Fighting declining fish stocks and improving human health in Madagascar
Madagascar’s coastal fisheries—crucial sources of both food and income in one of the world’s poorest nations—are on the brink of collapse. Overfishing, climate change, and a rapidly growing population have caused fish stocks to plummet, leaving coral reefs depleted and local communities struggling to find enough to eat.
Traditional conservation efforts, such as restricting fishing in protected areas, have often failed and sometimes made life harder for already vulnerable families, according to an Oct. 21 Vox article.
In response, scientists and local organizations are testing a new approach: building artificial reefs. These human-made underwater structures are designed to mimic the lost natural habitat fish rely on to survive, helping fish populations grow and providing more fishing areas to local communities. The goal is to both support marine biodiversity and to improve nutrition and household incomes.
A team of researchers will study how these artificial reefs affect local ecosystems, fisheries, and, most importantly, the health and well-being of nearby communities.
Chris Golden, the Bruce A. Beal, Robert L. Beal and Alexander S. Beal Associate Professor of Nutrition and Planetary Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is among the researchers involved in the effort. He told Vox that the study is one of the most extensive in the world looking at the connection between ecosystem health and human health outcomes.
The point, he said, is “to understand whether or not stewarding natural resources in this way can simultaneously benefit the ecosystem and benefit human nutrition and food security and human health,” Golden said. “We want to quantify the way that interventions like this—an environmental intervention—could be viewed as a public health intervention.”
Read the Vox article: Scientists are testing a surprising approach to fighting hunger in one of the poorest places on Earth
Learn more
Improving nutrition in coral reef countries while sustaining fisheries (Harvard Chan School news)
