Abidjan Convention Sustainable Seas Pilot Workshop

9

Opening of the meeting

Abou Bamba welcomed the participants to the meet- ing. In his opening remarks he highlighted the co- operation between UNEP/GRID-Arendal and the Abidjan Convention Secretariat, which was initiated at the COP9 meeting (March 2011, Accra-Ghana). He explained the elements of cooperation which were formalized through an MOU between both organi- zations. One of the elements of cooperation is capa­ city building for sustainable management of the marine environment through the Sustainable Seas programme of UNEP/GRID-Arendal, which is initiated through this workshop. Morten Sorensen (UNEP/GRID-Arendal) presented the activities of UNEP/GRID-Arendal. The UNEP Shelf Programme is coordinated by UNEP/GRID-Arendal in Norway and was established to assist developing States and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to complete the activities required to delineate the outer limits of their continental shelf. The UNEP Shelf programme has been actively engaged with over 60 States worldwide through awareness raising and training, in addition to providing support in identify- ing, collecting or analyzing existing data.

implementation and the workshop approach. The Sustainable Seas programme is aimed to assist devel- oping states in the growth towards Ecosystem-based Management of the Marine environment through specialized training activities, tools and processes. This workshop is aimed to identify related capacity building needs and identification of ‘building blocks’ for a consistent programme in the region. Bjørn Serigstad (IMR) provided an introduction on the West-African activities of the Center for Devel- opment Cooperation in Fisheries (CDCF) of the In- stitute of Marine Research. The EAF-Nansen project “Strengthening the knowledge Base for and Imple- menting an Ecosystem Approach to Marine Fisheries in Developing Countries” in West-Africa is focusing since 2007 on developing an ecosystem approach to fisheries in the region. Recently the focus has broad- ened towards ecosystems, biodiversity, ocean acidifi- cation, pollution and climate change effects. Paul Siegel (WWF) gave an introduction on the activities of WWF in West-Africa. Mr Angora Aman (ODINAFRICA, IOC of UNESCO) provided an over- view of the activities of ODINAFRICA in the region through its network of National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC).

Wouter Rommens (UNEP/GRID-Arendal) gave an overview of the Sustainable Seas programme, its pilot