Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010 – 2011

7 Marine environment

7.1 UNEP Shelf Programme The UNEP Shelf Programme 5 continues to be the main focus of GRID-Arendal’s Marine Programme. Since 2003, GRID-Arendal has assisted 68 developing countries with the submissions required to establish the outer limits of their continental shelves. 6 This assistance – the work flow for which is shown in Figure 1 below – comprises more than 90% of all the developing states that have submitted, or are preparing to submit applications to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The global map contained in Annex 2 illustrates the states that have received assistance and the nature of that assistance, ranging from awareness raising to capacity building to facilitating data access to GRID-Arendal’s One Stop Data Shop (OSDS) . Since 12 May 2009 (the deadline for most states to make their initial submissions), the focus of the UNEP Shelf Programme has been to assist developing countries in transforming their Preliminary Information Documents (PIDs) into full submissions. In close consultation with MoFA, assistance to Africa is channelled through the Norwegian Continental Shelf Initiative the guiding principles of which are displayed in Box 1 below. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate Data has primary responsibility for data acquisition, while the Norwegian Mapping Authority provides assistance with baseline determination. UNEP supports the initiative with technical and capacity building support through the UNEP Shelf Programme.

i The West African Regional Desktop Study , completed in November 2010, provided a foundation for a regional data acquisition and capacity building programme. The data acquisition activity currently underway represents the most comprehensive morphological and structural research undertaken in the region to date. Moreover, the programme represents unprecedented regional cooperation by the six West African States involved – Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal (see box below). “In some parts of the world the provisions of UNCLOS relating to the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone have led to new international tensions due to unresolved issues of maritime delimitation…We arepleased tosee the interest our initiativehasgenerated among African coastal States. We are particularly pleased by the Framework Agreement on Sub-regional Cooperation on the Establishment of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles signed in New York on 21 September 2010 by Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal and by the Agreement on Technical and Financial Cooperation which we have signed with the same six West African coastal States.” Source: Extracted from African Ownership, African Cooperation, Norwegian Support, African-Norwegian Cooperation on the Establishment of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles – a lecture by Hans Wilhelm Longva, Ambassadeur en Mission Spéciale, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered in November 2011 at the Centre for Studies and Strategies, Ministry of External Relations in Praia, Cape Verde

Box 1: Guiding principles of the Norwegian Continental Shelf Initiative in West Africa

• African ownership to enable states to exercise their rights to natural resources • Multilateral cooperation to resolve contentious issues of maritime delimitation and to achieve higher efficiency and cost-effectiveness • Targeted Norwegian technical and financial support

5. http://www.grida.no/publications/shelf-last-zone/ 6. http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/issues_ten_years.htm

Figure 1: UNEP Shelf Programme – Work Flow

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