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Training & Capacity Building

In order to tackle marine environmental issues at a global level, many countries, which are rich in marine life and resources, require help in training for capacity building to apply the latest techniques and technologies to their particular environment. PML Applications Ltd has a strong interest in helping these countries through various international programmes.

One such a specific area concerns 'Understanding human impacts on aquatic ecosystems and subsequent risks to pulic health'.  To protect coastal ecosystems and the health of communities, decision makers require the tools and resources necessary to detect damage to coastal ecosystems and their components, identify causative agents, impose remedial action, and demonstrate that measures have been effective. Robust monitoring and prediction capabilities must also be built to provide further confidence that human impacts are being minimized and that to threats to human health have been contained.

For most of the world (including many parts of Asia), the ability to build such capability is a technical challenge and often cost prohibitive. The nature of inter-relations between coastal marine ecosystems and human health issues needs to be kept under rigorous review. The mitigation of public health risk from contaminated seafood, for example, requires the consistent collection of data on coastal ecosystem dynamics and the risk profile of health threats. Integrated and innovative monitoring techniques are being explored, providing practical means of detecting damage in coastal and estuarine ecosystems and identifying the human – wildlife health connection. The application of simple, validated modelling techniques can also be highly useful to guide the actions of national and regional environmental decision makers.

Many conventional monitoring and assessment methods are too costly to be widely used. Therefore, there is a need for rapid, easy to use, inexpensive and ecologically relevant environmental assessment and management procedures for use where resources available for environmental protection and legislation are limited.

RAMP, developed by Plymouth Marine Laboratory with key partners, provides a pragmatic, cost-effective approach for detecting, monitoring and assessing impacts of human activities in aquatic ecosystems. On the other hand RAMP provides a means of detecting threats from the environment to human health and well-being. RAMP workshops have taken place since 1993 in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the USA.

RAMP comprises a set of procedures and tools (including rapid, simple chemical measurements, bioassays, biomarkers, socio-economic and health assessment methods) and allows scientists to determine ecological status, take action to protect or restore the environment and work towards sustainable development.