Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

7 Marine environment

7.1 Shelf programme

 Norwegian Continental Shelf Initiative Now in its 8 th year, the Shelf Programme continued to be a main component of GRID-Arendal’s Marine Programme. Special focus has been placed on supporting West African states during this biennium. The Shelf Programme in West Africa The project to assist coastal states in West Africa prepare submissions for continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, has gone from strength to strength. A regional data acquisition programme, and regional capacity building strat- egy, were both completed at the end of 2012. 7 A team of ex- perts, with new and increased understanding of the offshore marine environment has been developed. These scientists from Mauritania, Cape Verde, Senegal The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone have worked together to de- velop the arguments and compile the data to support claims for large areas of the sea floor. Together we have completed foundation documents and analyses 8 and all seven countries are now in an advanced stage of submission preparation. 7. In May 2012 GRID-Arendal signed a contract with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) for NOK 1 Mill to assist with the acquisition of geophysical data offshore of the West Africa States of Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauretania, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The survey company Gardline was responsible for project oversight including the continuous valuation of data quality and applicability. 8. On 1 July 2013, in accordance with the Norwegian agreement, the Shelf programme delivered, to the West African national focal points, the three key technical documents that form the major part of the final submission documents. These included the geological background, the base of slope document and the revised foot of slope document.

Participants and instructors at the 2 nd Technical Training Workshop. Photo: Rannveig Nilsen

Participating technical experts have received hands-on ex- perience in marine geophysical data integration, interpre- tation and analysis and drafting of the technical sections of the submission document and accompanying annexes. Apart from the satisfaction felt by the team in completing these large and complex activities for the benefit of their countries, it was acknowledged that very exciting and use- ful new information now exists on the geological history of the region and the physical processes operating offshore. This information can be used to informmarine resource ex- ploration and management, but potentially has even more added-value. Many of the team have expressed interest in working together to develop this supplementary informa- tion into a tertiary-level textbook to enhance the teaching of marine geoscience in West Africa.

Participants and instructors at the 2 nd Techni- cal Training Workshop under the West Africa Training and Capacity Building Programme for the Establishment of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles. Photo: Lars Kullerud, GRID-Arendal.

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