The Vice President and newly elected flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has highlighted a number of interventions the government has undertaken to control the degradation of Ghana’s coastal landscape.
Speaking at the third Biennial Conference on Fisheries and Coastal Environment in Accra, on Monday, October 6, 2023 Dr. Bawumia said in spite of the enormous benefits from the ocean to the country, degradation of the ocean threatens its sustainability and benefits.
The degradation, Dr. Bawumia noted “includes coastal erosion caused by sea level rise, pollution from Municipal waste such as plastic and chemical pollution from illegal mining activities and so on.
“It also involves over-exploitation of fisheries resources through illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, amongst others.”
The Vice President, who lamented how the health of our ocean and its accompanying resources have been rapidly deteriorating “as a result of both anthropogenic and natural causes,” also outlined steps the government has undertaken to address the problem and ensure a sustainable ocean economy.
“In recent times, the Government of Ghana has embarked on various activities to ensure sustainable ocean management. The first of the activities was the President joining the high-level panel for a sustainable ocean economy,” Dr. Bawumia noted.
“The Ocean Panel, as it is called, is a special global initiative of seventeen (17) world leaders who pledged themselves to a new ocean programme to work at attaining a sustainable ocean economy.
“To strengthen this effort, a two-day maiden National Blue Economy Summit was held in Accra in May/June 2023, under the theme: Our Ocean’s Health, Our Prosperity, Our Planet’s Security.
“Secondly, the government has approved a loan of USD 150 million from the World Bank on the West Africa Coastal Area (WACA) programme to stem the tide of coastal degradation occurring in our coastal areas.
“Also, the government has begun various activities to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in our waters. We are seriously regulating the licenses of foreign fishing vessels, especially their fishing gears, where they fish and whether they have licenses or not.
“In fact, some of these foreign vessels have been denied licenses already. We have also digitized access to pre-mix fuel for artisanal fishing activities.”
The introduction of a digitized premix fueling station, Dr. Bawumia said, was meant to automate the pre-mix fuel system to reduce issues such as hoarding, politicization and diversion, among others.
He added that the government has also begun efforts to reduce the number of boats in the artisanal fishing sector.
“Just like the Africa Union (AU) and taking from the AU submissions, our government believes that the ocean presents a huge opportunity to accelerate development and improve the well-being of the people of this country, with its extensive coastline, is committed to leading the charge towards a sustainable and inclusive blue economy,” Dr. Bawumia said.
The third Biennial Conference on Fisheries and Coastal Environment was under the theme: “Inclusive Blue Economy in Africa: Towards Sustainable Transformation and Resilience of the Marine Environment.”
It was organised by the Centre for Coastal Management – Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (CCM-ACECoR) of the University of Cape Coast and other strategic partners, including the World Bank, WACA, USAID, Vulnerability to Viability Global Partnership, among others.
