Accra: Ghana has been urged to establish an overarching authority to ensure the success of its Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and its implementation, with the goal of sustaining the nation's marine waters. Participants at a National Training Workshop on Marine Spatial Planning in Ghana emphasized that a unified authority, particularly one led by an executive with representation from various stakeholders, would facilitate synergy in the management and sustainability of the marine space. This approach would address the current situation where multiple institutions have different mandates regarding ocean usage.
According to Ghana News Agency, the National Training was part of the 'Using Marine Spatial Planning in the Gulf of Guinea for the Implementation of Payment for Ecosystem Services and Nature-Based Coastal Solutions (MarEcoPlan)' project. The MarEcoPlan project is a three-year, three-million-dollar pilot initiative being conducted in three Member States of the Secretariat of the Fisheries Committee of the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC): C´te d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo. It is jointly implemented with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Mrs. Dieynaba Seck, the MarEcoPlan's International MSP Consultant, who facilitated the workshop with the support of Dr. Kwame Adu Agyekum, the MarEcoPlan's Ghana MSP Consultant, stated that for MSP to succeed, Ghana requires a higher-level body to oversee it. She pointed out that the ocean is a vast expanse serving many purposes for different stakeholders, covering 71 percent of the Earth's surface and providing numerous services, including food, income, oxygen, coastal protection, carbon storage, habitats, climate regulation, and essential activities.
Mrs. Seck highlighted that blue planning seeks to achieve multiple objectives-social, economic, and ecological-and should reflect various expectations, opportunities, or conflicts in its planning area. She explained that countries engage in blue planning due to legal requirements, policy drives, opportunities in the blue economy, food security, conflicts in marine use, and challenges like climate change.
She underscored the importance of stakeholder involvement, defining stakeholders as individuals or groups with an interest or stake in or affected by a process or management decision. Blue planning aims to involve stakeholders to learn about human influences, access local knowledge, understand sectoral priorities, identify conflicts early, ensure ownership of outcomes, and improve implementation.
The facilitator also mentioned that stakeholder engagement aids in developing innovative solutions, ensuring effective processes and voluntary compliance, and utilizing stakeholders in monitoring. She noted that other critical aspects of MSP include inventory, establishing administrative boundaries, data gathering, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and evaluation. Mrs. Seck emphasised that the blue plan's goal is its implementation and that evaluation provides an opportunity to critically assess both the Blue Planning process and its outcomes.
