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Impacts and Threats of Marine Litter in African Seas
Summary
This review examines the impacts of marine litter — with a focus on plastic pollution — on the ecosystems, economies, and communities of coastal African nations, drawing on global data to infer likely impacts where African-specific research is scarce.
Summary With a focus on plastic pollution, this chapter discusses the impacts of marine litter on the natural environment, the people and the economies of Africa. The impacts of marine litter will depend on various factors such as distribution, exposure time, size and type of organism. This chapter focusses on different impacts of marine litter at various scales, from ocean to coast, as well as more localised scales. The emphasis is on the coastal countries of the African continent, where information from Africa is lacking, and relevant data from other regions is used to infer possible impacts. Throughout this chapter, the environmental, social, economic and human impacts are discussed separately, although it should be remembered that these topics are intimately interlinked.
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