Publication Name

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

(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

(Norway), World Wide Fund

for Nature (WWF)

and the Ocean Data and Information

Network of Africa (ODINAFRICA)

that is a part of the

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO

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/

The Shelf Programme

Norwegian Continental Shelf Initiative

Martime boundary delineation

Management of the Marine Environment

Capacity

building

Sustainable Seas

Political

Scienti c

Technical

One Stop

Data Shop

Marine planning

Monitoring and assessment

Natural resources

Ecosystem services

Stakeholder involvement

Capacity

building

and

reporting

Marine mapping portals

State of the

marine environment reporting

Global Sea oor Geomorphology Map

Geology for development

African resources for African development

State of the marine environment reporting

Management and policy implementation

Planning in areas beyond national jurisdiction

NorwegianForeignA airs

UNEP/RegionalSea

AbidjanConvention

Integrated marine and coastal plans

Blue Carbon

WestAfricanLiaisonCommittee

Division forOceanA airsand theLawof theSea

ExtendedWestAfricanLiaisonCommittee

WorldOceanAssessments

ExtendedWestAfricanLiaisonCommittee

NationalExpertsGroups

Rapid regional ocean assessment

Activities

Output

Projects in progress

Projects in development

Theme

Programme

Partners

Sustainable Seas 2012 and 2013 and in the Future

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

Participants at the Abidjan Convention Sustainable Seas Pilot

Workshop in Grand-Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire.

Photo: Wouter Rommens, Consultant GRID-Arendal.