Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

Sustainable Seas 2012 and 2013 and in the Future

Norwegian Foreign A airs

UNEP/Regional Sea

Abidjan Convention

African resources for African development

West African Liaison Committee

World Ocean Assessments

ExtendedWest African Liaison Committee

Division for Ocean A airs and the Law of the Sea

ExtendedWest African Liaison Committee

National Experts Groups

Blue Carbon

State of the marine environment reporting

Stakeholder involvement

Scienti c

Planning in areas beyond national jurisdiction

Capacity building and reporting

Integrated marine and coastal plans

Rapid regional ocean assessment

One Stop Data Shop

Capacity building

Technical

Management and policy implementation

Ecosystem services

Global Sea oor Geomorphology Map

Political

Marine mapping portals

Natural resources

State of the marine environment reporting

Monitoring and assessment

Marine planning

Martime boundary delineation

Geology for development

Sustainable Seas

Norwegian Continental Shelf Initiative

The Shelf Programme

Management of the Marine Environment

Programme

Theme

Partners

Projects in development

Activities

Output

Projects in progress

Sustainable Seas 2012 and 2013 and in the future (GRID-Arendal)

The Sustainable Seas Programme ties well in with the other programmes and sub-programmes of the Marine Division. The Blue Carbon Programme and the Ecosys- tem based Management/Spatial Planning, and the Green Economy and Natural Resources activity areas are all closely related to the Sustainable Seas Programme and form an integrated Marine programmatic area of focus. GRID-Arendal’s Sustainable Seas work will be part of the ‘UNEP Global Support Programme: Integrated, Eco- system-based National and Regional Seas Marine and Coastal Management and Policy Implementation’. This is a framework under development that aims to build capacity for Ecosystem-based management (EbM) in Regional Seas Conventions. In the meantime, we have focused attention in 2012-13 on building marine man- agement and assessment capacities within regional seas conventions in West Africa and East Asia, thereby

also enabling member states to participate in the World Ocean Assessment.

EbM approach through Regional Seas Programme in West Africa Coastal populations in the 22 member states of the Abid- jan Convention 14 (the Atlantic coast of Africa, from Mau- ritania to South Africa) are to a large extent dependent on the marine environment for food and socio-economic development. Unsustainable management practices are threatening the capacity of the marine environment to provide these ecosystem services, with overfishing, eco- system degradation and pollution among the most impor- tant issues in the region. Lack of coordination between marine planning processes, resulting in conflicts between sectors, is contributing to the problem. A new, holistic, EbM approach is urgently required. The first ‘Abidjan Convention Sustainable Seas Pilot Work- shop’ took place in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire in June 2012. It was organized by the Abidjan Convention Secre- tariat and GRID-Arendal, in cooperation with the Insti- tute of Marine Research 15 (Norway), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 16 and the Ocean Data and Information Network of Africa (ODINAFRICA) 17 that is a part of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. 18 The meeting was attended by 17 government representatives from the region who identified regional 14. http://abidjanconvention.org 15. http://www.imr.no/en 16. http://wwf.panda.org/ 17. http://odinafrica.org/ 18. Further cooperation with ODINAFRICA was discussed in the ODINAFRICA Planning and Review Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique in May 2013. http://ioc-unesco.org/

Participants at the Abidjan Convention Sustainable Seas Pilot Workshop in Grand-Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire. Photo: Wouter Rommens, Consultant GRID-Arendal.

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