30 Years of Innovation and Excellence: GRID-Arendal Annual Report 2019

Strengthening marine management along the Atlantic coast of Africa

Our Mami Wata project is supporting countries in West, Central, and Southern Africa with managing the variety of different uses of their ocean areas while protecting the region’s biodiversity hotspots and highly productive ecosystems. 2019 was a big year for Mami Wata, as we launched three pilot projects in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana. We’re supporting leaders in the countries to do marine spatial planning, assess the state of their marine environments, and identify

the most significant places for turtles, manatees, mangrove forests, and rich fishing grounds. We do that by providing technical advice, knowledge transfer, and capacity-development trainings, together with expert partners in Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. GRID-Arendal is implementing the project alongside UNEP’s Abidjan Convention Secretariat, with funding from the German government’s International Climate Initiative.

KEY NUMBERS

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Artisanal fishers off the coast of Guinea-Bissau.

Mami Wata pilot project sites

countries where Mami Wata is being implemented

4.8 million approximate number of square kilometres in the combined exclusive economic zones of the 22 countries

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number of new marine protected areas created in South Africa in 2019

Christian Neumann (left), who leads GRID-Arendal’s work on Mami Wata, with partners in Benin.

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