Abidjan Convention moves to protect Africa's coasts from oil spills
The coastal waters of West, Central and Southern Africa - from Mauritania down to the tip of the continent in South Africa - are of vital importance to the region's economy. The marine ecosystems and coastal areas support rich fisheries and tourism and are also home to numerous busy ports.
But over the last three decades, rapid development, pollution and improper use of resources have had a damaging effect on coastal ecosystems. Erosion and flooding are also likely to be exacerbated by climate change.
The Abidjan Convention - administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - is an umbrella agreement that addresses pollution, overfishing, dumping at sea, exploration of the sea bed and other activities that can impact on the health of marine and coastal ecosystems.
Now a new focus has been added to the work of the convention: reducing potential risks from oil spills.
Earlier this month, at the 9th Convention of the Parties (COP) to the Abidjan Convention in Ghana, governments from 19 of the 22 countries sharing the West, Central and Southern African coast of the Atlantic Ocean agreed to create an Oil Spill Contingency Plan and establish a regional centre for co-operation in case of oil spills and other emergencies.
Increased off-shore oil exploration is bringing significant revenue to Western, Central and Southern African states. But many countries expressed a strong desire at the COP meeting to work collaboratively to prevent oil spills, such as occurred in the Gulf of Mexico last year, from happening in the Gulf of Guinea or elsewhere in the region.
The Oil Spill Contingency Plan will complement existing national plans and allow countries to promptly report to each other oil spills or other pollution incidents occurring in their area of responsibility or that of another party. Member states were also encouraged to exchange information on combating oil pollution and to facilitate prompt, mutual assistance in the event of a major oil pollution incident.
The preparation of the Contingency Plan was a joint effort betwwen UNEP, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
"Unfortunately, it is impossible to rule out that a similar incident to the tragedy that occurred at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico could also take place in this region", says Abou Bamba, Secretary of the Abidjan Convention at UNEP. "For this reason, it is time to strengthen the existing preparedness and response measures in place among parties."
Participants at the COP meeting also agreed as a priority to build national capacity in oil and gas development to improve the management of the sector, to adopt appropriate national policies, and to conduct strategic environmental and social impact assessments. The parties also decided to enact national legislation to address liability, compensation, safety and security- related matters for offshore platforms.
In addition to the new commitments on managing oil spills, the COP approved a total of sixteen decisions which should serve to further revitalize the Abidjan Convention and confirm its role as the umbrella organization for marine and coastal activities in the region.
These included calls for the convention to work more closely on coastal erosion and marine protected areas. This will involve developing a Marine Protected Areas Protocol to help implement Articles 10 and 11 of the convention, which require parties to take all appropriate measures to prevent, reduce, combat and control coastal erosion and to endeavour to establish marine parks and reserves to protect fragile ecosystems. These aims are in line with the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to which all parties to the Abidjan Convention have adhered.
This article was originally posted on Africa Sustainable Energy & Environment Platform
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