Sierra Leone - State of the Marine Environment 2015

hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, other marine based energy industries and offshore mining industries. It looks at other uses of ocean space such as waste disposal/ discharge, marine debris, tourism and recreation, and the potential impacts of climate change and sea level rise. The report also provides a qualitative assessment of the state of the coastal and marine habitats as well as the current and future risks to the marine environment. The assessment is the result of the national workshop for production of the National State of the Coast Report, which was organized in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 4–7 February 2014. The methodology used at the workshop was based upon expert elicitation 1 (annex 1) to assess the state of the marine environment in Sierra Leone. A total of 50 scientists and experts from Sierra Leone attended the workshop. The workshop was organized by the Environment Protection Agency of Sierra Leone, in cooperation with the Abidjan Convention and under the guidance of experts from GRID-Arendal. The qualitative assessment of marine and coastal habitats showed that most habitats are still in good and very good condition, and the trend during the last 5 years has been stable. A total of 13 habitat types were assessed. Condition of the seabed habitat of the inner shelf zones are believed to be improving. This is related to restrictions on bottom trawling which were implemented in recent years. A total of 29 biodiversity parameters (species and species groups) were assessed. On average, biodiversity is assessed to be still in good condition for most places. Some species and species groups have strongly declined during the past 5 years, and are in poor condition: shark and rays, some bird species such as terns, demersal fish assemblages, small pelagic fish species and crustaceans. Declines in fish stocks can be attributed to overfishing. It can be assumed that the ecological functioning of the marine ecosystem along the coast of Sierra Leone is still largely intact, as large stretches of the coast and marine zone are unexploited and undeveloped with limited pressures on the marine ecosystem. Two ecological processes have been assessed: spatial and physical disjunctions and biological migration processes. Spatial/ physical disjunctions are still in good condition as infrastructures (ports etc.) which impact the coastal and marine environment are still limited. The condition of 16 physical and chemical processes has been assessed. On average, condition of physical and chemical processes, which are important to support marine

intrusions due to decreased lowwater flows in the dry season. Because of all these characteristics the coastal zone of the country is particularly vulnerable to climate change impact. This report provides a description of the coastal and marine environment of Sierra Leone as well as the oceanography of its coastal waters. The report further deals with the pressures and impacts of anthropogenic activities that directly affect the quality of the coastal and marine environment, such as fishing, shipping, ports and harbour development, submarine cable and pipelines, off shore

1. A methodology paper is available on http://some.grida.no

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