JEAI-MOCAs: A multi-institutional initiative to build marine research capacity in Mozambique

Abstract

Understanding the dynamics of the coastal oceans is important for managing coastal ecosystems, and hence for protecting lives and planning sustainable development. Among other countries in the southwest Indian Ocean, Mozambique has a greater number of environmental problems to solve. These problems include the landing of tropical cyclones 1 along the coast and associated heavy rain and flooding events which cause loss of life, infrastructural damage, coastal erosion, incident droughts, water pollution, overexploitation of marine and coastal resources, and weather and climate change and extremes. 2,3 Many of these problems can be monitored, so that remedial action can be taken, by conducting sustainable institutional collective research. 4 Therefore Mozambican institutions should attain adequate capacity of human resources in strategic research areas (e.g. weather and climate extremes, mitigating harmful effects of climate change, and conservation and sustainable management of marine and coastal resources). 5 It was because of the aforementioned problems that, for the first time, an initiative developed by a Mozambican research group to focus on oceanic and atmospheric dynamics was established.