First meeting of the CCLME Ecosystem Analysis and Planning Working Group

From 24 to 28 October 2022, the first meeting of the CCLME Ecosystem Planning and Analysis Working Group (CCLME-EPAWG) was held at the Fleur de Lys Hotel in Dakar, Senegal. During four days, about twenty experts from partner organisations active in the management of the Large Canary Ecosystem exchanged views and identified priority scientific activities to be taken into account in the implementation of the CCLME's Strategic Action Programme (SAP) while making recommendations for the implementation of the action plan: 

• Validate the Terms of Reference of the CCLME Ecosystem Analysis and Planning Working Group by the Steering Committee;
• Develop a roadmap for the development of a methodology for the characterisation of the CCLME ecosystem;
• Strengthen the collaboration with AtlantNiro for the analysis of the data from the campaigns carried out in the CCLME area;
• Solicit from the authorities of the national fisheries and oceanographic research institutions the confirmation or official appointment of the members of the CCLME ecosystem planning and analysis working group ;
• Align with the data sharing and access policy being developed by the EAF Nansen project, and make the data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) within the CCLME Ecosystem Planning and Analysis Working Group
• Develop Terms of Reference for the facilitators appointed for each CCLME theme.

 The holding of this workshop is one of the expected outcomes of the 2022 work plan of the Intermediate Size Project (MSP) "Towards the Sustainable Management of the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) - initial support to the implementation of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP)". The objective is to lay the foundations for a mechanism to produce and make available the best information on transboundary fisheries resources, ecosystems and vulnerable species and habitats (Output 2.1.1).

In previous phases of the CCLME project, valuable experience has been gained with the establishment of specific working groups to deal with different transboundary issues, including ecosystem planning and analysis, habitat and biodiversity issues. The CCLME Working Group on Ecosystem Planning and Analysis is composed of researchers, national research institutions and international experts. Its role is to continue to support effective science planning to fill knowledge gaps and support data analysis to meet the sustainable management needs of CCLM. It will collaborate with the EAF-Nansen programme on scientific cruises in the CCLME region to fill information and knowledge gaps for monitoring and assessing transboundary fisheries, ecosystems, vulnerable species, habitats and marine water quality.  This Working Group will also support the work on ecosystem characterisation, monitoring and assessment of climate change impacts under the EAF-Nansen programme, taking into account national and regional requirements and the objectives set out in the Strategic Action Programme (SAP).

The Working Group on Ecosystem Planning and Analysis will work closely with the FAO Fisheries Division's EAF-Nansen Programme, the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR), the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the Atlantic Branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (AtlantNIRO)