Christian Susan, UNIDO Water Management Unit Presentation given during the 5th GEF Biennial International Waters Conference in Cairns, Australia (during the pre-conference workshop marine ecosystems, Global Change and Marine Resources).

1. PRE CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
24th
October, 2009
GCLME Marine Management and
Governance
Christian Susan
Project Manager, UNIDO Water Management Unit

2. GCLME Project
Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem

3. GCLME ProjectGCLME Project
16 riparian countries:
Angola
Benin
Cameroon
Congo
DRC
Cote d’Ivoire
Gabon
Ghana
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Liberia
Nigeria
Sao Tome and Principe
Sierra Leone
Togo

4. GCLME Project
GCLME natural resource endowment and threats
• class I highly productive ecosystem (> 300 gC/m-2
y-1
)
• diverse coastal habitats, lagoons, bays, estuaries and mangrove swamps
=> high biodiversity, threatened by anthropogenic activities and natural
processes
• rich in living marine resources, threatened by over-fishing
• >60% industries and ~ 47% population (300 mio) lives within 200 km of
the coast, overexploitation of natural, pressure/destruction on/of habitats
• rich in natural resource endowment (oil, gas, timber, minerals), exploitation
has detrimental environmental impacts

5. GCLME Project
the Riparian Countries
• 4 languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish)
• different legal and regulatory frameworks
• large regional socio-economic disparities
• different development paths

6. GCLME Project
obstacles for sustainable management and joint
governance of natural resources
• fragmented data sets, not shared
• lack of national budget
• inadequate regional institutional capacity and human resources
• no regional cooperation
• ill defined property right regimes
=> uncertainty in ecosystem status

7. GCLME Project
long term development goals
• recover and sustain depleted fisheries
• restore degraded habitats
• reduce land and ship-based sources of pollution
by establishing a regional management framework for sustainable use
of living and non living resources

8. GCLME Project
instruments for sustainable management and joint
governance
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis
• joint scientific and technical assessment
• joint identification and quantification of environmental issues and problems
• joint analysis of root causes, environmental and economic impacts,
uncertainties
• joint analysis of socio-economic, political and institutional context

9. GCLME Project
instruments for sustainable management and joint
governance
Strategic Action Program
• negotiated policy document, ratified by all 16 GCLME countries (2007)
• describes policy, legal and institutional reforms and investments needed to
address problems identified in TDA
• measurable and quantifiable performance indicators

10. GCLME Project
instruments for sustainable management and joint
governance
National Action Programs
• to translate the SAP’s political goals into concrete action at national level
• identify concrete actions and commitments
• national baseline and incremental processes and costs
• identify regional and national arrangements for monitoring the
environmental status and trends, pressure relief
• each NAP is to be adopted and endorsed by the relevant by-laws to be
enacted by each member country

11. GCLME Project
institutions for sustainable management and joint
governance
• Regional Coordination Unit
• Interministerial Committees in each country
• Ministerial Committee
• Regional Activity Centers
• Interim Guinea Current Commission (Abuja Declaration 2006)
• Guinea Current Commission

12. GCLME Project
tools for sustainable management and joint governance
•standardized monitoring programme
•regional biodiversity strategy
•ecosystem wide stock assessment methodology
•fisheries management plans for transboundary stocks
•economic instruments
• national demonstration projects, regionally disseminated
• ecosystem trend reports

13. GCLME Project
addressing climate variability
Lagos (Nigeria) and Monrovia (Liberia) are among the top five cities most
vulnerable to sea level rise
Regional Activity Centre for Risk Assessment in Libreville, Gabon
main tasks in phase II
• assess vulnerability of GCLME to impacts due to climatic change
• population at risk
• economic activities compromised
• impacts on habitats, fauna and flora
• information dissemination and awareness creation
• mitigation

14. GCLME Project
Poverty Reduction through Productive Activities • Trade Capacity Building • Energy and Environment
merci! gracias!
obrigado! thank you!