Posts by Neena Bhandari

Goa’s green design warriors Part III – Arminio Ribeiro

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Travel

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 02.08.2024 (The Hindu): Arminio Ribeiro’s ancestral home, built by his grandfather in 1915, is a stone’s throw from the whitewashed Saint Sebastian chapel in Fontainhas – Goa’s oldest Latin quarter, tucked away from the din of the capital city, Panjim. He returned to this home of his birth in 2000, drawn by the familiar neighborhood and its close-knit community.

“It was like returning to a large joint family with its share of fun and occasional friction”, says Ribeiro, whom I meet in the rear part of the house, which has been his office since 1996.

Many families, like Ribeiro’s, have resided for generations in Fontainhas, which was originally part of Talegaon village. It is only around mid-19th century, with the administration relocating to Panjim from Old Goa, that urbanization plans began to take shape, connecting residential and work areas.

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Blue economy must benefit fishing communities in Global South: WorldFish Chief

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science
Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director-General of WorldFish and CGIAR's Senior Director of Aquatic Foods. Photo Credit: ©WorldFish

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.06.2024 (IPS): The Global South is crucial for ensuring aquatic food security to feed the growing world population. It is imperative that blue economy initiatives benefit fishing communities in developing and small island nations, which are facing disproportionate impacts of climate change, says Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed, Director General of WorldFish, an international non-profit research organization based in Penang, Malaysia.

“More than three billion people depend on aquatic foods as their main source of protein and micronutrients, and nearly 800 million people rely on fishing for their livelihood. The Global South produces a significant portion of the world’s aquatic food and 95 percent of the fishing workforce comes from these regions,” notes Mohammed, who is also CGIAR’s Senior Director of Aquatic Food Systems.

Growing up in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, situated on a highland plateau 2325 meters above sea level, Mohammed learned the value of food early in life. The country had recently gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991, and young children like him were motivated to contribute to the nation’s food security.

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AI forecasting deployed to predict Nepal landslides

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science
As the monsoon season approaches, landslides pose a major risk in many countries of the Asia Pacific region. Photo Credit ©Ritu Dak in Ghes Village (Uttarakhand) India

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.06.2024 (SciDev.Net): A landslide forecasting system driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is being rolled out in Nepal, one of the most landslide prone countries in the world, as the monsoon season approaches.

Devastating landslides in Papua New Guinea last month show the need for better forecasting and early warning systems to protect lives and properties, especially in mountainous developing countries in Asia Pacific which lack dedicated disaster monitoring systems and the means to communicate risks to the population.

In Nepal, more than 80 per cent of land is on a slope and much of it was destabilised during the 2015 earthquake in Gorkha, which killed around 9,000 people, according to project lead Antoinette Tordesillas from the University of Melbourne. “With the monsoons due anytime now, we are helping policymakers and risk managers better prepare for future monsoons when increasingly frequent and heavy rains can trigger more devastating landslides,” she said.

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