The marine and coastal environment of the African Atlantic coast is home to a range of biodiversity hotspots and highly productive ecosystems. These natural assets provide important services to Western, Central and Southern African communities and are essential to people's wellbeing. They also hold important livelihood opportunities and will continue to be fundamental for social and economic development. However, coastal and marine living resources and ecosystems are in widespread decline due to human activities.
The management of marine and coastal ecosystems is challenging for a range of reasons – the complexity of managing a high variety of potentially conflicting activities in an environment subject to constant change is one of them. Integrated Ocean Management brings together all relevant Government bodies, sectors and stakeholders is an approach for more effective and sustainable management. Mami Wata aims to strengthen national and regional action to capture the value of marine and coastal ecosystems through a dual approach, building capacity through training and applying State of Marine Environment Assessments (SoME), CBD Ecologically and Biologically Significant marine Areas (EBSA) and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), in an IOM framework.
Mami Wata will be applied in the countries of the Abidjan Convention region, which covers 22 countries and a combined EEZ of approximately 4.8 million km2 in size. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, and implemented by GRID-Arendal and the Abidjan Convention Secretariat.
