THE Deputy Executive Director of the Fisheries Commission, Professor Berchie Asiedu, has called on countries along the Gulf of Guinea to share fisheries and marine biodiversity data to attract international funding to protect the region’s oceans and improve the livelihoods of coastal communities.
He said reliable data had become a key requirement for development partners and international financiers seeking to support marine conservation, warning that countries risked losing critical funding opportunities if they failed to generate and share credible information.
Prof. Asiedu made the call at the close of a regional workshop on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in Accra on Friday.
“The ocean is a shared resource and no country can protect it alone. We need stronger collaboration and credible data to mobilise the investments required to conserve our marine resources for future generations,” he stated.
He said closer cooperation among countries in the Gulf of Guinea would strengthen fisheries management, safeguard marine biodiversity and support the sustainable development of the blue economy.
The appeal comes as 13 West African coastal countries, including Ghana, Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, implement the West Africa Sustainable Ocean Programme (WASOP).
The five-year programme, launched during Ocean Week in Cape Verde in November 2025, is being funded by the European Union with 59 million euros to conserve marine ecosystems, protect livelihoods and promote inclusive economic growth across the sub-region.
The programme is expected to tackle Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, coastal erosion, marine pollution and inadequate financing by strengthening regional cooperation, promoting sustainable investments and restoring degraded marine and coastal ecosystems.
The Regional Coordinator of WASOP at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Programme for Central and West Africa (PACO), Mr Barthelemy Jean Auguste Batieno, said the programme would invest directly in community-driven solutions.
“We are launching competitive calls for proposals to identify and fund high-impact local initiatives. The goal is to support the ingenuity of local actors,” he noted.
Mr Batieno explained that the implementation strategy would prioritise projects led by local communities and civil society organisations while ensuring equitable distribution of funding among all eligible countries.
He stressed that the initiative would support projects aimed at strengthening coastal resilience, restoring degraded ecosystems and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for people living in coastal communities.
Mr Batieno further explained that OECMs were designed to complement, and not replace, existing conservation efforts.
“OECMs are not intended to disregard the important work already undertaken by governments and communities. Rather, they seek to strengthen ongoing conservation efforts and recognise areas that are already delivering positive biodiversity outcomes,” he indicated.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
