On October 23rd, 2020, 1-2 PM UTC, we met Filomena Vaz Velho, National Institute for Fisheries and Marine Research (INIPM), Angola. She presented the LuandaWaterFront Project – Luanda Bay Ecological Assessment: A waterfront based approach to reduce environmental risks and increase quality of life. The moderator was Marcelo Rollnic, Professor at the Federal University of Para, Brazil.

LuandaWaterfront is a scientific research and technological development project that includes Angolan and Portuguese institutions, namely, the National Institute for Fisheries and Marine Research (INIPM), the Faculty of Sciences of the Agostinho Neto University (FC-UAN), the University of Algarve (UALg) and the Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR), which is the coordinator. The project is funded the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The objective is to assess the state of the Bay of Luanda (Angola), as well as to increase scientific knowledge of environmental risks, namely Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs), Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP), marine litter and other global climate change threats that impact on the well-being of local communities and the health of the ecosystem. The project also plans to establish co-management mechanisms for the Bay of Luanda, involving stakeholders and local communities, with the aim of recommending environmental mitigation strategies to improve its water quality and promote the sustainable development of the different services of this ecosystem. The principal investigator from Portugal is Alexandra Teodósio and, from Angola, Filomena Vaz Velho.

Speaker

Filomena Vaz Velho

Filomena Vaz Velho is the Director General of the National Institute for Fisheries and Marine Research (INIPM), Angola, and Commissioner of Angola at the Benguela Current Convention. She is a marine biologist and holds a PhD from the University of Algarve. His area research is the study of the impact of climate variability on the dynamics of living marine resources and mass balance models of the trophic network, built with the Ecopath software with Ecosim (EwE). The challenge is the application of this model in a sensitive ecosystem with many users, such as Baía de Luanda, which is a postcard of the city of Luanda, and whose results will allow an adequate management for a healthy future of this emblematic marine area.

Moderator

Marcelo Rollnic

Marcelo Rollnic is a professor at the Federal University of Pará, where he coordinates the research group on Marine Environmental Monitoring. He has experience in data acquisition, oceanographic database and numerical modeling in the Amazon Coastal Zone as well as interactions with socioeconomic activities.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.