The overall project aim is to realize a coordinated regional approach to the long-term conservation, protection, rehabilitation, enhancement and sustainable use of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) in order to provide economic, environmental and social benefits and well-being to the region through the domestication and implementation of the Benguela Current Convention (BCC) and accompanying Strategic Action Programme. The project puts strong emphasis on supporting the countries in strengthening and integrating policy, institutional, and management structures and protocols to realize transboundary benefits, to mainstream transboundary priorities into national policy framework, while linking them to national development plans and strategies, and to catalyse private sector finance into the BCC Convention implementation.
BCLME spans some 30 degrees of latitude, extending from Angolas Cabinda Province in the north, to just east of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and covers approximately 5,000 km of coastline. It is one of the world's richest marine ecosystems and supports an abundance of life, sustaining both artisanal and large-scale fishery activities which contribute to local food security and employment for hundreds of thousands of people in areas of limited alternatives; these fisheries activities serve as important drivers of economic development. In addition, non-living marine resources exploitation, such as oil, gas, diamonds and other minerals, is also socially and economically important activities in the region, with total marine goods extraction recently estimated to be worth some US$269 billion per annum.
Fishing pressures, IUU, and pollution (land- and marine-based) put pressure on the ecosystem health and the quality and quantity of goods and services that the ecosystems provide are reduced as the ecosystem health deteriorate.
BCC is the first intergovernmental Commission in the world that realizes the ocean governance from the Large Marine Ecosystem-based approach, a clear move towards managing transboundary resources at the larger ecosystem level (rather than at the national level) and balancing human needs with conservation imperatives. It is of highly inter-sectoral nature, within which environment, fisheries, mining, tourism and transport sectors are equally represented, making it an ideal multi-lateral platform to discuss inter-sectoral coordination and management for the sustainable development of BCLME.
The project aims to achieve the sustainable development and management of the living and non-living resources associated with the BCLME through the implementation of the BCLME Strategic Action Programme and strengthening of the capacity of the Benguela Current Commission (BCC) and its member states.
The project has 4 components:
1. Improved Ocean and Coastal Governance through SAP Implementation and Delivery at Regional, National and Local levels
2. Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Collaboration to realize sustainable SAP Implementation and Delivery
3. Capacity Building and Training to support sustainable SAP implementation and Convention domestication
4. Marketing and Resource Mobilisation and Fiscal Sustainability
Progress reports
By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
Type of commitment
SHIPPING
- Reduce invasive aquatic species introduction
- Management of ship-based pollution and/or port waste management
By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
Type of commitment
- Integrated Coastal Management
- Large Marine Ecosystem approach
By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
Type of commitment
- Compliance, monitoring and enforcement
- Ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF)
Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries
Type of commitment
- Data access and sharing
- Training and professional development
- Scientific cooperation
Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
Type of commitment
- Community empowerment for fisheries management
Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want
Type of commitment
- Activities to raise awareness of the comprehensive legal and policy framework for the sustainable development of oceans and seas, in particular UNCLOS, its Implementing Agreements and other relevant ocean-related instruments and promote their effective im
- Activities to develop the capacity of States towards broader participation in and effective implementation of UNCLOS and its implementing Agreements
- Strengthening ocean governance, for example through the development of a national ocean policy or regional ocean policy
- Other (please specify): Strengthening BCC, supporting the implementation of the Ballast Water Convention at a pilot scale in partnership wiht the private sector
December 2018
The effectiveness and delivery of the National Intersectoral Committees (NICs) strengthened within each country
December 2019
A detailed and expanded Full Governance Assessment related to the management of the BCLME
December 2020
Regionally harmonized ecosystem monitoring programmes, to include appropriate indicators of human welfare to enhance the LME-wide monitoring programme
December 2021
Demonstration of the improved ballast water management at the pilot scale towards the compliance of the private sector operating in the BCLME regionequired to effectively promote the ecosystem-based management and sustainable fisheries in ALME
Angola
Namibia
South Africa
