Here’s a sneak peek of my latest article for Aquila Magazine’s Earth Issue. It’s all about indigenous populations making the most of their ancient traditions to cope with an increasingly unpredictable climate. As well as highlighting the continued importance of ancient water tunnels (called aflaj) in Oman, I spoke to an expert on community adaption in Bangladesh about the floating gardens (called baira) which are providing a lifeline to flooded communities. There’s also a snippet on the amazing work of Hassan Fathy in Egypt…

Want to read more? Well all you have to do is download (how eco is that?!) a copy of the latest Aquila Magazine here. It’s only a couple of dollars for a mag jam-packed with goodness. Go on, you know you want to!

Women and Climate Change originally appeared at Aquila Style April 2012

Manchester’s young footballers are due to visit Bangladesh to highlight climate change. But when?

Questions are being asked about the long delay by two Manchester city councillors in registering a charity with the object of sending a local football club to Bangladesh to highlight the dangers of climate change.

Labour’s Luthfur Rahman (Longsight ward) and Rosa Battle (Bradford ward), set up ‘Response Worldwide’ in February 2010 as part of their work to raise money for the visit by Manchester Athletic FC. This was originally scheduled for October 2010 but has yet to happen and the charity remains unregistered.

Coun Rahman says that around 70 percent of the funding needed is still to be raised, but despite several requests, no details have yet been provided of how much money has come from fund-raising events so far or how the funds are being held. These have been high profile: in July last year, the two councillors hosted a do at a Manchester restaurant attended by the city’s Lord Mayor as well as Coronation Street actor Shobna Gulati.

On the flyer of a fundraising event, a designed logo for ‘Response Worldwide’ is present without a charity registration number, indicating lack of proper registration, a process which normally takes around 40 days, according to the Charity Commission. Asked about the new charity’s status, Coun Rahman said that registration had not yet taken place because he had been too busy.

Interest in the project is considerable, as other highlights have included a mention by Labour leader Ed Milliband, who welcomed the councillors work during a visit to Manchester in February last year when he was Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Corrie actor Gulati also said that she would be willing to make the trip to Bangladeshwith the football team if her schedule allowed.

Response Worldwide was also affiliated with another fundraising event in August 2010, this time for the floods that hit Pakistan in 2010 in conjunction with Islamic Relief and Inspired Sisters, a community centre based in Longsight. And earlier this year, Rahman was named ‘Community Champion of the Year’ at the Councillor Achievement Awards organised by the Local Government Information Unit in recognition of his “strategic community cohesion work” and the “speed with which he has made a difference.”

Rahman says that the trip is still on the cards and will take place either at the end of this year or early January 2012. Rosa Battle was unavailable for comment as she is on maternity leave, she did however state that it would be best to speak to Coun Rahman as he is currently leading the project.

Arwa Aburawa is a freelance journalist working in Manchester and writing mainly on social issues and the environment.

Originally published at the Guardian : Image via IRRI/flickr.

The Leaf Street Community Garden in Hulme was set up in 2000 when local residents from the Bentley House (‘Redbricks’) estate decided to transform a grassed-over pathway between two rows of three-storey flats into a communal garden. After a 72-hour permaculture course and community consultation, the layout of the community garden was decided and locals got on with making the garden a reality. Although they have faced opposition from the council, which has threatened to turf over the garden on a couple of occasions, as well as leadership issues, the garden remains an example of successful radical gardening in Manchester.

:Image via northern green  pixie/flickr.

Swapping fashion design for fish and wildlife, the film-maker Jonathan Ali Khan has been working on marine conservation in the United Arab Emirates for the past 25 years. His series ‘Arabia’s Cycle of Life’ reached 25 million viewers in the Middle East North Africa region and his latest project ‘Sharkquest Arabia’ is a 2-film TV documentary which uses natural history to communicate the issues facing sharks throughout Arabia’s waters. Green Prophet caught up with Jonathan Ali Khan to talk about the important role sharks play in keeping humans alive, what fisherman can do to protect sharks, the Japanese and Chinese lobby, and how TV and film may be the best way to reach a wide audiences about wildlife conservation.

Why are sharks important for preserving ecosystems and why should we be working for their conservation?

Jonathan Ali Khan: The role of sharks is to manage the food chain. It’s no mistake that these animals possess a formidable range of senses and qualities that have positioned them at the top of the aquatic food chain. As the apex predator, the role they play in the fundamental law of natural selection is in fact linked to the overall health of the seas of our planet. With 92% of our living biosphere being aquatic, almost 80% of our planet’s air is generated by the algae and microscopic phytoplankton that are found in the sea. Many thousands of fish species and other marine organisms feed on phytoplankton and algae. Sharks on the other hand prey on the fish that feed on plankton; right up through to the top of the food chain. So if we remove the sharks, as we are systematically doing at an unsustainable rate of over 70 million sharks a year, then it leaves the plankton feeders free of predation and free to gobble up the main source of our planet’s main oxygen supply! Therefore, it is in our interest to maintain a healthy source of oxygen and air, if we want to keep on breathing!

Some seas, such as around Japan, are already struggling with harmful algae blooms, forming red tides and anaerobic conditions that are causing explosions of super-jellyfish populations that are creating havoc with marine diversity, dominating and taking over what were once rich fishing grounds. Those same areas were once managed by a wide range of shark species that controlled the ecosystem effectively by feeding largely on the fish that preyed on the plankton feeders. Ever since those sharks were fished out from around the coast of Japan, the resulting imbalance has proven catastrophic. To a lesser degree, we have already seen similar results in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf with red tides and toxic algae blooms. Add to that the other man-induced impacts of pollution, dredging and detrimental activities, including over-fishing in general; we are bringing about our own downfall. So, taking into account that we need to keep breathing, we really shouldn’t allow sharks to be removed from performing their important role.

Green Prophet: Can you tell us a little about the work you do as project leader of Shark Quest Arabia?

Sharkquest Arabia is a 2-film TV documentary and awareness project using natural history as a way to communicate the issues facing sharks throughout Arabia’s waters. I chose sharks as the subject because I feel that what is happening to sharks around the world is the most shameful and biggest commercial sellout that man has ever perpetuated against the natural world. The consequences of the global shark fisheries for the fin trade is alarming at so many levels – and in my opinion is one of the biggest threats to our marine environment. I believe the shark story reflects the worst of mankind’s capacity and highlights the disconnection people now have from the natural world around us – if people are capable of allowing this genocide to continue to the point of extinction, then it is clear we are failing to communicate the right message.

It took nature over 400 million years of evolution and natural selection to create what is the perfect apex marine predator, positioning it at the top of the food chain to manage the resources of life on the reef and open oceans. It has taken man less than a hundred years to reduce their numbers to 20% of their population in most of our planet’s seas. I find that totally unacceptable and when I found out what role this region plays, I knew I had to try to open up the story for people in this region to start tackling the issues.

For me natural history television and films are the best ways to reach a wide audience with educational and factual content about wildlife conservation – and may well be one of the best chances that sharks have. My previous series “Arabia’s Cycle of Life” reached 25 million viewers in the MENA region and was later broadcast on Animal Planet Asia reaching another massive audience. However, natural history is still not widely supported by this region’s TV industry as it is not deemed commercially profitable with the media sales and advertising executives that sell sponsorship and airtime on regional channels. It’s sad to say that we really struggle to find support financially for this genre of programming as these executives in effect control what goes on air. I’ve actually been told there is no place for natural history on Arabic TV! That may seem ridiculous, but sadly it is currently still the case!

So, much of my time is spent on trying to raise sponsorship to find the last US$100,000 that we need to complete the 2 films and I am now reduced to only filming piecemeal as and when we have enough money to put together an expedition. What started off as a ‘2 year in the making project’, may take us 3 years to complete due to budgetary restrictions.

Green Prophet: You moved to the UAE around 25 years ago to work on marine conservation. What changes have you witnessed in terms of fisherman’s practices in relation to sharks and their attitudes towards sharks?

I’m no scientist. But as a natural history filmmaker I’m totally obsessed with the science and wonders of the natural world around us. Especially in this region that has been my home for 25 years. In that time, I have dived and explored all the seas of the Arabian Peninsula and witnessed many changes. I didn’t always have these interests. I started off my working life as a fashion designer having studied at the London School of fashion and worked in Italy for 3 years designing ladies lingerie and menswear. I was totally oblivious of the pressing concerns of the world, until one day I had a personal awakening that transformed me into a photo-journalist covering war and famine in Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East. But fortunately I was a lousy photojournalist as I couldn’t remain impartial and I didn’t have the emotional detachment to continue down that road; alarmed as I was by the atrocity of what human’s perpetuate against each other! It’s no mistake that that experience led me to prefer the company of fish and wildlife.

All the same, I have somehow come full circle and even as a natural history filmmaker, I am still inescapably being forced to deal with the dark side of the human condition! Now I get to see the atrocities we perpetuate against our natural resources.

Since starting this project, I have to say that I have become more understanding towards the predicament of shark fishermen in this region. For the most part, the overall consensus of Omani fishermen for example, is that sharks are only an opportunistic catch and more than often not the main target. However, the scale of that opportunity is huge! So even if their intent was to catch tuna (which is generally more profitable for them on a good day), the conditions here allow them to catch staggering numbers of sharks. But more recently, fishermen are increasingly aware that numbers are down as they are catching less sharks than 10 or 20 years ago. But despite that, they are still very happy to land sharks as the unit value of a single shark increases all the time. So a shark that might have earnt them Dhs.2000 a couple of years ago, can now earn them between Dhs.5000 to Dhs.10,000, depending on the species and size. Try to tell a fisherman not to land a big hammerhead with rates like those!

But on the other hand, we have seen efforts to self-impose a 6 month ban on landing sharks by fishermen in a village in the Musandam in an attempt to give sharks a chance to re-populate an area. Although the intention is good, the effectiveness is totally lost– as sharks are slow to reproduce and gestate, not like other fishes that spawn billions of larvae repeatedly throughout the year. Sharks on the other hand may only have between 20 to 50 pups depending on the species and some will only reproduce once every two years. But equally important – if sharks become extinct in a specific area, there is little if any recruitment at all in sharks from other areas and that fished out area may remain so forever.

All the same, I am encouraged that it might be possible to work with these fishermen to create a better management of their resources, especially since they have been trying to do so themselves as they seem to understand what is happening. But like anywhere, it is a matter of enforcement that weakens the process. If the village is not doing well financially due to poor catches of other species, they will break their own self-imposed ban in order to bring in the money. The moment one starts, the others follow suit.

Jonathan discussing study dive-sites whilst on the Sharkquest Arabia Musandam Expedition in March 2011 with Dr. Ralf Sonntag (Director of IFAW Germany) and Al Reeve (Researcher, Oman Shark Study, Sultan Qaboos University of Oman).

Green Prophet: When people think of shark fishing or shark fining, they probably don’t make the connection to the Arab world, however, the region is increasingly involved in the hunting of sharks. Can you tell us a little about the growing threat to sharks in the Middle East?

Actually the threat to sharks in this region has been a threat for ages. But since the demand from China has been growing at a rate of 5% annually over the last 10 years, the situation has become critical. The fin trade has been active here for over 20 years but was simply overshadowed below a strata of amazing regional growth and development that no one realized it was as significant as it was. Certainly no one realized it was a serious threat to the marine environment as much of the science that has started to educate the world is relatively recent. Traffic International first tried to draw attention to the UAE’s role back in ’89 as their research revealed that Sharjah was at that time the 6th biggest exporter of fins to Hong Kong. Since then, the trade has shifted to Dubai in line with the efficiency of the transport system as a distribution hub. In talking to just one shark fin trader in Dubai, I have been told how they used to ship 7 containers of shark fins to Hong Kong every month 20 years ago! The volume of shark fin involved was staggering. Now it’s barely 400 kilos a month as far as he is concerned. He predicts the end of the shark fin trade in the UAE in 5 years time.

The UAE is not a significant shark fishing nation in itself. But it is still the main regional shark fin trade hub, collectively re-distributing fins from throughout the whole region, including Somalia, Eritrea, Yemen and Iran along with all the other GCC states. According to FAO [Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations], it is supplying around 8% of the fins reaching Hong Kong alone. These stats are more than likely very conservative and the number in fact a lot higher. Seeing as there are no trade controls, its hard to know.

As more and more awareness about the plight of sharks spreads across the world and even here through conservation authorities and decision makers, we believe that the next CITES conference [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species] will be different. Last year, CITES held their international meeting in Doha. For the first time ever, the international community was prepared with proposals to add 8 shark species to the CITES Appendix II list. Amongst those species proposed, 5 occur here in the seas of Arabia and are actually a big component of the shark landings and fin trade from our waters. Sadly the only species that made it through is the porbeagle shark (which doesn’t occur here).

I consider this a lost opportunity for the region. Sharkquest Arabia presented our promo and spoke to Arab delegates at a special screening organized by IFAW [International Fund for Animal Welfare] – all the same, the Japanese and Chinese lobbies were too persuasive and the tuna issues stole the moment. Despite the negative outcome, what has since transpired is an opportunity to enter into dialogue with conservation authorities and ministries. They know they need to address this issue and we all need to encourage them to do so. I firmly believe that it might be possible to ban the fin trade in the UAE with the right arguments

Green Prophet: What one thing needs to change- either right away or in the next couple of years- if we want to continue to see sharks in Arabian waters?

Awareness! Normally awareness happens at the end of a conservation project based on the outcomes and deliverables of years of research, etc. In this case, we need to shift the onus of awareness to the front end and in doing so, highlight the need for more scientific research (upon which to base the right management decisions) and in order to target decision makers with a view to making them realize there is actually more than enough information and motivation to stop the fin trade or at least to educate the fishermen as to how they can better manage their resources. It all comes down to exposing honest and care driven information delivered in the right way.

:: Originally published at Green Prophet.

:: Top photo via Dan Beecham. Other images via Jonathan Ali Khan.

On the 20^th of July 1969 as Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind on the moon, Mark Edwards was lost in his own lunar landscape of the Sahara Desert. The aspiring photographer had graduated from art school with a great curiosity to see the world and ended up completely lost in the deserts of Niger. Luckily for him he was rescued by a Tuareg nomad who not only saved his life but also inspired a forty-year project which culminated in his ‘Hard Rain’ exhibition which was at Copenhagen during the climate change summit and more recently on display at the London School of Economics university.

Getting lost in the Sahara, admits Edwards, is not particularly difficult especially as there are no signposts or even roads. Even so, relief is probably the only word to describe how he felt after he was found by the Tuareg nomad. “He took me back to his people and reappeared from a tiny little hut with two bits of wood and a beaten up cassette player, “ he recalls.

“He put the wood together and made a fire and we had a nice cup of tea. Then he warmed the cassette batteries, turned it on and Bob Dylan sang a hard rains gonna fall. I was just astonished by the lyrics in this song, by the presentation of it- one of the things that Dylan does is to conjure up with very few words, very vivid images. I just got the idea to illustrate each line and over the years I did it.”

‘Hard Rain: Our headlong collision with nature’, which has been seen by over 12 million people and displayed in the United Nations headquarter building in New York, sets powerful photos of environmental degradation and its impact on the poorest against lyrics from Bob Dylan’s famous song. Forest destruction in Haiti, oil spills and urbanisation all sit alongside kids swimming to polluted water for plastic to recycle and Bangladeshi refugees. For Edwards, climate change is handcuffed to poverty.

Edwards was also keen not to just show beautiful abstract pictures but also their context: how did we get here and what do we need to do next. “We are in the art school now and there is an exhibition of great, big, beautifully printed photographs but they have no content. It’s art. I don’t want ‘Hard Rain’ to be seen like that, it is not art. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle of pictures that define the challenges of the twenty first century held together by Bob Dylan’s lyrics. So, it’s not art.”

The exhibition is accompanied by 5,000 words of text so that people can read that if we keep burning fossil fuels, ice on land will melt causing sea levels to rise, and if the sea level rose by just one metre it would make 20 million people homeless in Bangladesh and India alone. “Where will they go?” he asks during the slide-show presentation at Manchester Metropolitan University. “There is nowhere for 20 million people to go,” he responds.

Picture after picture is shown of the devastation humans have wreaked on this planet; how fragile it is and how fragile our existence is. Edwards insists that we need to change the way we think for there to be real change. We have to realise that we are all interdependent. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ he reminds us- there is only us and we all running out of time. Change can either be bloody or beautiful and the choice is ours. Coming to the end of his presentation, Edwards asks the audience not to applaud and tension of what we have just seen- our choices laid out in such stark terms- stays with us.

Inspired by the likes of Cartier-Bresson and Andre Kertesz, classic masters of reportage, Edwards also boldly claims that ‘Hard Rain’ gave him the opportunity to present the pictures in a way that was honest to his own experience. Something, he says, he never had the chance to do working in the media as an environmental photographer. “I’ve never came back from a picture story with a journalist and felt that we told the full story,” he admits.

“Rather than the well crafted photo which might deceive people, it’s the story that is too neat. When you are out in a difficult situation, its all got jagged edges, it’s not clear cut and journalists make out, in my mind, that the story is clear cut. So, I just felt that we had these stories that were too neat, with a neat beginning, a cover, continuity pictures, a coherent story and the conclusion. You know, it wasn’t like that at all. We were left with lots of question marks.”

In fact, Edwards does have a few gripes with the press and says he sees through the media games played around Copenhagen which have been lowering expectations so that leaders can say that we all did well at the climate summit this December. “All silly stuff,” he remarks. To counter this, Edwards hopes that his book and exhibition, which will be on display during the climate talks, will help focus people’s attention on decisions that need to be made in Copenhagen and put pressure on our leaders to make sure that they make the right ones.

So what does he believe should come out of Copenhagen? Edwards replies that he simply wants our government to start listening to the scientists. “What they are saying is that what governments have to do is get down to pre-industrial levels of CO2 emissions. When scientists say something to government, give a directive like what to do in the BSE crisis, they follow it. It’s not a decision that we have to make. We can’t disobey science or what our scientists are saying.”

Copenhagen, Edwards states, is the last opportunity for government to govern on the issue and if they fail, it becomes a citizens imperative to take action. “Those of us who have seen the effects of climate change, which we are beginning to see in Africa and tropical countries, have a responsibility … I mean I’m not an expert- I am a witness.” Seeing the exhibition makes us all witnesses in a way and in the words of Bob Dylan, now ‘what’ll you do?’

by Arwa Aburawa