convention (NC) has asked its 10 Parties and other key stakeholders to nominate representatives to contribute to the development of a Regional Ocean Governance Strategy (ROGS) for the Western Indian Ocean. These individuals will form a Task Force (TF) which will have to finalise its proposals by November 2023, the date of the next NC COP 11.
In April 2022, France appointed Florence GALLETTI (Marine Science & Law of the Sea) and Francis MARSAC (Oceanography), members of DiDEM, and Benoit RODRIGUES (International Affairs and Partnerships, IRD)
#OceanGovernance #HighSeas
June 2022
Equipped with their fins, mask and snorkel, the school children of Baie St Anne in Praslin set out to explore the coral reefs of Curieuse Marine Park.
Their objective: to learn more about the functioning of the coral reefs and the pressures they face in order to set up a conservation action at their scale, as if they were themselves the managers of the Park.
#PAREO #Seychelles #CurieuseMarinePark
June 2022
The PAREO project is on Facebook!
Coastal erosion is one of the major challenges facing the Comoros. In order to anticipate the consequences, the DiDEM project deploys methods, tools and trainings and supports Comorian partners to set up a coastal erosion monitoring mechanism in a participatory observatory approach.
#CoastalErosion #ParticipatoryObservatory #Comoros
June 2022
Fish = pwason in Seychellois Creole
A new version of the poster "the garden under the sea" from the MARECO kit has been produced with the names of the fish translated into Seychellois Creole.
#PAREO #Seychelles #MarineBiodiversity
May 2022
Click on the poster to see all the reef inhabitants!
CNRE's infrastructure and know-how (WIODER team, then DiDEM/Deltas-Madagascar) were mobilised for the SWOT (System Water Ocean Technology) mission, which brought together 7 researchers from CNES, CNRS, INSU, IRD (LEGOS, SENS), CNRE and IOGA on the Tsirinbihina River, the only navigable river in western Madagascar, from 2 to 9 May 2022.
#Madagascar #RiverObservatory #SWOT
May 2022
Two science-decision-maker dialogue workshops were held at the Roches Rouges Hotel in Mahajanga, on the theme of Mangroves, on 14-15 December 2021 and 7-8 April 2022, the third workshop in Ambato-Boeny on 24-25 May 2022 was devoted to the flooding of the Betsiboka River, and the fourth will take place in mid-September 2022 in the Marovoay region on the silting up of irrigated perimeters upstream of the Betsiboka Delta.
#Deltas #Madagascar #DialogueScienceCivilSociety
May 2022
High Seas & Distant Seabed -WIO
The RESILIENCE cruise: a 35-day adventure at sea aboard the Marion Dufresne
From April 19 to May 24, 2022, the RESILIENCE cruise took place in the Mozambique Channel and along the east coast of South Africa. This multidisciplinary campaign focused on the influence of small-scale physical processes on biological production at the edge of oceanic eddies present in the area. It brought together scientists from many countries including South Africa, Mozambique and Mauritius.
Jean-François Ternon, coordinator of the DiDEM High Seas component, participated as cruise leader.
#HighSea #WesternIndianOcean #RESILIENCEcruise
April-May 2022
The Union of Comoros has a set of laws and regulations that constitute an efficient lever for the protection of biodiversity, natural habitats and the sustainable management of its natural resources.
The goal of the tutorial is to familiarise civil society with its rights and duties regarding the protection and sustainable management of its natural environment.
#LegalTutorial #EnvironmentProtection #Comoros
April 2022
The Littosim-Didem workshop took place from 27 to 29 April 2022 at the Centre National de Recherches sur l'Environnement (CNRE) in Antananarivo. It was both a moment of meeting between researchers and a place of reflection on the adaptation of the Littosim platform to the Malagasy context.
#SeriousGame #MarineSubmersion #Madagascar
April 2022
This training was held from April 11-15, 2022 jointly in Marracuene, Mozambique and in Antananarivo, Madagascar at the CNRE office.
The training week was divided between theoretical sessions and practical writing courses, so participants can move forward in their article.
#YoungResearchers #WesternIndianOcean
April 2022
A crucial issue is to give voice to the Fisher-farmers living in the delta, and in particular to the most vulnerable and least represented users in water sharing institutions.
To this end, a participatory observatory of the Incomati delta has been developed, with support from the “Indian Ocean Blue Year” project.
It includes 12 observers spread throughout the delta and representative of different professions and geographical situations with regard to the river.
#IncomatiDelta #Mozambique #DialogueScienceCivilSociety
April 2022
How does river flow influence the entire estuary ecosystem? That is the subject of Dinis Juizo’s research. We met him in the Incomati Delta in southern Mozambique. As part of an interdisciplinary team, he identifies the flows needed to preserve Indian Ocean deltas which are nurseries for fish and a source of income for the local community.
It’s time for the second video profile of people working in the #BlueEconomy in the Indian Ocean!
#IOBlueYear #BlueEconomy #DIDEM Deltas
March 2022
Next stop: Mohéli National park in the Comoro Islands! Adifaon gives a close-up of his daily life with fishermen, scientists, and locals who live in the Indian Ocean. In this first video about the #BlueEconomy in the Indian Ocean, he explains the importance of protecting the ocean and controlling fishing to maintain a blue economy that respects the environment and sustains the population.
#IOBlueYear #BlueEconomy #DIDEM Comoros
Know more about the participatory observatory of the coastal erosion in Mohéli and Anjouan
February 2022
Participatory workshop on the implementation of the serious game LittoSIM
Foreseen in April 2022
3 award-winning projects of the Future of Plastic Waste
November 30th, 2021
Festival do Estuario : a science - society meeting by the Incomati river
14-17 October 2021
Mapping together the Western Indian Ocean Deltas
a workshop organized by the GDRI-Sud Deltas and the DiDEM project
October 2021
International course on Ocean governance
International Ocean Institute-African Region
September 2021
Participation to the IUCN
Congress : A session on the Deltas
September 2021
Restitution of the PAREO activities
in la Réunion, Mauritius and in Seychelles
August 2021
Coastal environment at the center of the dialogue Sciences-Decision makers in Comoros
August 2021
Launch of the participatory observatory on vulnerability of the Anjouan and Mohéli coasts to erosion
August 2021
Integrate scientific knowledge into decision-making
for coastal and marine management
in the Western Indian Ocean
2021-2024
Mohéli, Comores @Nourddine Mirhani