By Kenneth Jukpor
African Women in Maritime (WIMAFRICA) has admonished African governments to prioritize and protect African oceans and seas with a view to harnessing the numerous potentials in the blue economy.
The President of WIMAFRICA, Barr. (Mrs.) Jean-Chiazor Anishere made this appeal in a press statement issued today in commemoration of the African Day of Seas and Oceans celebrated annually on July 25th.
Describing African seas as home to some of the most spectacular and treasured life, she asserted that protecting Africa’s oceans and seas should no longer be a debate but an actual necessity.
She, however, stated that all hands must be on deck in developing the sector, stressing that nations in the continent have to work in unity, peace and love, because progress cannot breed where strive exists.
According to her, sustainability in the context of a Blue Economy is about the continent’s ability to use its ocean space as opportunities for development, new energy possibilities, protected areas that improve biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and provide increased food security.
“It is about the sustainable use of our potential mineral wealth on the ocean floor. It is about offsetting our emissions and those of our planet in the fight against climate change. It is about building sustainable trade that can connect all markets, large and small, thereby creating opportunities and benefits for all, from multi-nationals to small community enterprises. There should be sustainable space for tourism. As a consequence, achieving sustainable management of this oceanic space will provide for the sustainability of our planet,” she said.
Noting that the blue economy comprises economic sectors and policies that make ocean resources sustainable, she stressed that there was a challenge in understanding how to manage ocean sustainability from fisheries and ecosystem health to pollution.
“A solution can be found in collaboration across nation-states and public-private sectors. Africa has to continue embracing the blue economy for the solutions it proffers to the economic problems and development needs facing the continent.”
“The purpose of the blue economy is to provide a sustainable economic development of the oceans, seas, coasts, lakes, rivers and underground water bodies to provide for resources that can satisfy human needs, create jobs and wealth, encourage tourism, increase global trading activities and meet its energy demands. Thus, achieving the sustainability of the blue economy is vital to securing Africa’s prosperity,” she posited.
Various bodies of water surround Africa – the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the east and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west – and she noted that an array of dazzling life forms, from the smallest nudibranch to the impressive schools of fish that move through the water like a flock of red-billed queleas on the African plains can be found on African seas.
