The 1st PSC meeting on Aquatic Biodiversity conservation in the African Blue Economy

Posted by Joel Mokenye on 23 September 2022 2:25 PM CAT

AU-IBAR with support from the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (SIDA), is implementing a project on “Conserving Aquatic Biodiversity in African Blue Economy”, for three year’s period. The overall objective of the project is to enhance the policy environment, regulatory frameworks and institutional capacities of AU Member States and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to sustainably utilize and conserve aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems. The specific objectives of the project are as follows: 1. Ratify and/or align relevant international/regional instruments related to blue economy themes (with specific reference to protecting and conserving biodiversity); 2. Optimize conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity while minimizing conflicts among blue economy sub-themes; 3. Strengthen measures for mitigating the negative impacts of coastal and marine tourism, oil, gas, deep sea mining and climate change on aquatic biodiversity and environment; and, 4. Strengthen gender inclusivity in aquatic biodiversity conservation and environmental management. AU-IBAR is responsible for the overall management and coordination of the Project.

In this 1st PSC meeting, AU-IBAR gave a detailed outline of the current status of project implementation, ongoing and planned activities to the members.

In the meeting, the 1st PTC report and ToRs for the PSC members were adopted and approved.

A number of issues came up in the two meetings ranging from; Mechanisms for collaboration with RECs and other partners, Request to provide support for the development of BE strategies for other regions of Africa that have not been able to develop theirs, need for platforms for project information sharing, M&E frameworks to enhance collection of baseline data upon which project implementation will be based and last and not least, working towards creating synergies and complementarity to avoid duplication in implementing initiatives on aquatic biodiversity conservation across the continent.

This meeting was attended by Hon. ministers/representatives of ministers of fisheries and, envt and BE from Gabon, Kenya, Egypt and Ivory Coast.