GMES and Africa Marine and Coastal Areas consortia exchange experience on their policy and institutional frameworks
Consortia leaders under the GMES and Africa marine and coastal areas services continue their engagement on the progress they have made in serving end-users since the beginning of the programme’s second phase two years ago
The discussions are taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, where the African Union Commission organized a three-day session to share experience and insights between consortia under the marine and coastal areas thematic service. Following ground-breaking discussions, experts from the two consortia dwelt on the scope and impact of their policy and institutional frameworks.
Under the MarCNoWA consortium, national and regional policy initiatives and programmes using GMES & Africa products and services include the University of Ghana, Canoes and Fishing Gears Owners Association of Ghana, Fisheries management, Abidjan Convention, Coastal vegetation conservation; and 11 national and two regional institutions. MarcNowa plans an engagement initiative with ECOWAS in collaboration with CSE as well as UCD and FCWC to design oil spill and transhipment service. It is focused on building capacity to use DUNIA – Jupyter notebooks to allow users to access and extract relevant Copernicus products.
On marine and coastal services, MarCNowa is overseeing six, including on biological and physical oceanographic variables, fisheries resources management and protection, coastal vulnerability mapping and monitoring, regional marine weather forecast, coastal ecosystems mapping and monitoring, and oil spill monitoring. The creation of communities of practice has been a preoccupation of MacNowa and in this regard, it has forged the Fishing CoP in Ghana, under the CaFGOAG association comprising more than 2,000 members and established four clubs in Togo, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia.
On promotion of the use of GMES and Africa services, MarCNoWA trained Community Information Centres in Ghana and Togo on disseminating and interpreting Ocean Alerts in Ghana. In Benin, Women Journalists were trained on understanding and communicating on earth Observation and in Cote d'Ivoire, Girls in Geo Clubs were created in secondary schools.
The MarCOSIO consortium covers eight countries with 13 partners in Southern and Eastern Africa. It co-designz and co-develops indigenous knowledge decision-supporting services utilizing EO data accessed through the EU Copernicus Sentinel suite. It seeks to understand local ocean and coastal systems, understand user needs through the networks and expertise of consortia partners, and stimulate the utilization of EO-based services and applications to promote the growth of the blue economy.
MarCOSIO is interested in involving policy experts and senior technical experts from relevant African stakeholders, academia, and private sector. Under its fisheries and aquaculture service, MarCOSIO provides fishers and regulators with the tools to optimize fishing effort, improve safety at sea, better understand environmental vulnerability, and monitor, illegal, illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries.
On aquaculture, the MarCOSIO consortium provides users with the capability to monitor historical and current algal bloom along the Southern and Eastern African coastline. Other services include monitoring of coral reef bleaching, ship trafficking and safety at sea. MarCOSIO supports risk assessment model that assesses the likelihood of an incident and the potential consequence should the incident materialize in a specific area. The consortium is expanding the Policy and Technical expert groups at the regional and national level to ensure the services and application are locally relevant.
The workshop closes on Friday, with recommendations and a roadmap on the strengthening of collaboration, cross-fertilization and experience sharing between MarCNoWA and MarCOSIO.
AUC/ESTI/G&A/AF
The discussions are taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, where the African Union Commission organized a three-day session to share experience and insights between consortia under the marine and coastal areas thematic service. Following ground-breaking discussions, experts from the two consortia dwelt on the scope and impact of their policy and institutional frameworks.
Under the MarCNoWA consortium, national and regional policy initiatives and programmes using GMES & Africa products and services include the University of Ghana, Canoes and Fishing Gears Owners Association of Ghana, Fisheries management, Abidjan Convention, Coastal vegetation conservation; and 11 national and two regional institutions. MarcNowa plans an engagement initiative with ECOWAS in collaboration with CSE as well as UCD and FCWC to design oil spill and transhipment service. It is focused on building capacity to use DUNIA – Jupyter notebooks to allow users to access and extract relevant Copernicus products.
On marine and coastal services, MarCNowa is overseeing six, including on biological and physical oceanographic variables, fisheries resources management and protection, coastal vulnerability mapping and monitoring, regional marine weather forecast, coastal ecosystems mapping and monitoring, and oil spill monitoring. The creation of communities of practice has been a preoccupation of MacNowa and in this regard, it has forged the Fishing CoP in Ghana, under the CaFGOAG association comprising more than 2,000 members and established four clubs in Togo, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia.
On promotion of the use of GMES and Africa services, MarCNoWA trained Community Information Centres in Ghana and Togo on disseminating and interpreting Ocean Alerts in Ghana. In Benin, Women Journalists were trained on understanding and communicating on earth Observation and in Cote d'Ivoire, Girls in Geo Clubs were created in secondary schools.
The MarCOSIO consortium covers eight countries with 13 partners in Southern and Eastern Africa. It co-designz and co-develops indigenous knowledge decision-supporting services utilizing EO data accessed through the EU Copernicus Sentinel suite. It seeks to understand local ocean and coastal systems, understand user needs through the networks and expertise of consortia partners, and stimulate the utilization of EO-based services and applications to promote the growth of the blue economy.
MarCOSIO is interested in involving policy experts and senior technical experts from relevant African stakeholders, academia, and private sector. Under its fisheries and aquaculture service, MarCOSIO provides fishers and regulators with the tools to optimize fishing effort, improve safety at sea, better understand environmental vulnerability, and monitor, illegal, illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries.
On aquaculture, the MarCOSIO consortium provides users with the capability to monitor historical and current algal bloom along the Southern and Eastern African coastline. Other services include monitoring of coral reef bleaching, ship trafficking and safety at sea. MarCOSIO supports risk assessment model that assesses the likelihood of an incident and the potential consequence should the incident materialize in a specific area. The consortium is expanding the Policy and Technical expert groups at the regional and national level to ensure the services and application are locally relevant.
The workshop closes on Friday, with recommendations and a roadmap on the strengthening of collaboration, cross-fertilization and experience sharing between MarCNoWA and MarCOSIO.
AUC/ESTI/G&A/AF
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