IGCC/GCLME Project Status report

By Stephen Maxwell Donkor,Executive Secretary/Regional Coordinator

Interim Guinea Current Commission

IW-LEARN AFRICA CONFERENCEGrahamstown, South Africa

GCLME Project

The overall development goals of this project are to:

Recover depleted fish stocks,

• Restore degraded habitats,

•Reduce land and ship-based pollution,

•Create an ecosystem-wide assessment and management framework for sustainable use of living and non-living resources in the GCLME,

•Establish viable regional consultative and coordination mechanisms for joint actions in transboundary management of the GCLME including a Guinea Current Commission

A. Main Project Objectives

GCLME Project

COMPONENTS1. Recovery of depleted fisheries2. Restore degraded habitats 3. Reduce land and ship-based pollution4. Create an ecosystem wide assessment and

management framework for environmentaland living resource management

5. Establish viable regional consultative and coordination mechanisms for transboundarymanagement of the GCLME including a Guinea Current Commission

GCLME Project

The IGCC/GCLME Project has made real progress and successfully completed many of the activities set out at inception in 2005 :•The Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA).

• Strategic Action Programme (SAP), and the associated National Programmes of Action (NPA) as well as National Action Plans (NAP) have been prepared,

•Interim IGCC Secretariat and Inter-Ministerial Committees established at the regional and national levels respectively

•Transition to permanent Guinea Current Commission has began.

•Partial implementation of the SAP (demonstration projects, etc).

•SAP Implementation Project under preparation

Key Milestones

GCLME Project B. Project Strategy

national bodies such as the Inter-ministerial Committees (IMC) for conducting effective national and regional interventions for rational fisheries utilization, biodiversity conservation, pollution prevention and coastal erosion defence.

The IGCC/GCLME Strategy has been to develop and apply an effective regional approach to:

Create improved legal/management frameworks and institutional structures to address priority regional issues, including a Guinea Current Commission, a Regional Fisheries Platform, and other regional and

GCLME Project

Develop nationally endorsed Strategic Action Program (SAP)and National Action Plans (NAPs) with accompanying sustainable financing plans to lead the way towards continued incremental improvement to environmental state of the GCLME, based on a solid foundation of regional commitment and consensus.

Project strategy (cont’d)

GCLME Project

The IGCC Ministers in their 2nd statutory meeting on 2nd July 2010 decided to establish apermanent Guinea Current Commission in line with their decision under the Abuja Declarationin 2006.

Key OutcomeEstablish viable regional consultative and

coordination mechanisms for transboundarymanagement of the GCLME including a Guinea

Current Commission

GCLME Project

1. Draft documents required for the establishment Guinea Current Commission were prepared at the request of the 6th SCM.

2. A related Inter-Agency process to propose options for the establishment of the permanent Guinea Current Commission completed.

3. Development of MOUs with FAO (signed), FCWC and COREP completed.

Steps towards permanent Guinea Current Commission

GCLME Project

4. National Action Plans: the 16 countries in the GCLME project have prepared their Action

Plans, which include proposed policy and legal reforms, investment needed and economic instruments

5. A portfolio of selected National Priority projects was established by the IMCs for future country-level negotiations between sovereign states and development partners.

6. Partnership Conference was organized in Douala, Cameroon.

Steps towards permanent Guinea Current Commission

GCLME Project

1. The LME Concept is accepted as an integrative Frame work by all 16 IGCC countries.

2. The NAPs and IMCs are best means of cohesive national level management of Coast and Marine resources.

3. Member states will provide funding resources when can get direct benefits from projects ( 500 million US$ Co-financing for SAP implementation.)

LESSONS LEARNT

GCLME Project

1. Support for IGCC in setting up Guinea Current Information Clearing House including sustenance of GCLME Website.

2. Training modules for strengthening IMC at Country level.

3. Twinning with Knowledge Centres of specific technical issues such as Remote Sensing and GIS.

4. Twinning with RBOs (Niger, Congo, Volta, Mano, etc)5. Need to establish linkages with Africa Policy processes

such as AMCOW and UN Water/Africa.

Priorities for IW-LEARN

GCLME Project

merci! gracias!

obrigado! thank you!

GCLME Project

C. Assessment of Project Performance and Achievement of Targets for the

period June2010 to May 2011

GCLME Project

For the period June 2010 to May 2011, the following activities were successfully undertaken under this component:

1. Through collaboration with the FAO Nansen project, the project accomplished acoustic evaluation of pelagic fish resources, utilizing the research vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, in

1- Recover Depleted Fish Stocks

the EEZs of Gabon and Congo in June 2010. Thirteen scientific participants from eight GCLME countries participated in this survey. The survey also collected benthic and plankton samples as well environmental data (temperature, salinity etc).

GCLME Project

2. The stomach contents collected during the surveys were analysed at the Fish and Fisheries Regional Activity Centre, INIP, Luanda, Angola.

Stomach Content Analysis

Being a capacity building activity, Eleven participants from eight GCLME countries participated in this training exercise.

GCLME Project

It was a capacity building workshop for the national scientists from the 16 GCLME countries on the assessment of productivity of the GCLME and endorsement of a draft report on marine productivity of the GCLME.

Productivity Assessment3. 2nd Regional Productivity workshop held in Accra, 22-26th November 2010, by the Regional Productivity and Biodiversity Centre, University of Ghana, Legon.

GCLME Project

4. 2nd Regional ECOPATH-ECOSIM Workshop, 13-17th December 2010, on the ecosystem modelling utilizing Ecopath with Ecosim software.

The national scientists used national data in combination with data from Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to construct models based on these data.

Modelling

GCLME Project

The next steps are for the scientists is to disseminate the modelling knowledge in their countries and serve to train other scientists so that each country gets the capacity of using the models in the analyses of their Fisheries resources and productivity indicators.

Modelling

Mariculture5. Sub regional Mariculture workshop, 23-25th February 2011, on mariculture development

was conducted in collaboration with the YSLME, IW:LEARN and Water Research Institute. A follow-up on the recommendations of the workshop is being implemented with specific reference to setting up a model cage fish farm as a demonstration project which will stimulate entrepreneurship initially in polyculture and later in mariculture.

GCLME Project Aquaculture farm on the Volta lake

GCLME Project 2- Restore degraded habitats

For the period June 2010 to May 2011, the following activities were successfully undertaken under this component:

1. A three-day meeting was organised in Accra to enable business and government leaders to learn of the best waste management practices and technology available in Ghana.. A major aim of the meeting was to set up a network of enterprises and agencies involved in waste recycling.

GCLME Project

2. Progress in the implementation of the demonstration projects on which mostly serve to restore the habitat:

Nypa Palm Utilization and Mangrove restoration in Nigeria.

Demonstration Projects

GCLME Project

Controlling Leachate Pollution from the Phosphate Mines in the coastal waters, Togo.

Low cost technology for coastal protection in Asinine, Cote d’Ivoire

Demonstration Projects

GCLME Project

Creation of Marine Protected Areas in Benin.

Demonstration Projects

GCLME Project

Integrated Coastal Areas Management in Kribi-Camp Area, Cameroon.

Demonstration Projects

FIGURE 1: MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE CAMEROON COASTAL ZONE AREA (Ngouanet, 2010)

GCLME Project

For the period June 2010 to May 2011, the following activities were successfully undertakenunder this component:1. The Emergency Protocol of the Abidjan Convention which was developed with part funding by the IGCC/GCLME Project in a Letter of Agreement with IMO. UNEP also contributed financially to the legal review by National Legal Experts from IGCC/GCLME, BCC and CCLME countries at in 2008 in Yaounde and also a Pre-COP Workshop of the Abidjan COP 9. The Emergency Protocol was subsequently adopted by COP 9.

3 - Reduce land and ship-based pollution

GCLME Project

2. The deterioration of the coastal and marine environment is caused and/or exacerbatedby pollutants from shipping related, as well as land based activities. Under the IGCC/GCLME project, collaboration with IMO and IPIECA has resulted in a regional oil/chemical spill contingency plan that was updated/ refined through consultations and discussed by all countries during the Abidjan Convention COP9.

Oil Spill Contingency

GCLME Project

3. The IGCC in collaboration with the GloBallast Partnerships Project Coordination Unit of IMO conducted a three day (15-17 June 2010) workshop with 2 days on a training on the legal implementation of the Ballast Water Management Convention and a half-day with particular focus on the legal aspects of the BWM Convention, to provide an input to the Regional Strategic Action Plan on BWM adopted by the Regional Task Force in Abidjan, July 2009.

Ship Ballast Water Management

GCLME Project

Interim Guinea Current Commission (IGCC) in cooperation with the International Maritime Organization

Oil Spill Response

(IMO) and International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) will be organizing a Regional workshop on dispersants use policies in West and Central Africa, on 22-24 June, 2011.

GCLME Project

For the period June 2010 to May 2011, the following activities were successfully undertakenunder this component:1. Monitoring the implementation of fisheries plans for shrimps and demersal resources are ongoing following the framework developed at the IGCC Workshop on Fisheries Management Planning in Douala, Cameroon in 2009.

4 - Create an ecosystem wide assessment and management framework for environmental

and living resource management

GCLME Project

2. GIS mapping on breeding and nursery grounds of important fish species in the Gulf of Guinea was initiated under a sub contract with the IGCC/GCLME Environmental Information Management RAC at the University of Lagos in Nigeria.

Mapping

GCLME Project

3. Sub regional survey in the assessment of pelagic fish stocks waters between Gabon and Congo in cooperation with the EAF–Nansen Project of FAO in June 2010 which was followed by a hands-on regional capacity development workshop in stomach content analyses in Regional centre for Fisheries, INEP, in Angola

Surveys

GCLME Project

4. Workshops and surveys on estimating/ quantifying economic benefits of environmental and social services provided by healthy ecosystems in the GCLME were conducted in 2010. Initial estimates of value of ecosystems goods and services is between 13-17 billion US dollars.

Surveys

GCLME Project

5. Overall the Project organized 48 Workshops/Meetings (30 at National level and 18 at regional Level) since the 7th Steering Committee meeting in June 2010. Main focus on National Workshops was on the development and validation of National Action Plans (NAPs) and dissemination of results of the Demo projects which were complete.

Workshops and Meetings

GCLME Project

Overall the IGCC/GCLME Project has made great strides in implementing the project activities planned and has made up for the one year suspension of activities in 2008.A “No cost extension” has been approved by 8th SCM for the SAP Development Phase to enable, among others, consultations to be completed on the establishment of An independent, permanent Guinea Current Commission

Conclusions

GCLME Project

merci! gracias!

obrigado! thank you!