The BCLME Programme’s first projects are advertised nationally and internationally

SANCOR Newsletter: May/June 2003

After a period of intense discussion and preparation, the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) Programme has advertised the first nine out of an anticipated 80 projects that will help South Africa, Namibia and Angola to better understand, monitor and manage the complex Benguela Upwelling system.

The nine projects were advertised internationally, in New Scientist magazine, and nationally within the Angolan, Namibian and South African press, in May. Terms of reference for all nine projects were simultaneously posted to the BCLME website (www.bclme.org).

The advertising of the nine projects is seen as a significant step forward for the BCLME Programme which has been putting structures in place to effectively carry out the objectives of the Programme since the implementation phase began in March 2002. Over the past year, a Chief Technical Advisor, Dr Michael O’Toole, was appointed to head the BCLME Programme, a Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) was established in Windhoek, Namibia, and three Activity Centres were set up - one in each of the participating countries.

The Activity Centres are one of the main mechanisms for the implementation of the BCLME Programme. They function as the “headquarters” of the Advisory Groups and, with the support of the PCU, the Activity Centres organise working groups, conduct training, and present recommendations to the Programme Steering Committee through the PCU. The Centres also provide capacity strengthening and networking for their respective activities.

The Activity Centre for Environmental Variability is located within the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s Marine and Coastal Management offices, and is headed by Director, Lesley Staegemann. Dr Hashali Hamakuaya is the Director of the Activity Centre for Living Marine Resources, which is located in Swakopmund, Namibia, within the National Marine Information and Research Centre (NatMIRC). The Activity Centre for Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health and Marine Pollution is located in Luanda, Angola, within the Instituto de Investigação Marinha (IIM). This Activity Centre is directed by Maria de Lourdes Sardinha.

The establishment of the three Activity Centres paved the way for the appointment of Advisory Groups for each of the three focus areas of the BCLME Programme: Environmental Variability, Marine Living Resources and Ecosystem Health and Marine Pollution.

The Advisory Groups are tasked with examining the problems and issues that were identified in the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), assessing the existing projects and activities that are undertaken by the national Governments, BENEFIT, bilateral aid programs and private enterprises, and identifying gaps or elements missing from existing programs in order that the cross boundary elements are properly addressed by the BCLME Programme. Each of the Advisory Groups comprises two members from Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

Eventually, six Advisory Groups will be established by the BCLME Programme, including: Living Marine Resources; Environmental Variability; Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health and Pollution; Legal and Maritime Affairs; Training and Capacity Building; and Information and Data Exchange.

The Environmental Variability Advisory Group was established in July 2002, and regional experts identified four priority areas for the Advisory Group, including: harmful algal blooms (HABs), low oxygen water, large scale (physical) environmental variability, and productivity, variability and retention. The Living Marine Resources Advisory Group was established in September 2002 and five priority areas were identified, including: commercial fisheries, artisanal fisheries, mariculture, socio-economics and non-consumptive resources. The Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health and Pollution Advisory Group was established in November 2002, and three main themes were prioritised, including: oil and mining exploration, biodiversity and water quality.

Each of the Advisory Groups set up specialist task groups to focus on the priority areas and develop research, monitoring and management proposals for projects that would address transboundary management issues or national issues that have transboundary implications that are not being addresses by the national institutions in the three countries, or by regional programmes such as BENEFIT.

Larger consultative fora were also formed to provide as wide a spectrum of knowledge as possible to each Advisory Group. Their tasks were to develop pre-proposals for funding through the specialist task groups. The task groups subsequently developed the project proposals and forwarded them to the Advisory Group in each Activity Centre, for their consideration. If the project proposals were supported at the Advisory Group level, they were submitted to the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) for final approval, with a recommendation for the projects to be advertised on an open tender basis, to be directed to a sole supplier, or to be routed via the BENEFIT Programme, the primary scientific and technical arm of the BCLME Programme.

It has already been decided that BENEFIT will act as a lead agency in fields where it is competent. However, in the new fields of biodiversity, pollution, coastal development and offshore mining, new initiatives need to be established. This is why the BCLME Programme has taken the first step of putting out to tender, nine of the projects that were formulated by the Environmental Variability Advisory Group.

The nine projects were approved by the PSC in April. They cover a variety of study areas, such as a proposed investigation into the diversity and distribution of cysts of Harmful Algal Blooms within the BCLME and a critical review of the biophysical processes and variability that characterise the low oxygen water in the BCLME.

It is expected that the PSC will soon consider a number of project proposals that have been developed by the Marine Living Resources Advisory Group and that some of these projects will be advertised shortly. Project proposals that have been generated by the Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health and Pollution Advisory Group will also be assessed by the PSC in the next few months.

The process of assessing tenders and awarding contracts for the first nine projects is likely to take some time. However, once this process is complete, the work of the BCLME Programme can begin in earnest.

About the BCLME Programme

The goal of the BCLME Programme is the integrated management, sustainable development and protection of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem. It is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under its International Waters portfolio and is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the United Nations Office for Programme Services (UNOPS) as an executing agency. The three member countries provide further financial assistance and in-kind contributions.

The area of interest for the BCLME Programme stretches from 5oS (Cabinda Province, just north of the Congo River) to just east of Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape Province.

Between 1997 and 2002, during the preparatory phase of the project, a thorough assessment of the environmental issues and problems that straddle the international borders of Angola, Namibia and South Africa, was undertaken and documented in the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA). A Strategic Action Programme (SAP), Project Brief were developed and presented to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and in July 2001 was finally approved by GEF incremental funding of US$15 million for the Programme.

The implementation phase of the BCLME Programme began in 2002.

The relationship with BENEFIT

BENEFIT is a joint initiative by the 3 countries, with generous funding from NORAD and GTZ, to address fisheries and other marine scientific investigations of important living marine resources, and their interactions of the environment. Training of staff to undertake research and to achieve levels of expertise necessary to provide advice to fisheries management is also an important objective of BENEFIT. It is therefore very much a science-based project.

In contrast, the BCLME Programme is largely a management-orientated program aimed at boosting the infrastructure necessary to address cross-boundary problems associated with fishing, mining, oil exploration, coastal development, biodiversity and pollution in the whole Benguela system. It consists of developing baseline scientific and economic information on what is currently known about the Benguela, how this is changing over time and how future problems can be addressed. It will build on the excellent scientific basis developed in the BENEFIT program but will also fund additional components which are currently outside the BENEFIT scope of expertise. In response to the implementation of the BCLME Programme, BENEFIT has already expanded its focus area to encompass the larger BCLME area and as many projects as possible will be channelled through BENEFIT to boost it as the marine science organisation of the region. As the mainstay of the BENEFIT program are the three National Fisheries Laboratories (MCM, NATMIRC and IIM), plus the local universities who work in close association with them, the BCLME will have a lasting legacy imbedded within the region. An important component of the BCLME is the formation of an Interim Benguela Current Commission (IBBC) and a self-sustaining permanent Benguela Current Commission (BCC) after the life of the GEF intervention which will develop the regional managerial infrastructure, at a political and technical level, to manage the Benguela ecosystem as a whole. This will involve harmonising fishing, mining, mariculture, pollution and biodiversity legislation and policies and developing structures to implement rules and regulations for the common benefit of all users of the rich resources in the Benguela and for protection of the unique organisms within the ecosystem.

South Africa, through the DEA &T has adopted the BENEFIT and BCLME programs as integral parts of the NEPAD initiative.

¥ For more information on Large Marine Ecosystems, visit: www.na.nefsc.noaa.gov/lme