LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Saturday, July 30, 2022

Pan-African campaign launched to promote climate justice ahead of COP27

Ahram Online , Friday 29 Jul 2022

Pan-African social agency, Crtve DEVELOPMENT (CD), launched the WE!ARE initiative to build a pan-African voice on climate justice ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) slated for November in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The WE!ARE movement aims to inspire young people across the continent to share their vision of the Africa they want to see and voice the climate justice demands of their communities through creative mediums, a statement by the CD said on Friday.

The movement is championed by emerging and established creatives, policymakers, designers, visual artists, auditory artists and community leaders across Africa.

Collectively, the WE!ARE champions and supporters of the movement will shape the broader narrative of climate justice and centre important policy issues for the respective communities and nations leading into COP27 and beyond, according to the statement.

"With COP27 poised to take place in Egypt in November 2022, there has never been a better time for the continent to raise its voice in climate discourse. While contributing the least to climate change, the African continent is the hardest hit by the global climate crisis," the CD's statement added.

It is estimated that up to 118 million impoverished people will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa by 2030 if adequate response measures are not put in place, the statement added, citing Josefa Sacko, the AU commissioner for rural economy and agriculture.

The agency warned that those with the least capacity to cope and adapt to these impacts of climate change will face the most significant threat.

Okito Wedi, founder and CEO of Crtve DEVELOPMENT, said despite the profound repercussions of climate change on the African citizens, climate justice remains one of the least understood and socialised policy themes in contemporary African development.

"Through the WE!ARE campaign, we want to harness the power of art and creativity to change the narrative on climate change and development in Africa and bridge the gap between communities who will most be affected and policymakers who will determine our climate future," he added.

To further highlight the importance of climate justice in Africa, Crtve DEVELOPMENT, in partnership with Africa No Filter, issued a call-out for creative participation in WE!ARE showcases that will resemble climate justice under the theme of "The Africa We Want To See."

Creative hubs in participating countries were invited to apply for grants to curate pop-up showcases and creative installations as well as the execution of three workshops using art and creativity as a tool for social change in local communities.

Following a rigorous selection process, five hubs were selected in Egypt, South Africa, Mozambique and Nigeria, respectively, the statement added.

In Egypt, Perform Arts, which provides a training and educational service for performance arts, will organise a showcase focusing on maritime pollution and the disappearance of shorelines near Alexandria consisting of a photography exhibition in the Citadel of Qaitbay in Alexandria.

Music and singing will be integrated with storytelling to describe the environmental impact on human life, the CD added.

In preparation for the showcases, which will kick off in September 2022, all creative hubs will attend online and in-person training workshops to equip them with practical advice on climate-related policy education, community participation and media skills development.

Egypt has vowed to speak for the continent's aspirations in addressing the impacts of climate change at the COP27.

Egypt and the African Union are seeking to develop a unified vision for energy transformation in the continent ahead of COP27.

Hopes are pinned on COP27 to turn climate-related pledges into action to help facilitate the move to green energy in order to reduce harmful gas emissions and adapt to climate change as per the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement – adopted at COP21 and signed by over 190 states including Egypt – came into effect in 2016 with the aim of limiting the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Climate finance has been debated at every COP meeting since as developed countries have failed to meet their promise to mobilise $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing nations with mitigation and adaptation measures.

Africa produces no more than three percent of the world’s total greenhouse-gas emissions that cause global warming, according to experts.

Fathy Salama, Mahmoud El-Tohamy to hold a ‘Sufism vs Modernism’ concert

Ahram Online , Saturday 30 Jul 2022

Egyptian Grammy-winning music producer Fathy Salama and some members of his band Sharkiat will reunite with Islamic Sufi chanter Mahmoud El-Tohamy and a number of his musicians in another “Sufism vs Modernism” concert.

The project — which aims to revive Islamic heritage in a new approach — will be introduced in a performance scheduled for Sunday 7 August at the Cairo Opera House’s Open Theatre.

The concert’s repertoire will include new arrangements for the pair’s known songs, including Qamarun, El-Burda, Umm El-Khier, Waggeh Fouadak Lel-Elah, Zedny Befart El-Hob, and Ana Moghram Behawah.

The godfather of many first-row indie bands and musicians, Salama — who played a vital role in shaping mainstream pop in the 1970s and 1980s — has paid special attention to traditional Islamic music since he formed Sharkiat in the 1980s and won a Grammy and a BBC award for another Sufi project with Senegalese music icon Youssou N’Dour.

The son of the famous Sufi chanter Sheikh Yassin El-Tohamy, Mahmoud mastered the deep-rooted Islamic musical art from early childhood, following in his father’s footsteps. He is also the founder of the Egyptian Association of Religious Hymns and Litanies, as well as the Prince Taz Palace School of Chanting and Music in Cairo.

The internationally acclaimed duo are reuniting in the Sufism vs Modernism Project, which was first launched in February 2018 before being developed in a few concerts in Cairo and Abu Dhabi.

Programme:
Sunday 7 August, 8pm
Open Theatre, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek

New orchestra goes on tour on Ukraine's 'cultural front'

AFP , Saturday 30 Jul 2022

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the air raid sirens disrupt Svyatoslav Yanchuk's concerts, forcing musicians and audience members to seek refuge underground.

Musicians from the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra lead by conductor Kerii-Lynn Wilson take part in a rehearsal in Warsaw Opera before their international tour, July 28, 2022 (Photo: AFP)

"When the alarm stops, we can return to the stage. When it lasts more than an hour, the concert is called off," said Yanchuk, a percussionist with the Odessa Philharmonic.

"It happens almost every concert," he said.

But in August, Yanchuk will finally be able to play without interruptions on an international trip with the newly created Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra.

Along with dozens of other musicians, Yanchuk will be on a tour of Europe and the United States, which started in Warsaw this week and will include the Proms in London on Sunday.

The orchestra, assembled from musical ensembles in Ukraine and Europe, is the brainchild of Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, whose grandparents were from Ukraine.

Wilson was in Warsaw when the war broke out.

"As I witnessed the refugees streaming into Poland, I had a dream of uniting Ukrainian musicians in an artistic force to help them fight for their freedom," she said.

The project quickly took shape with the support of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw and Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Russian music 'on hold'

Despite never having played together before, the orchestra came up with a concert programme in just 10 days.

The concert starts with Ukrainian composer Valentyn Sylvestrov's Symphony No. 7 -- a homage to the victims of the war.

There is "no Russian music", according to orchestra members, whose lives and careers have been turned upside down by the war.

"Russia has geniuses but whatever comes from Russian culture is on hold for the moment," said bassoon player Mark Kreshchenskiy.

Kreshchenskiy and his brother Dmytro, a violist, played for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia for eight years and were there when the invasion began.

"We left Russia in the first days of the invasion. It was hard but there was no other decision to take," Kreshchenskiy told AFP.

The two brothers fled to neighbouring Estonia, carrying their instruments.

Ukraine has stopped all fighting-age men from leaving the country under martial law in case they have to be drafted, but some orchestra members have temporary permission to do so.

"I was able to see my 10-year-old daughter again after five months of separation because she is a pupil at the Gdansk Opera" in northern Poland, said Dmytro Ilin, from the Kyiv Philharmonic.

Once the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra tour is over, Ilin will return to Kyiv -- along with percussionist Yevgen Ulyanov, whose son was born when the war broke out.

"My son is waiting for me," he said.

'Cultural front'

Like many of their colleagues, Ilin and Ulyanov want to continue practising their craft in their native country.

"I have the feeling that we are soldiers of music because we are doing our best at the cultural front," said Nazar Stets, a double bass player and Kyiv resident.

Stets is particularly keen on the Ukrainian repertoire, saying: "It's now the time to play even more Ukrainian music".

"If we don't play our Ukrainian music, nobody will," he said.

Asked if music could really be a weapon, Ilin said: "Since childhood, music has been what we do. We have to act in one way or another".

Vampires of the modern times: Italian Etoile Ballet Theater in Egypt

Nevine Lamei, Friday 29 Jul 2022

In their first visit to Egypt, the Italian company Etoile Ballet Theater performs Vampiri at the Cairo and Alexandria Opera House.

Ballet in two acts and eleven scenes, Vampiri (Vampires) stages a total of four performances taking us to the misadventures of Dorian (Walter Angelini), a young boy, and Ambrosia (Ines Albertini), the seductive queen of vampires who gains the attention and emotions of Dorian, her new victim.

Written and choreographed by Albertini and Angelini, the artistic directors and principal dancers of the Etoile Ballet Theatre, Vampiri premiered in Italy and was then staged internationally.

The ballet’s story is soaked in many emotions which are at the base of movement that relies on supple, elegant and graceful sensitivity, topped with passionate and energetic scenes.

All is packaged to pieces taken from the classical music repertoire, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, alongside composers such as Karl Jenkins and others.

Through their dance, Ines Albertini and Walter Angelini ask numerous questions such as: Is love between a human and a vampire possible? The answer comes through the choreography.

This is not the first creative encounter of the pair, also a married couple. They both worked as artistic directors and principal dancers of the US International Ballet (2017 – 2020) before they founded their own company Etoile Ballet Theatre in September 2020.

The repertoire of the latter, with innovative neo-classical and contemporary choreographies, fuses theatrical work on the characters and role-playing. The performances are suitable for the audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

The same approach characterises the company’s previous productions such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Scheherazade, Snow Maiden, The Seasons of Love, etc.

Appearing several centuries ago, and perhaps even several millennia, the myth of the vampire continues to incite a dosage of anxiety of the finest minds. Their presence in theatre, films or a dance work is often accompanied with images of blood.

The dramaturgy of Vampiri is inspired by the story of Elizabeth Bathory, nicknamed The Bloody Countess, and Count Dracula. This powerful fantasy drama, Vampiri opens with Ambrosia bathing in the blood of her victims, feeding on psychic energy, to feel rejuvenated and beautiful. The scene is followed by the vampires arrival on stage which projects the magic evoking a classic feel of the Eastern European Renaissance era.

The viewer sees in Ambrosia the evil influence that she exercises on those around her. She does so with lighting underscoring the blood red color setting background to a number of dance pieces, such as tango and the dance of love.

Based in Piacenza, Italy, the Etoile Ballet Theater resides at the Piacenza Art Ballet, in a 400 m2 building, dedicated solely to dance. The company brings together professional ballet dancers from different nationalities, many of them being graduates of the companies training programme. It is through those trainings that Albertini and Angelini work on improving and perfecting the dancers’ technique.

The company keeps welcoming new dancers for its upcoming shows.

A tribute to Egypt’s demolished houseboats

Fatemah Farag , Tuesday 12 Jul 2022

New concepts of urban development will claim the Nile bank in Imbaba after the removal of what remained of Cairo’s houseboats last week.

Photo credit Yasmine ElRashidi

“Love is an old and worn-out game, but it is a sport on the houseboat [..] And the moon is a satellite, dead and cold, but on the houseboat, it is poetry”

- Adrift on the Nile, Naguib Mahfouz

Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz lived on a houseboat for some 25 years. His elder daughter was born on one, and it was from his home on the Nile that he wrote Adrift on the Nile, which is considered one of his most important novels.

On 18 June, I received alarming video coverage taken by a friend from Zamalek across the Nile from the KitKat, which was where the houseboats had been moored since the mid-1960s.

The video showed the demolition of a houseboat, and it was the beginning of a flurry of frantic messages. These included over the coming days a copy of the letter dated 22 June from the General Manager of the General Administration for Nile Protection in Greater Cairo to 50 houseboat owners informing them of demolitions that would take place on 28 June and the frantic voice note of one houseboat owner saying: “Help! They are outside pulling all of these lovely boats down!”

For days, talk show hosts reminded us of the history of the boats, international media outlets descended on the Nile to cover the story, and petitions made their rounds. The government responded and informed the public that the houseboats were dilapidated beyond repair and an environmental hazard.

Ayman Nour, the head of the General Administration for Nile Protection in Greater Cairo — a government body responsible for removing any encroachments on the river — told the press that a government decision had in fact been made as far back as 2020 to ban the registration of any residential houseboats.

This would explain what the houseboat owners described as obstacles in recent years, including a decision to increase the fees they pay by 20-fold and the refusal of authorities to accept money from them. While the houseboats were private properties, owners paid rental fees for the land and the docks in which they were moored.

Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel-Ati stated that the ministry will continue the campaign to remove homes moored along the river that are “in clear violation of the law… A clear message to those who transgress on the Nile.” He made this statement as residents were being informed that they could stay if they became commercial entities.

Today, the poetic nature of Cairo’s houseboats that was so aptly described by Mahfouz is no more. In the wake of these demolitions, a small community of families and small businesses have been left in disarray and without compensation to date.

And you did not have to live in a houseboat to feel the loss. Those of us who grew up watching popular films — now labelled classics — who heard the stories and lore of their colourful past, many of which are enshrined in contemporary Arabic literature and history, feel the angst of this loss.

Our connection to the Nile and these boats goes far back. In pharaonic times, boats were designed for long recreational trips, the dahabiiya is perhaps the sailing form of the houseboat, and the ones we have just lost were built on floating metal containers held together by wooden or metal beams and meant to be stationary.

The rich from as far back as the Ottomans often took houseboats as a second residence and a place to entertain guest. During the second World War, British officers lived on houseboats, and the awamat were home to celebrities and power couples such as singer and cabaret owner Badiya Masabny and her husband famous actor Naguib El-Riyhani. It was also where government officials and policy influencers came to be entertained and discuss the state’s affairs.

It is a history that has suffered neglect; the only study to be found is one that was published online in 2010 by Islam Nabil in Arabic and disparate pieces here and there.

There are only the images that were enshrined in movies such as Ayam wi Liyali, where Abdel-Halim Hafez sang the heart rendering I Am With you Forever, which was composed by Mohamed Abdel-Wahab.

The date 1966 signals the beginning of the demise of houseboats, when a decision by the prime minister at the time moved them from shores of Zamalek and Dokki to Imbaba; a move protested by their owners at the time, who argued that the value of their properties would depreciate by moving them to a more populated quarter of town.

Many owners sold or left their houseboats at the time, leaving them to fall into disrepair. A tragic example is that of Farid El-Atrash’s famously ornate houseboat, which could have become a museum but instead was left derelict until it was demolished years ago. And a community of several hundred houseboats dwindled to the more than 30 that were removed recently.

In his study, Nabil tells us that houseboat 20 was owned by actor Salah El-Saadany, and it has been featured in many prominent Egyptian films. It also says that poet Hafez Ibrahim was called the ‘Poet of the Nile’ because he was born on one in 1872, and that during World War II, dancer and spy Hekmat Fahmy used her home on a houseboat to lure drunk senior officers to extract information.

It was a mixed history bringing together intrigue, glamour, intellectual, and not-so-intellectual pursuits. It also brought together those who looked to escape the bustle of the city yet remain within it. Crossing the small bridges between the main streets of the KitKat District and the houseboats transported you from the noise and bustle to a tranquil world. A world many people like the now famous 88-year-old Ikhlas — who remains in the only houseboat left standing, as the government has pledged to relocate her — chose to embrace as a home.

And so, we are left with the fleeting tokens of memory. Like the voice of Hafez as he sang to his lover on the terrace of a houseboat many years ago: “The Nile, the night, love, and longing sent to me, and I came to ask about you; I miss you and miss your eyes and do not know how to escape from you…” And miss you — no doubt — we will.

'New Cold War': Russia and West vie for influence in Africa: AP report

AP , Saturday 30 Jul 2022

Russian, French and American leaders are crisscrossing Africa to win support for their positions on the war in Ukraine, waging what some say is the most intense competition for influence on the continent since the Cold War.

In this file photo local residents are carrying boxes and sacks of food distributed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in Kachoda, Turkana area, northern Kenya, July 23, 2022. Russian, French and American leaders are crisscrossing Africa to win support for their positions on the war in Ukraine. AP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French President Emmanuel Macron are each visiting several African countries this week. Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, went to Kenya and Somalia last week. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will go to Ghana and Uganda next week.

``It's like a new Cold War is playing out in Africa, where the rival sides are trying to gain influence,'' said William Gumede, director of Democracy Works, a foundation promoting good governance.

Lavrov, in his travels across the continent where many countries are suffering drought and hunger, has sought to portray the West as the villain, blaming it for rising food prices, while the Western leaders have accused the Kremlin of cynically using food as a weapon and waging an imperial-style war of conquest, words calculated to appeal to listeners in post-colonial Africa.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has been working to win support in Africa for several years, reinvigorating friendships that date back a half-century, when the Soviet Union backed many African movements fighting to end colonial rule.

``Now that campaign has gone into high gear,'' Gumede said.

Moscow's influence in Africa was on display in March during the U.N. vote to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While 28 African nations voted in favor of the resolution, a significant minority of countries on the continent, 25, either voted to abstain or did not vote at all.

Russia's top diplomat this week visited Egypt, Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, pledging friendship and charging the U.S. and European countries with driving up food prices by pursuing ``reckless'' environmental policies. He also accused them of hoarding food during the COVID-19 pandemic.

``The situation in Ukraine did additionally negatively affect food markets, but not due to the Russian special operation, rather due to the absolutely inadequate reaction of the West, which announced sanctions,'' Lavrov said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.

Lavrov was warmly received in Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni, who for years has been a U.S. ally but has refused to criticize Russia over the invasion. Museveni even suggested at the outbreak of the war that Putin's actions might be understandable because Ukraine is in Russia's sphere of influence.

Lavrov voiced support for reform of the U.N. Security Council to give African countries permanent seats and greater influence.

Appearing with Lavrov, the Ugandan leader spoke fondly of old ties with Russia, asking how he could spurn Moscow when he has good relations with countries that participated in slavery.

Museveni, an opinion leader on the continent who has held power for three decades, is an obvious choice for Russia as someone to strengthen ties with, said Ugandan political analyst Asuman Bisiika.

``Uganda is the center of gravity in East Africa,'' Bisiika said.

Museveni, 77, has been strictly wearing a mask in public since the COVID-19 outbreak. But he did not have one on when greeting Lavrov in front of photographers, apparently wanting to show warmth to the Russian. Museveni had a mask back on in his next public appearance a day later.

Russia is also courting African public opinion through its state television network, RT, formerly known as Russia Today. RT has announced that it will open a new bureau in Johannesburg.

RT was abruptly removed from Africa's biggest pay-TV platform in Africa, Johannesburg-based Multichoice, in March after the European Union and Britain imposed sanctions against Russia. It is not clear whether establishing the new bureau will enable RT to resume broadcasts to Africa through Multichoice, which claims nearly 22 million subscribers on the continent.

``For Russia, it is the battle to be heard in Africa. It is not important for the actual war effort but for their long-term political influence,`` Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. ``They see it as fertile ground to cultivate their influence, and, of course, votes in the U.N. are important.``

On his tour of Africa, France's Macron accused the Kremlin of using TV channels like RT to spread propaganda in support of the war. And he charged the Kremlin with blackmailing the world by thwarting the export of grain from Ukraine.

``They are blackmailing because they are the ones who blocked cereals in Ukraine. They are the ones who regulate their cereals,'' he said in Benin. His itinerary also included Cameroon and Guinea-Bissau.

Macron appealed to Africans to side against Russia.

``I'm telling you here in Africa, a continent that has suffered from colonial imperialism: Russia is one of the last colonial, imperial powers. She decides to invade a neighboring country to defend her interests,'' he said. ``That's the reality.''

Power, the top U.S. AID official, was in East Africa to pledge aid to help the region's fight against hunger amid a devastating multi-year drought. She did not hold back in criticizing Russia.

``By blockading Ukraine's grain exports and restricting the trade of Russia's own fertilizer, Putin's actions have had the consequence of inflicting pain on the people of Kenya and on other countries throughout the world,`` Power said in Nairobi. ``He is hurting the people of Kenya in order to benefit his own situation.''

Will Sharks survive extinction this time?

In Marsa Alam, it was the first time that Haitham Obaid tried diving to see sharks in the flesh; needless to say, he felt scared. After some time, the diver’s feelings shifted to fascination and admiration, as he accompanied dozens of tourists who came from all over the world to see sharks in Egypt.

A shark swimming underwater in Egyptian Red Sea Marsa Alam. Photo courtesy of Mahmoud Salem.

He was assured that they were peaceful creatures as long as no one attacks them.

“I got angry when I realised that people kill them and waste their environmental and economic value to make a soup dish,” he went on to say.

A thousand years ago in China, someone came up with a shark fin soup, and since then, it has become one of the most expensive dishes in the world.

For this particular dish — and other reasons — 100 million sharks are killed every year according to recent surveys, either by hunting to harvest their components or finning them then throwing them back into the sea to bleed to death.

When you hear the word “shark”, all you think about is the image of this fierce giant creature that smells your fear and can shred you to pieces, but when you learn how this creature is followed by death in different ways, you’ll end up sympathising with it.

Sharks have existed since 450 million years ago; they were classified as cartilaginous fish. Years later, scientists discovered different species of sharks, and now they have recorded around 520 species of the marine animal, with more still being discovered every once in a while.

In the last 50 years, targeting sharks and rays has increased, leading to a decrease in their numbers by 70 percent and endangering them with extinction. How did we reach this point?

Why is the world hunting down sharks?

Basically, the world primarily trades in two shark components: the meat, which has a small economic value compared to the more profitable component, which is the fins. Currently, fins can cost up to USD 100 per kg, while their meat runs for about USD 0.1 per kg.

Fins and meat, however, are not the only parts of sharks humans are after, as they use their skin, cartilage, and liver as well.

Many Asian and Oceania countries eat shark skin after boiling it in water and removing its scales.

Shark cartilage is also used in the food industry sometimes and is a commonly used component in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, whereas the oils from the liver are used in a number of industries, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Sharks at the top of the food chain

Marine life follows a precise eco system in obtaining food, and its organisms are classified according to their position in the levels of the food chain or the so-called “food pyramid”, so each species feeds on fish that are located at a lower level in this pyramid.

Sharks are at the top of this food chain, according to Mahmoud El-Hanafy, a professor of marine environment at the Suez Canal University, saying “sharks are a vital indication for marine environment balance. They prey on genetically weak or sick fish, hence keeping the balance in the lower levels of the food chain in terms of numbers and species. They also enhance the purity of genetic strength in existing fish.”

“Depletion in sharks’ numbers leads to an increase in fish lower than them in the pyramid, resulting in an imbalance in the whole food chain, as each level plays a certain designated role, thus we lose this biodiversity, and the efficiency of the ecosystem is affected.”

Why is it difficult to save shark species?

Along with endangering sharks, saving them is just as complicated and difficult, for it might take these creatures decades to repopulate.

“Sharks reproduce slowly and have low fertility levels, meaning they produce not more than tens of pups, which is nothing compared to other fishes that produce maybe a million eggs; thus, shark communities have a limited ability to repopulate and take a long period of time to recover and restore their numbers,” says El-Hanafy.

He went on to say that sharks reproduce according to their species; some we call “Ovoviviparous”, in which embryos develop inside eggs that are retained within the mother’s body until they are ready to hatch, while others lay their eggs directly into the water.

Also, there are shark species that live for decades and others that live for no more than five years.

Sharks are “tourism commodities”

Professor El-Hanafy believes that hunting sharks in Egypt is a huge economic loss, not an environmental one solely.

Sharks are tourism commodities that attract divers from all over the world and bring thousands of dollars into Egypt a year.

He added that “if a single shark lives for twenty years, its economic value in tourism may reach up to 4 million dollars, however, when it is hunted, its value decreases to around 150 to 300 dollars.”

El-Hanafy also warns against the dangers of eating shark meat, as it contains large amounts of mercury, which is a poisonous metal that causes incurable diseases if consumed in large quantities.

Looking at things from a different angle, overfishing also harms sharks indirectly, as it harvests large numbers of the fish they rely on for sustenance, leaving them to possibly starve.

Also, dumping kitchen waste in seas and oceans or throwing food to sharks has changed their behaviour and made them more hostile, leading to a rise in incidents where sharks attack humans.

Half of the shark species in Egypt have already disappeared

Mostafa Fouda, an adviser to the minister of environment for biodiversity, said that Egypt had about 50 species of sharks ranging in length from twenty centimeters to five meters, but in recent years, nearly half of them have disappeared due to several factors, such as overfishing, human interventions, pollution, and climate change.

He added that there are several laws and agreements prohibiting harming sharks, however, sharks are still hunted under the radar.

“In Egypt, according to the amended Environment Law of 2009, the possession of shark fins is punished by law. We need to continuously monitor the presence of sharks and prohibit the use of large nets in areas where they are likely to be found,” Fouda said.

Neils Klager, the spokesman for the ‘STOP Finning – STOP the Trade’ initiative, has noted that EU countries still have high percentages of shark finning despite the official ban issued in 2013.

European citizens decided to launch this initiative last year to call for an end to trading fins in the EU.

“Although finning is prohibited in the EU, shark fin trade is not. Sharks are still hunted down; there are markets to sell their meat, and fin business is conducted away from the public eye … let us leave fins naturally attached,” Klager said.

Other threats

According to David Campbell, the founder of the MarineBio Conservation Society for Marine Life, sharks managed to survive several mass extinction events, however, during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, about 90 percent of all shark species in the open ocean became extinct; and now, in his opinion, sharks are facing yet again the risk of mass extinction.

“It is not just overfishing that threatens them directly, there are many additional threats that are not fully understood such as climate change and the map of the distribution of other predators that are affected by human fishing; British research found the presence of plastic fragments in the digestive tracts of 67 percent of sharks that were examined. We know that plastic may carry toxins and pathogens, but its potential impact on sharks at this point is unknown,” Campbell explained.

He added that important nursing areas for sharks such as mangroves and estuaries have also been endangered by human activities including fishing and climate change.

The need for joint efforts

Levis Kvaje, the coordinator for ecosystems and biodiversity at the United Nations Environment Programme in Africa, said that shark hunting causes an ecological imbalance that can lead to catastrophic results, as they grow slowly, mature late, and produce very few pups, so overfishing will lead to their extinction on the medium to long term.

He also added in special statements on the sidelines of a workshop organised by Africa21 on biodiversity that preserving sharks needs cooperation between countries in order for all this work to be effective, noting that the United Nations Environment Programme — through the Convention on Migratory Species — calls for international cooperation to address the excessive exploitation of sharks.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Saturday, July 30, 2022

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