First CCLME national consultation on multi-sectoral consortium and partnership agreement in Guinea

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Guinean Ministries of Fisheries and Maritime Economy and Environment, organized from 04 to 05 May 2022, in the conference room of the Ministry of Fisheries, a national consultation meeting in the scope of the GCP/INT/985/GFF project - " Towards sustainable management of the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem– initial support to SAP implementation (CCLME)”.

This project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is highly innovative through a strategic combination of fisheries resources, marine and coastal environment governance frameworks. Through governance reforms, investments and management programmes, it will enable the intervention countries to address priority transboundary concerns regarding fisheries decline, habitat and associated biodiversity degradation, and water quality.

The CCLME started in 2005 with a preparatory phase that initiated the development of a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), followed by the "Protection of the Large Marine Ecosystem of the Canary Current" project, implemented from 2010 to 2017 and which allowed the elaboration of a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) approved and signed by the seven countries of the intervention area, namely: Cabo Verde, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and Gambia. In the current phase, "Initial support to the implementation of the Strategic Action Programme", the project aims to consolidate the dynamics and partnerships, and to create enabling conditions for the effective implementation of the SAP.

The national consultations, whose general objective is to identify the activities to be synergised in the establishment of a consortium, are part of the activities of the CCLME 2022 work plan adopted at its launch in November 2021.

Thus, during this consultation, stakeholders reviewed the governance frameworks and partnership models for cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination in the effective implementation of the CCLME SAP at national and regional levels. Participants prioritised national activities and made recommendations on the consortium and partnership agreement to support the implementation of the SAP (Strategic Action Programme) in Guinea :

-        Compile all existing documents and develop a national action plan to tackle coastal erosion;

-       Assess the national regulatory texts on marine and coastal water quality standards;

-       Make an inventory of existing documents on mangrove management;

-       Share the document on the setting up of the CCLME inter-ministerial committee in Guinea and ;

-       Elaborate the annual national plan and have it validated by the national inter-ministerial committee of CCLME-Guinea ;

Collaboration and coordination between all stakeholders and actors should enable the establishment of a permanent consultative and cooperative mechanism for the follow up of activities at country level, in association with existing regional bodies (such as the regional fisheries and/or environmental bodies), in accordance with their mandate.

The project will have to build on this mechanism as the starting point for the permanent dialogue framework to mainstream the effective implementation of the SAP in its different thematic areas.