A one-day training and capacity building workshop on ocean governance has been organised for maritime law enforcement agencies in Ghana, as part of the project deliverables under the One Ocean hub project.

The project is being implemented by the University of Strathclyde centre for Environmental Law and Governance in the UK in collaboration with the University of Cape Coast.

The project aims to support vulnerable groups in Africa and small island developing states who according to UN sources face the greatest challenges to prevent and mitigate negative development impacts connected to the ocean as well as predict the socio-economic benefits of ocean conservation.

The Team Lead at CEMLAWS Africa, Dr. Kamal Deen Ali provided an overview of the maritime space vis a vis the law of the sea.

“The convention regulates our contemporary maritime space and it also formed the basis for other International instruments. It can be Fisheries instruments, they can relate to migration within the sea, they may relate to how to interdict narcotics at sea. They may relate to marine conservation and biodiversity even that may be it may be something that has to do with marine pollution and shipping. The Constitution provides a framework for other International instruments,” he said.

Head of the Department, of Geography and Regional Planning at the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Benjamin Kofi Nyarko, said the training is to ensure good health of the ocean.

“With this project, we have some priorities which are to look at alternative livelihoods for the fisher folks so that they may not rely much more on the fish stock and also to come out with a decision support system to help in Ocean governance,” he said.

He entreated maritime law enforcement agencies to ensure that industrial trawlers don’t ply their activities within the exclusive economic zones which will affect fishermen.

“We are saying that we have an exclusive zone where the artisanal fishing needs to be instead of the industrial trawlers encroaching within this exclusive zone. So the rule is to enforce, to understand that if the trawlers come into the exclusive Zone that may affect the livelihoods of the artisanal fishers. So their role is to understand that if they don't enforce the rules then our fisher folk will not have any means to live on,” he averred.