Search

This study compares the knowledge of medicinal plants of Bissau-Guinean migrants now established in Italy with the ethnopharmacology still present in their country of origin. We also investigated how traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is changing following the phenomenon of migration from Africa to Europe. The ethnobotanical data were collected during 2017–2018, by interviewing 49 informants belonging to 8 ethnic groups, living in 8 provinces of northern Italy. The final inventory of botanical taxa included 81 species belonging to 34 families, with Fabaceae and Malvaceae the most represented, followed by Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Combretaceae, and Solanaceae. Plant remedies were used to treat 21 ailment categories, such as fever, internal infections, intestinal and respiratory problems, and pains. The traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of Bissau-Guinean migrants in Italy was associated with gender, with women showing the highest knowledge. In addition, a negative relationship was observed between the maintenance of this knowledge and the number of years migrants have spent in Italy. Overall, a loss of knowledge was observed in the less numerous ethnic groups. However, traditional preparations based on plants from the country of origin are in general well preserved to maintain a good state of health. Our work could help in transferring to the next generation the cultural heritage of Bissau-Guinean people permanently moved to European Countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of children in a myriad of ways across the world. It exposed and aggravated existing inequalities between children within countries and across continents and hampered education. In Guinea-Bissau, school closure was one of the first restrictions implemented to confront the emerging pandemic. The aim was to describe and analyse the experiences of adolescents of school closures in the capital Bissau, their concerns about their future and manifestations of inequality. Data were collected by semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 30 adolescents aged 15–17 years three months into the pandemic during an enforced state of emergency. A thematic analysis identified five themes: appreciation of education, feeling left behind, being stuck in confinement, suggestions for support, and a disrupted future. The results highlight global rather than local inequalities in the demographic, manifested by a lack of targeted educational support for public and private school students; they knew about such efforts elsewhere. The school-attending participants suggested ways to mitigate disruptions in their education, while those out of school aiming to return saw their possibilities fading away. They appreciated education for personal and national benefits, and participants worried about the long-term effects of the pandemic. The study highlighted education loss for all and disrupted future expectations.

BackgroundWorldwide, governments have implemented restrictions on movement and gatherings to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to express their opinion on matters of concern to them. The study aimed to describe and analyse how adolescents in the capital Bissau understood the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and their lived experiences during the first 3 months of the pandemic.MethodsCollaborators identified participants in five urban areas in Bissau in June 2020. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 30 adolescents aged 15–17 years, attending private and public schools or out-of-school. The interviews were conducted in Kriol, recorded, transcribed, translated and analysed.ResultsAll the participants were heavily affected by the confinement measures during a state of emergency. Almost all believed in the realness of coronavirus while there were some doubts about its arrival in the country. The consequences were staying at home, enforced with increased police violence. At the same time, other violence on the streets or between neighbours had decreased. A few participants said they liked staying at home because they appreciated spending more time with their families. Most participants claimed that they and their family members tried to follow preventive measures. Almost all participants voiced concerns about the worsening financial situation at home, leading to food scarcity. Nearly all the adolescents were tired of the lockdown and worried about the pandemic’s implications on their future opportunities.ConclusionsStudy participants, here adolescents in Bissau, have a clear notion of their existence and the current situation’s potential negative impact on their future. Their voices need to be heard and acted on, which may soften the lockdown’s negative impact on adolescents in Guinea-Bissau, as elsewhere.

Timneh Parrots Psittacus timneh are endemic to the moist forests of West Africa. Concerns over rapid declines in populations due to overharvesting for the pet trade and forest loss prompted the species’ categorisation as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016. Despite these threats, few data exist on their biology in the wild, impeding the development of effective conservation initiatives to protect populations. One of the few recorded breeding sites for this species occurs in the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau, where chicks have been historically harvested from nests and forest clearance for agriculture is common. We investigated the breeding ecology of Timneh Parrots in the Bijagós Archipelago focusing on two islands that harbour the densest populations. Specifically, we describe nest-site characteristics, breeding phenology and reproductive productivity. Timneh Parrots were found to use secondary nest cavities in 17 species of trees, predominantly nesting in trees between 20 m and 50 m in height. Nest cavities were generally aggregated, with a density of up to 14 nests ha−1 in some areas, although nests also occurred in isolated large trees. The distribution of nests likely reflected a heterogeneous distribution of large trees containing suitable nest cavities, emphasising the importance of protecting mature trees. Nesting efforts were initiated between early January until late March, suggesting that nest surveillance efforts to deter poaching can be efficiently focused at a small number of key sites during February to May each year, when fledgling chicks are most likely to be present. These data further suggest that the population may be limited by the availability of suitable nest cavities and that the installation of artificial nest cavities could help increase the breeding population. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is a cash crop with a highly significant economic importance in West Africa, particularly in Guinea-Bissau (Monteiro et al. 2015, 2017). In October 2018, dieback-like symptoms such as wilt and necrosis of apical shoots were observed in 10% of the cashew trees grown in a 100-plant orchard in Bolama Island at Bijagos archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. Six symptomatic apical shoots from individual plants were collected for fungal isolation and identification. Tissue pieces (3 × 2 mm) from healthy to diseased margins were surface sterilized with 1% sodium hypochlorite, washed twice with sterilized water, placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA, Difco Laboratories) supplemented with potassium thiocyanate (50 µg/ml), and incubated at 24 ± 1°C in the dark for 7 days. Four fungal colonies were isolated (67%) and purified through hyphal tip removal, displaying rapid growth rate, and aerial mycelia that initially was white, turning later to dark greenish on PDA. Pycnidia produced on 1.5% water agar with sterilized pine needles (∼25°C; near-UV light) were solitary, covered by mycelium, obpyriform to ampulliform (152.5 ± 41.6 × 135.2 ± 30.8 μm, n = 30). Conidia were unicellular, hyaline, smooth, fusoid to ovoid, thin-walled, measuring 16.21 ± 1.52 × 5.84 ± 0.66 μm (n = 50, length/width ratio = 2.8). Such morphological features are characteristic of Neofusicoccum spp. (Phillips et al. 2013). For molecular identification, genomic DNA was extracted from a representative isolate (GB160), and partial regions of ribosomal internal transcriber spacer (ITS) (ITS1/ITS4; White et al. 1990), translation elongation factor 1-α (EF1-α) (EF1-688F/EF1-1251R; Alves et al. 2008), and β-tubulin (β-tub) (Bt2a/Bt2b; Glass and Donaldson 1995) genes were amplified as previously described, respectively, with bovine serum albumin (50 mg/ml). Amplicons were sequenced and deposited in GenBank (ITS, MN952993; EF1-α, MN952204; β-tub, MN952208). BLAST analysis of ITS, EF1-α, and β-tub gene sequences showed 100% identity with Neofusicoccum batangarum reference strain CBS124923 (FJ900608, FJ900654, and FJ900635, respectively). Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses from the concatenated dataset placed GB160 isolate within the N. batangarum cluster (bootstrap support value = 72%; Bayesian posterior probability = 0.95). For pathogenicity assessment, 3-month-old cashew ‘Caju di Terra’ plants (n = 8) grown in a greenhouse under controlled conditions were inoculated following a randomized block design as described by Lima et al. (2013). Briefly, 3-mm-diameter stem tissue bark was removed and replaced with a 3-mm-diameter PDA plug retrieved from the colony margin. Inoculation wound was covered with sterilized wet cotton and sealed with Parafilm. Eight control plants were only treated with PDA plugs and the wound covered and sealed as described. After 15 days, all inoculated plants displayed similar symptoms to those observed in the field and vascular lesions (10.8 ± 4.0 cm), whereas control plants remained symptomless. Koch’s postulates were fulfilled by successful reisolation of the pathogen from all inoculated stems and identification by morphology and gene sequencing. N. batangarum was identified associated with Anacardium spp. in Brazil (Netto et al. 2017) and recently reported as causing grapevine dieback in Brazil (Rego et al. 2020). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. batangarum causing cashew dieback in Guinea-Bissau and in West Africa. Occurrence of this disease may represent a significant impact for cashew production because this crop is the major agricultural commodity in Guinea-Bissau.

In marine turtles, the sex of an individual is determined by temperatures experienced during embryonic development. Gonad histological observation is still the only reliable way to determine hatchling sex, hampering the study of reproduction and of the demographic conse- quences of context-dependent sex-ratios, a subject of interest in a warming planet. We investigated whether hatchling remains from predation by Ocypode cursor can be used to estimate sex-ratio trends in a green turtle rookery at Poilao, Guinea-Bissau (1052 0 N, 1543 0 W). Sex could be readily determined in 77 and 79% of the predated hatchlings in 2008 and 2009, respectively. By comparing hatchlings killed by crabs, hatchlings accidentally dying on the reefs, and live hatchlings, we show that ghost crabs select the smaller prey, but do not select according to hatchling sex, which is explained by the lack of hatchling size dimorphism in this population. The proportion of male hatchlings was 0.45 ± 0.06 and 0.15 ± 0.06 for early and late-season clutches, respectively, these differences most likely being explained by rainfall. Using leftovers from predation by crabs may be a good solution to non-inva- sively monitor broad trends in sex-ratios of sea turtles.

This paper provides the first overview of sea turtles in Guinea-Bissau, presents data on their ecology, and analyzes threats and conservation initiatives. The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is by far the most widespread and abundant of the 5 species that nest in Guinea-Bissau. Between ca. 7000 and 29,000 green turtle nests are laid per year at the globally important site of Poilao Island, with a few hundred more on surrounding islands. There is a marked interspecific variability in nesting seasonality, with green and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles nesting mostly during the rainy season and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) and leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) during the dry season. Informal interviews all over the coastal zone suggest that sea turtle populations have markedly declined within living memory. Main threats are poaching of eggs and of nesting females and the incidental capture in fishing gear. Amongst the major achievements of sea turtle conservation efforts ar...

The island of Poilão in the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau, is known to be an important nesting site for the green turtle Chelonia mydas, but until recently there were no quantitative estimates of the number of clutches deposited annually. In 2000 a survey was carried out to assess the magnitude of nesting, and an estimated 7,400 green turtle clutches were deposited. Four nesting hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata were also encountered. This study confirmed that Poilão is one of the most important nesting sites for green turtles in the Atlantic, and the largest known nesting colony on the west coast of Africa. Traditionally Poilão has been regarded as a sacred site by the Bijagós people, and this has contributed to the conservation of these turtles. However, the development of fisheries in this region is an emerging threat. To conserve this site a National Marine Park was designated in August 2000. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion