By Mafanta Kromah, mafanta.kromah@gmail.com
Organizers of the first ever Blue Oceans Conference, which is expected to open in Monrovia on Monday, say it seeks to protect Liberia’s coastal and marine resources – and West Africa more broadly.
The four-day conference will run from March 18-21, 2019. And it is being held by the Liberian government in collaboration with The Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia and Conservation International.
According to the organizers, this will be done by learning from in-country experts, regional case studies, and the international community and that it will help expand communication and collaboration to improve wellbeing, economic security, and sustainable development.
Dr. Shech Sherif told a news conference in Monrovia during the week that the conference will change people’s perception as well as the judgments of decision makers and relevant stakeholders interested in the oceans, in order to push new frontiers and innovative policies that will protect the coastline.
He stressed that the BOC will focus on four key important areas, which has to do with Climate Change and resulting Ocean Acidification.
Reducing emissions to limit climate change and ocean acidification requires global-scale efforts.
Dr. Sherif said while emission reduction targets are being set at the national level, regional governments have a critical role to play in setting and implementing policies to reach national level targets.
He mentioned Sustainable Fishing as the second key thematic area, noting overfishing is draining the life from the ocean. Ocean resources have the potential to lead to growth and wealth of countries. But due to human activity the oceans’ health is significantly deteriorated.
According to him, unsustainable fishing is a serious threat to the coastal communities and their livelihoods, especially in terms of poverty and food security and also leads to a direct loss from the catches that would otherwise be taken by the country, which has been evident in Liberia’s coastal and offshore fisheries.
The third issue the Blue Oceans Conference organizer talked about was Marine Pollution, which originates from several marine and land-based sources. This include riverine discharges, agricultural and industrial run-off, urban outfalls, municipal or industrial wastewater, atmospheric deposition, illegal or indiscriminate dumping, accidents, fishing operations, maritime transport, and off-shore construction and has a negative impact on the land.
Finally, Dr. Sherif spoke of the Blue Economy as another key area of the conference.
He said the concept of Blue Economy focuses on the decoupling of socio-economic development from environmental degradation. Two particularly significant pieces of current and future blue economic growth across Africa and in Liberia specifically are tourism and shipping.
Three outcomes are bieng expected from the upcoming conference: an intergovernmental agreed Call for Action; a registry of voluntary commitments; and key messages from partnership dialogues.
Organizers say the call for Action will reconfirm the commitment of The Government of Liberia, the Government of Sweden, regional Governments, Conservation International to the implementation of SDG 14. This is within the context of the UN 2030 Agenda as well as to mobilize support in line with the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy or AIMS.
In addition is the registration of voluntary commitments by the Government of Liberia and other stakeholders which will be celebrated as a major achievement. A range of topics will be covered at the Monrovia conference, ranging from the creation of marine Protected Areas MPAs and action on plastic and other marine pollution issues to funding for scientific research and capacity-building activities.
The partnership dialogues facilitated knowledge and experience sharing between participants and clarified inter-linkages between SDG 14 and the other goals, according to the conference official.
“The Blue Oceans Conference Planning Team in collaboration with The Government of Liberia has prepared a draft Call for Action. At the closing plenary, the Call for Action will adopt the 13-point Call for Action that will be agreed during intergovernmental consultations. The Conference’s Call for Action provides examples of strategies that can advance implementation toward individual targets. It is also not expected to make any new commitments, but to inspire action under existing frameworks,” Dr. Sherif noted.
As long term impact, they expect that the momentum that this inaugural event generates will be sustained well into the future. He stressed they will ensure that the conference leads to the launch of a comprehensive coastal and marine strategy, for Liberia that can be modelled and adopted by other coastal African countries.
However, Dr. Sheriff mphasized that momentum coming out of the conference must be maintained and the commitments made during the conference must be upheld, implemented successfully and on schedule.
“To do this we will look at possibilities during the conference to set up an entity or identify an existing organization to ensure that momentum is maintained, ways and means to support implementation of commitments are identified, successful partnerships are built upon, and new partnerships are created,” he lamented.
Moreover, this is the first of it kind for Liberia to host such conference, which will be held at the at the Millennium Guest House in Liberia from 18-21 March 2019. Approximately 300 delegates will attend the Conference, including Ministers, Deputy Ministers and other Government representatives, and participants from the UN system, other intergovernmental organizations, international and regional financial institutions, civil society, academic and research institutions, indigenous peoples and local communities, and the private sector.
Meanwhile, the upcoming Blue Oceans Conference Liberia is said to be seeking its inspiration from the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime (AIM) Strategy.
The Strategy provides a broad framework for the protection and sustainable exploitation of Seas and Oceans of Africa. The Ocean is the largest ecosystem containing 96 percent of the living space on Earth, produces over 70 percent of the oxygen we breadth, and covering 71 percent of the Earth surface. Its marine resources face the danger of global warming, ocean acidification, de-oxygenation, marine plastic pollution and more.
It is also said to focus on the advancement of Africa’s economic growth in a sustainable manner through the coordinated effort of all Member States.
A primary theme arising from the strategy is the sharing of information, utilizing Member States resources and skills to advance a maritime and the ocean economy agenda through coordinated efforts to maximize the Africa Maritime Domain (AMD) for the benefit of all. “Africa is expected to grow exponentially within the next 30 to 40 years and investment is being attracted in all regions of the continent, says Sherif.
According to researchers, approximately 90% of all world trade is conducted by shipping and the expected growth in Africa means a substantial increase in shipping activity to the continent. Africa Seas and Oceans have an enormous potential to provide the continent with immense opportunities relating to fishing, transportation, tourism, and energy production (renewable energy), blue oceans.
Despite the immense ocean resources and the livelihoods provided for many Africans, efforts to manage the Ocean and Seas have proved inadequate leading to depletion of fish stocks, rising sea levels, destruction of coastal habitats (coastal erosion) and ecosystems, ocean acidification, climate change as well as illicit activities within the maritime domain.