The Guinea Current LME Project

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From the course by University of Cape Town

Large Marine Ecosystems: Assessment and Management

10 оценки

University of Cape Town

Large Marine Ecosystems: Assessment and Management

10 оценки

Focusing on the Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) of the world, this course will introduce the concept and practice of ecosystem-based management. LMEs occupy areas of coastal ocean at least 200 000 km² or greater in size. These coastal waters produce 12.6 trillion USD in ecosystem goods and services annually and are vitally important for billions of people around the globe. Because LMEs are bounded by ocean features and are globally linked, management of human activities needs to occur in an integrated fashion across political boundaries and economic sectors (e.g. fishing, shipping, energy, tourism, and mining.) This represents a new type of management approached - shifting from single sector-based to multi-sector assessment and management within the spatial domain of the world's 66 Large Marine Ecosystems. There is global high-level support for this new approach and in this course, we will introduce the concepts and tools for assessing and managing LMEs. Together, leaders and experts in a global movement to recover and sustain the goods and services of LMEs will introduce you to the mechanisms used for assessment (Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis), planning and implementation (Strategic Action Programme). Based on recent activities in implementation and practice of the LME approach in 22 projects around the globe, we will showcase examples of effective management at this scale, and highlight the challenges and issues. By the end of the online course, we hope you will be able to actively use this knowledge to advance sustainable development of the world’s oceans. The course was created with the support and input of: the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), UNESCO-IOC and IW:LEARN.

From the lesson

Taking it home: Examples of best practice

We have included a number of case studies of LMEs, inviting marine ecosystem managers and scientists from across our network to describe their work in implementing EBM.

The Guinea Current LME Project6:59

The Guinea Current LME Commission4:54

Meet the Instructors

Coleen Moloney
Associate Professor
Marine Research Institute

The introduction of the Large Marine Ecosystem concept into

the management of the goods and services of

the coastal and marine environment of the West and Central African countries in 1995,

enabled these coastal states to strengthen

their cooperation efforts and most importantly to ensure

synergy in the manner in which they complied with a myriad of

oceans-related multilateral agreements to which they are parties.

It's important to highlight that GEF played

a crucial role in this process by supporting the LME concept.

Two major projects, GEF-funded projects,

provided the opportunity for these countries to carry out

a transdiagnostic analysis that lead towards

defining priority actions within a strategic action program.

What is important here is that the political momentum that

was generated through this process was unprecedented.

We found a country-driven process,

where from a high-level political level the ministers of the environment and key sectors

involved in the management of Large Marine Ecosystems took commitments.

Firstly, in the Accra Declaration to move the pilot phase from

the six countries that were involved expanding it to 16 other countries.

In the Abuja Declaration that followed later on,

there was recognition for a strong coordination of this process,

and so the Interim Guinea Current Commission was established but later on

made a permanent governance structure with the GCC established under the Osu Declaration.

But what is important is that to clarify the mandate of this body,

the Abidjan Convention made it clear

that this permanent governance structure had

to be established as a protocol under the Abidjan Convention.

We think that these were major achievements that came in as a result of adopting

a transboundary ecosystem management approach for these valuable goods and

services that should drive the development of the countries and the people in the region.

The major achievements in the application of the Large Marine Ecosystem project was

the human dimensions to the activities that were carried out.

The human well-being ecological linkage and interdependence was very evident

especially in the application of the five modules that drive this approach.

In fact, this led to what I would call a key benefit which was that of

strengthening the relationship between natural science and social scientist.

We find here that the interface between scientific findings and policy,

that has been very weak,

was strengthened in this process.

In the extent to which scientific information was

able to inform decision and policy-making processes.

If we take the modules of fisheries, pollution,

and productivity, we find out that several monitoring activities were carried out,

that led to the generation of data,

the updating of data,

the establishment of scientific networks in carrying out this.

Using the various governance platforms that were established;

interministerial committees, the regional activities centers.

Within this the projects, we were able to

upscale and influence key strategic frameworks and policies.

Today you have a series of Integrated Coastal Management Plans;

National Action Plans that have been developed at national levels,

and that are aligned with the strategic action plans to ensure

a coherent and synergetic intervention

in terms of managing the goods and services of the region.

What is also very,

very important as a major impact,

is the direct livelihood impact of those activities.

Demonstration Projects were put in place during this process.

and in, the fisheries module,

we find out that

small-scale fishing activities by fishermen in the coastal region were supported.

Activities were put in place to combat the illegal,

unregulated, and unreported fishing.

Various restoration efforts were put in place and especially for mangrove ecosystems.

We also note that local technology was used to protect coastal erosion in the region.

And all of this contributed significantly to

strengthening the efforts for food security in the region.

We would note that 16 countries involved in the GCLME region and these countries have

over 300 million people across scales

from coastal communities to national-level,

private sector industries, and to regional-level beneficiaries.

All these were impacted and were

beneficiaries from the GCLME projects that were executed.

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