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State of Marine Resources in four West African Coastal States.For many countries, especially in the developing world,
marine resources represent a great asset. Rampant exploitation, often illegal,
and often by invasive international trawler fleets has led to much pressure
being placed on marine stocks. Protection of national resources by law has long
been required to halt this plundering. After ten years of serious deliberations and negotiations,
the United Nations agreed upon a close range decision which could begin to solve
the problem. One hundred and fifty independent countries agreed on a general
consensus on The Law of the Sea.
On the 16th of November 1994 precisely, twelve years after the first
convention, sixty countries ratified it. This was a giant step in the move to protect our seas and
oceans, which cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface. The declaration serves as a stimulation for the regional
declarations which extend the jurisdiction of coastal states over the resources
of the subsoil, the seabed and in the waters above the continental shelf
stretching as far as 200 nautical miles (307.4km) seawards from the shoreline
from which the territorial sea is determined. This area is termed the Economic
Exclusive Zone (EEZ). Fortunately most of the living marine resources are within
the Economic Exclusive Zone, hence it remains largely within National and
Regional Jurisdiction.
The marine environment within these legal limits is very important as it
constitutes a major part of the West Africa Ecological zone.
This law encourages the sustainable utilization of marine resources and
their protection should be encouraged much more than at present to prevent their
rapacious exploitation. In order to begin taking advantage of the opportunities
offered by the convention the state of the marine environment must be assessed.
In this way, environmental features must be identified and appropriate
environmental management strategies recommended and implemented for them. This
will have a positive effect on the millions of people in these regions. THE STUDY AREA The discussion presented in this article deals with the
Economic Exclusive Zones in four West African Countries ( Nigeria, Benin
Republic, Togo and Ghana) Primary and secondary data were obtained from various
environmental projects carried out in these areas.
The study includes the shorelines covering the four countries extending
to the 200 nautical miles (307.4km) limit of Economic Exclusive Zone region.
The settlements along the coastal region consist of over three-hundred
and fifty coastal rural communities. OCEANOGRAPHIC FEATURES The area has an average depth of 135m ( Nigeria)
98m, ( Togo) 123 (Benin Republic) and 115 ( Ghana) Precipitation and
run-off results in dilution of the water surface by about 12%.
Nutrients are delivered to the water from a number of
sources, giving reasonably high levels of the phosphates and nitrates required
for high levels of plant growth. The high nutrient levels allow reasonably large
populations of photosynthetic organisms, leading to average figures for total
photosynthetic production per year being about 6.0 x 109 tonnes of fixed Carbon.
This allows an annual benthic production of around 98.9 x 106 tonnes. Studies on fish stock resources from the different regions
of the Economic Exclusive Zone indicate that the annual catch for the entire
region is over 23 million tonnes. NATURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE AREA. The effect of pollution on the zone, largely arising from
economic activities, began a long time
ago. The coastal communities mostly
feel these problems, but because of the prevailing wind system, the patterns of
water circulation and nature of the bottom topography, the effects seem to be
having far-reaching implications. Sewage Economic growth and industrialization has increased volumes
of sewage and industrial wastes discharged.
Most towns have some rivers flowing through them, but because of
increased human activities around them, many are highly
polluted, increasing the pollution load of the Economic Exclusive Zone
resulting in human health problems. Industrial Waste In Nigeria the establishment of the oil industries close to
the EEZ has caused high migrations to the coastal towns like Bonny, Eket and
Port Harcourt. This results in a great increase in wastes discharges to water
courses with accompanying negative impacts. Biodiversity Loss The West African EEZ has a wide variety of micro-habitats. Aquatic
fauna and flora are well represented. In the study area the destruction of
natural habitat continues, resulting in the depletion
of the Biodiversity in the
area. As an example at Winneba ( Ghana), a marine prawn of the Paenus sp. which
is a delicacy for the coastal community in the area is now on the endangered
list. Fishing is dominant in these areas and the use of chemicals
such as the piscicide Rotonone is not controlled. As a result of poverty in
these areas marine products provide for 90% of the populations needs, resulting
in a huge human pressure on the flora and fauna. Excessively high fishing rates now threaten commercially
important fish stocks in the area. A
rapidly decreasing fish stock will cause not only a problem in protein supply
for the large populations around the coastal communities but the whole West
Africa region as a whole. This
problem also endangers the livelihood of many commercial fishermen in the areas. The Environmental experience in the West African Economic Exclusive Zone show that nature
conservation, reservation and sustainable development are central themes to the
protection of the zone. Natural
resources in the zone are not only for human use but they have intrinsic value;
this is in contrast to the previously held humanistic belief.
Unless sustainability is achieved, there will be a time in which the
natural system of the zone will no longer tolerate
human activities. Human activities
in the zone should work with nature rather than against it. This article adapted from a reportby
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Copyright 2001, Janice Limson. All Rights Reserved
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