Building Integrated Ocean Management in African regions

By GRID-Arendal

February 22^nd, 2017

The Mami Wata Expert Workshop in Libreville, Gabon 15-17th February 2017

Along the African Atlantic coast, the marine and coastal environment is home to a range of biodiversity hotspots and highly productive ecosystems. These natural assets provide important services to coastal communities and are essential to people's wellbeing, as well as socio-economic development. However, these marine living resources and ecosystems are in widespread decline due to human activities.

The management of human activities in marine and coastal ecosystems is often challenging. Traditionally, several sectorial Ministries are involved, and those might not always have the same objectives for their respective management decisions - and may also not be tasked to consider other activities in their management or assess the cumulative environmental impacts. Consequently, conflicts between uses of ocean ecosystems and user groups may arise. As such, an Integrated Ocean Management (IOM) approach is seen as beneficial, because it brings together all relevant Government bodies, sectors and stakeholders for more effective and holistic management of the ocean.

Photo: GRID-Arendal/ Kari Synnøve Johansen

The project Mami Wata, implemented by GRID-Arendal, the Abidjan Convention Secretariat, is working to enhance marine management along the Atlantic Coast of the West, Central and Southern Africa (also known as the Abidjan Convention Region).

Last week, the Mami Wata project organised an expert workshop in Libreville, Gabon, convening key stakeholders of the project, experts and country representatives. The event marked a critical step towards integrated ocean management policy framework for the Abidjan Convention member states.

The workshop focused on participatory group discussion and sharing of experiences. Among the presentations, the host country, Gabon, highlighted the 'Gabon Bleu' initiative and the establishment of a national council for the sea, which is working towards more effective management of marine activities and marine resources issues - from oil exploration to illegal fisheries and piracy.

Other countries presented their experiences with IOM and in applying Ecological or Biological Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs), Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and State of Marine Environment reporting (SoME). International experts also provided key inputs. As a part of GRID-Arendal's Mami Wata team, Miles Macmillan-Lawler, Programme Leader, Marine Spatial Planning, attended the 3-day workshop and presented on marine spatial planning.

"This is an important opportunity for the member countries of the Abidjan Convention to share their experience in integrated ocean management, and to map out a pathway to improved ocean management. The Mami Wata project will support the member countries in this journey and will lead to ecosystem health and benefit livelihoods of the people that depend on it, fulfilling several of the SDGs".

Building on the shared experience and discussions, the participants agreed that there is a need to move towards integrated ocean management as part of a broader strategy of valuing the ocean and its ecosystems, and harnessing its benefits to improve the livelihoods of the people of the region. While highlighting the major steps already taken in moving towards IOM, the workshop participants also pointed to the several challenges including human capacity, technology transfer and the need for ongoing high level political support.

Technical and institutional capacity for ecosystem-based management will be developed in the project through pilot projects, centers of expertise, knowledge sharing training.

The Mami Wata project, which is supported by then German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) is in its inception phase. To follow the developments of the project, please go to: https://mamiwataproject.org