Breaking News – Seychelles Island Foundation gets EU grant to protect Aldabra / Vallee de Mai

SEYCHELLES ISLAND FOUNDATION GETS EU GRANT TO FIGHT ‘INVASIVE SPECIES’

The European Union has awarded the Seychelles Island Foundation a grant of over 800.000 Euros after approving a project drawn up and designed by SIF recently.

The foundation is tasked to look after two crucially important UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the visitor magnet ‘Vallee de Mai’ on the island of Praslin, and further away, but not less significant, the Aldabra Atoll, which the government of Seychelles has set aside for research and environmental monitoring, and to a lesser extent for tourism purposes. Visitors to the atoll however can only ‘land’ during daylight hours and must spend their overnights on their yachts, as besides the research teams no accommodation facilities are allowed on the atoll to minimise the impact of human presence.

Dr. Frauke Fleischer-Dogley, Chief Executive of the SIF – an extensive interview with her was published in eTN a year ago – was at hand to sign the documents and expressed her delight that the project was chosen for financing which will allow SIF now to take stock of any invasive species of plants and animals found in the two sites and devise appropriate and adequate measures to removing such species from the WHS’ for good.

The duration of the project is initially set to run for four years but regular monitoring and reports from the sites will allow information updates here, as and when available.

Watch this space.

News update – Goma volcano heading for another eruption

GOMA VOLCANO SET FOR ANOTHER ERUPTION

Previous eruptions in recent times may be dwarfed by the expected next eruption of Mr. Nyiragongo, which towers over the Eastern Congolese city of Goma. 9 years ago, in January 2002, when the region’s most active volcano erupted, the reportedly rather ‘liquid’ lava swiftly covered a sizeable part of the city and even brought air transport to a complete standstill, when a portion of the runway was covered by lava, which when finally cooling down was measured to be 6 and more feet thick and as wide as a kilometre, leaving total destruction in its wake and making over 120.000 residents homeless. The eruption then reached as far as Lake Kivu and only a major effort supported by the UN and international partners made the airport somehow usable again, albeit with a still shortened runway which makes the use of larger aircraft impossible and impacts on the operations of the airport even with smaller jets. Accidents have in fact been recorded at Goma attributed at the shortened runway making every landing and take off an adventure of sorts. An earlier major eruption in 1977 too caused similar havoc but population numbers were considerably less back then and the main path of the lava was not directed frontally against Goma. There are reportedly only two ‘main exit routes’ for the lava, as researchers have established and therefore the chance of Goma being hit again during the next eruption is 50/50.

Entrepreneurs have since the 2002 eruption, and after the volcano had quieted down again, even introduced guided tours to the volcano’s peak, allowing visitors to have a look into the lava lake, ignoring warnings from volcanologists to stay well clear of the crater. While in the past, ahead of major eruptions, earthquakes and seismic events indicated increased activity of the volcano, the absence of monitoring equipment is hampering the ability of researchers to adequately monitor the mountain and predict imminent eruptions but neither the ‘volcano operators’ nor the population at large seems overly concerned at this stage, inspite of recent pictures being taken from aircraft overflying the crater, showing it once again filling up with enormous quantities of lava. A few months ago it was reported here that the lava’s reflections on low clouds could be seen all the way into Uganda, again underscoring that there is indeed now a growing possibility of another upcoming eruption, many of which in the recorded history of the volcano have come at 10 year intervals.

The African Rift Valley, which extends from the Red Sea across much of Africa to Malawi, has always been an active seismological zone – as another active volcano, Mt. Ol Donyo Lengai in Tanzania demonstrates – but of late have disquieting reports emerged that the underwater ‘rip’ in the Red Sea seems to be widening, as minor eruptions have been reported from the border area between Ethiopia and Djibouti. It is there that the ground has lowered too and subsequently seismic monitoring has been substantially increased to provide early alerts of imminent developments. In the Eastern African part of the Rift Valley, and especially for Mt. Nyiragongo, this does not seem to be the case at present however, leaving the populations near such volcanos at greater risk, and with no meaningful evacuation plans in place, leave alone the assets in place and the resources available, the Goma volcano can be considered a disaster in waiting. Should in fact the airport during a future eruption be closed again, feasible evacuations and the arrival of supplies and equipment will then only be able to reach Goma by road from Rwanda or else across the lake, where however shipping capacity too is minimal.

Watch this space.

Breaking News – Dar’s international airport open again – airlines furious over incident and aviation safety issues

DAR’S JNIA AIRPORT OPEN AGAIN / AIRLINES IN DAR ‘FURIOUS’ OVER INCIDENT

A regular aviation source in Dar es Salaam has through third parties passed his own views and that of several of his colleagues, even from other airlines, on the airport closure of Dar’s Julius Nyerere International Airport. He said he had to opt to use alternate routes of passing this information as:

‘I believe communications are monitored. This explosion is very serious and government takes not kindly to anyone found talking about it or going to the press with any information or details. They seem to think it is all about state security here. That is why our newspapers give little information, but we know of course why that is so and who is behind it. Anyway, the good news is that the airport is now open again and operating but there are still many passengers waiting for their international flight departures and domestic flights also have a backlog of passengers waiting to fly to their destinations within Tanzania.’

 

A series of explosions at a nearby army base, also used as a major ammunition storage, rocked Dar es Salaam on Wednesday night, caused widespread destruction, on the army base itself and across a wide perimeter around the base to businesses, residential housing and leading even to the closure of the international airport.

Flights enroute to Dar were diverted, as far as possible to Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha or else told to land while still airborne at a chose diversion airport. All international, regional and domestic flights in and out of Dar es Salaam were cancelled during the period of closure, leaving passengers stranded, angry and upset and without much if any information on the timeframe of their cancelled departures. Many were said to be further inconvenienced when businesses at the airport closed leaving them literally on their own as phone lines to the airlines or airport information service were either jammed or not answered at all.

The quoted aviation source in Dar had this to say: ‘we were told of a shutdown of the airport by phone from colleagues on duty at the airport. We heard the explosions across the city and first one would have thought of a big accident or other incidents involving the airport itself. Then gradually news filtered through it was the same army base which already exploded in April 2009 and we could not believe it. I got in touch with other colleagues and we are all very upset that government has failed to implement any safety measures at all and allowing such a thing to happen a second time. Imagine, aircraft, the airport building could have been hit by rockets causing big loss of life and aircraft. Where in the world does an army store a lot of bombs, rockets, mines and ammunition so close to the main international airport and not ensure total safety. My colleagues and I are very upset, and considering how we are often treated by airport security when going to our place of work, it is obvious that the army does not take safety and security of the people and assets they are supposed to protect equally seriously. This government talks about tourism and trade relations, but they cannot even keep our country’s main airport secure. If this had led to loss of life at the airport the tourism sector would be very hard hit because everyone would say ‘you can’t go there, it is not safe’. Our managers here will not talk either to the press, they are mostly expatriates and know how to keep silent over such issues unless they want to be sent home. It is pathetic, even the loss of life and the number of those injured are kept like a state secret. At least now the airport is open again but a friend of mine said he should really be given a flak jacket and steel helmet with his uniform to be safe’.

As if the country’s tourism industry needed such negative publicity following the storm of outrage over the past few months about the planned highway across the Serengeti’s migration routes of the great herds of wildebeest and zebras, the controversy over the possible construction of a hotel in the ‘Stone Town’ of Zanzibar and the likely revival of plans to build a hydroelectric dam along the Rufiji River’s Stieglers Gorge – besides the contentious issues of poaching, ivory smuggling and other related stories told here in past months. Watch this space.