Fishermen sail a boat on the Aral Sea outside the village of Karateren, south-western Kazakhstan, April 15, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] SINDHUDURG, India - The fishermen were dubious when ocean experts suggested they could save their dwindling marine stocks just by switching to new nets. It took years for the UN Development Program to convince the fishing communities along India's tropical western coast that the diamond-mesh nets they were using were trapping baby fish, while a square-shaped mesh could allow small fish to escape to maintain a breeding population. But two years after the new nets were fully adopted, fishermen insist they're making a difference. This square net is a blessing for us, said John Gabriel Naronha, who runs six trawlers in the area. When the small fish grows up, the fishermen can really benefit ... we can get good prices for big fish. And the small fish gets a chance to grow.The project, launched in 2011, is one of many being showcased at a major conference on oceans beginning Monday, where the United Nations will plead with nations to help halt a global assault on marine life and ecosystems that is threatening jobs, economies and even human lives. The oceans of the planet are in dire need of urgent action, said Marina Walter, deputy director for UNDP in India. That action is even more urgent now that climate change is causing ocean temperatures to rise while waters also become more acidic, causing widespread destruction of coral reefs that sustain a quarter of all marine species. But conservation efforts work best when they're linked with local livelihoods, Walter said. You cannot work on biodiversity or life underwater in isolation, without looking at the livelihoods of people, the bread and butter.No one in 80 or so fishing villages of Sindhudurg district expected to have problems fishing, after centuries of their families relying on the sea. Located in one of India's 11 ecologically critical coastline habitats, the area is teeming with life from more than 350 marine species including Indian Ocean dolphins and Olive Ridley turtles. Colorful corals span the shallows, while tangles of mangrove forests protect the land from water erosion. But that bounty has suffered against the twin assaults of overfishing and pollution, which caused a steady decline local fish stocks and forced fishermen to push further out to sea. Since switching to new nets, fishermen say fish stocks are recovering, though there is no data collected yet to prove it. Surveys of fish population may be conducted at the end of this year, when the UNDP finishes its six-year project in the area. The struggles of India's fishermen are hardly unique. About one out of every 10 people in the world relies directly on the ocean to survive. Most of those are among the world's poorest and most vulnerable, meaning they have few substitutes when marine life declines. And it is declining rapidly, thanks to increased fishing for an expanding global population and unchecked runoff of industrial chemicals, sewage and other pollutants. Already, about 90 percent of wild fisheries around the world are over-exploited or collapsed. Meanwhile, the UNDP has also helped set up a crab farming project in the Sindudurg area to encourage local preservation of the mangroves and resistance to land developers and those gathering firewood from chopping the saltwater-tolerant trees down. Now, nurseries for crab seedlings line up along a 2-acre (8,000-square-meter) stretch of backwater pools filled with the mud that crabs like to dig into. It takes up to nine months for the crabs to grow to full size, at which point they are harvested and sold for about $15 per kilogram ($6.80 a pound). Recently, the group of nine women and one man earned nearly $1,000 in profits from a single harvest. Local officials are delighted with the low-fuss process and positive results. With very little manipulation of the environment, you can grow crabs wherever you have mangroves, said N. Vasudevan, who heads a special unit dedicated to mangrove conservation for the government of India's western state of Maharashtra. This story corrects number of villages. AP wristbands with a messagecustom made rubber braceletssilicone keychain
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presides over the second meeting of the presidium of the 19th CPC National Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. JU PENG / XINHUA It offers confidence in 'road forward' with uplifting messages, delegates say A new political theory unveiled at a key congress of China's ruling Communist Party of China has struck a chord with Ling Jihe, a 56-year-old rural entrepreneur in Jiangxi province. 'Ensuring harmony between human and nature', a basic principle underpinned by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, resonates with my choice of career over the past eight years, he said. After being a businessman elsewhere for more than 20 years, Ling went back to his home village of Xilu to farm in 2009, eyeing the great potential of green agriculture. Now he manages more than 3,000 hectares of farmland, helping to raise the income of more than 3,300 of his fellow villagers. The new thought has firmed my confidence in my road forward, said Ling, who is also a delegate to the 19th CPC National Congress, which opened on Wednesday. Congress delegates and experts widely believe that Xi Jinping Thought is the biggest highlight of the Party congress, a twice-a-decade gathering and the most important event on China's political calendar. The elevation of the Thought into a guide to action for the CPC and the country signals a new chapter of Marxism in the 21st century. The Thought embodies the latest achievement in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, said Liu Jingbei, a professor with the China Executive Leadership Academy in Shanghai's Pudong district. The Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era builds on and further enriches Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, said a report delivered at the opening of the congress on Wednesday. The report listed the 14-point fundamental principles of the Thought, ranging from ensuring Party leadership over all work to promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. A hundred years ago, the salvo of the October Revolution in Russia brought the theory of Marxism-Leninism to China. From the day it was born in 1921, the CPC has enshrined Marxism-Leninism as its guide to action and continued to innovate it by integrating the theory with China's changing conditions. Xi, general secretary of the 18th CPC Central Committee, announced on Wednesday that China has achieved a tremendous transformation. It has stood up, grown rich and become strong. He made the remarks while unveiling a two-stage plan to make China a great modern socialist country by the mid-21st century. Chen Shuguang, a professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said, As China enters a new era, the CPC must write a new chapter of 21st-century Marxism with a broader vision to achieve the goals set at the milestone congress. Liu attributed the CPC's success in maintaining vitality and creativity to the ability to advance with the times, saying it is the magic code for the CPC to lead China toward becoming a great modern country. For congress delegate Liu Chengzhang, the Thought bears uplifting messages. The Thought takes ensuring and improving living standards through development as a basic principle, requiring steady progress in ensuring the people's access to child care, education, employment, medical services, eldercare, housing and social assistance. This vision suits China's conditions well and wins applause from the general public, he said. The general secretary's pledge to give priority to education is a real bonus for me, said Liu, the headmaster of a senior high school in Dancheng, an impoverished county in Henan province. Liu said around 30 students in his school strive to enter China's prestigious Peking University and Tsinghua University each year, with 80 percent of them from rural areas. As a grassroots Party member and a rural educator, I'm fully supportive of Xi, said Liu, who believes education is the best way to lift the poor out of poverty for good. XINHUA
