The Benguela Current Commission and its member states (Angola, Namibia and South Africa) have embarked on a regional cooperation project: The Marine Spatial Management and Governance Programme (MARISMA): 2014-2020. MARISMA is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) through its International Climate Initiative (ICI), and is implemented by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH; German Development Cooperation). The Institute for Coastal and Marine Research (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) is contracted to GIZ to provide technical support for the EBSA work area.

 

The objectives of MARISMA are to build capacity in the BCC and its member states, and for them to contribute to the sustainable management of the Benguela Current’s marine biodiversity and marine natural resources. MARISMA directly supports countries to achieve their obligations as signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

 

The approach is for countries to safeguard their natural capital by identifying EBSAs in the BCLME, and integrating these as areas for conservation and protection in a region-wide marine spatial plan that allows for socio-economic development in a sustainable manner. Consequently, there are three work areas: one on EBSAs, one on MSP, and one that cross-cuts EBSAs and MSP that focusses on capacity development, awareness raising, and dissemination of results, experiences and products.

 

The workplan for the EBSA work area is to revisit and update existing EBSAs in the BCLME, identify and describe new EBSAs (if any), and refine the boundaries of all EBSAs. The vulnerability of each EBSA will then be assessed to make recommendations for management that will feed into the MSP work area. View the meeting schedule

 

Read more about MARISMA on the BCC and GIZ websites.