Impact Reduction from Coastal Infrastructures in West Africa Action Plan (PRISE)

Boavista Island (Cabo Verde), Kapatchez Delta (Guinea), Bijagos Islands (Guinea-Bissau), Banc d’Arguin (Mauritania), Saloum Delta (Senegal) – West Africa

Project leader: MAVA Foundation

Dates : 2020

Classification

Risks

Solutions

Actors

Costs

Summary

In recent years, the coastal zone of West Africa has undergone important transformations, partly due to the development of various infrastructures (tourism, roads, dykes, ports, etc.) built for economic and social development purposes. However, this transformation threatens the area’s biodiversity. The Planning and Development Orientation (OAP) seeks to reduce the impact of infrastructures on mangroves, sea turtles and seagrass beds, with the main outcome being “by 2022, infrastructure development on the main turtle nesting beaches, as well as in the mangroves and seagrass beds, will be regulated and sustainable“. 

Actions

The PRISE project includes in its first strategy knowledge and tools improvement. It expects to develop and build on good practices of ecosystem management and protection, identify coastal areas of biological interest, and analyse their exposure and vulnerability to infrastructure development. It also plans on strengthening monitoring systems and participatory surveillance of priority sensitive sites. 

The PRISE project includes in its strategies the improvement of the legal framework (Strategy 3). As such, the project should contribute to the legal framework updating of each country as well as the adoption of relevant conventions, protocols and regional guidelines at the national level. The project also integrates support for tools and knowledge improvement at the site level (Strategy 4). In this respect, it awaits that coastal ecosystems are taken into account and integrated into the legal frameworks. It also ensures that environmental assessments are integrated into the process of infrastructure development planning and new infrastructure projects subject to environmental control.

The Planning and Programme Guidance provides for the production of a range of regulatory documents to support these strategies:

  • Inventory of infrastructure likely to negatively impact priority sites 
  • Report on the identification of coastal areas of biological interest, sensitive and vulnerable to an infrastructure development 
  • Coastal zone management plan integrating the protection of sensitive ecosystems of the Bijagos Archipelago
  • Coastal zone management plan integrating the protection of sensitive ecosystems of the Saloum Delta
  • Zoning plans for priority sites 
  • Sectoral guides to good environmental practice
  • Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) reports and environmental audits of infrastructure with negative impacts in or around priority sites 

The project foresees in its strategy two different advocacy and awareness-raising actions. The expected results are that civil society organisations (CSOs), local communities, and national representative networks can participate in the reduction of the negative impacts of infrastructures and commit to the protection of sensitive coastal ecosystems. Similarly, the project expects the private sector to understand the need to protect ecosystems and engage in mitigating the impacts of infrastructure on the coastal zone. Finally, State Institutions are expected to be better equipped to engage stakeholders (CSOs, communities, private sector) in synergies to protect sensitive coastal ecosystems from negative infrastructure impacts.

To achieve these objectives, PRISE plans to: 

  • Train technical services and professional staff on new methods for the management of sensitive ecosystems:
  • Transfer knowledge between technical services in the targeted countries
  • Share experiences on the management of sensitive ecosystems between the different target countries (workshops, technical visits, interviews on the sites, other activities,…).
  • Strengthen the capacities of national technicians in the use of new technologies (remote sensing, drone technology, sheet cameras, digital cameras, tablets, GPS, long-range binoculars, motorboats, launches, etc.) for monitoring sensitive ecosystems in the target countries.
  • Draw up guides of good environmental practice.
  • Publish, disseminate and popularise the different guides produced with stakeholders in the target countries (workshops, documents, exchange visits, etc.).

Outcomes

While the project is still ongoing, the mid-term evaluation carried out in 2020 identified the following principal achievements:

  • The improvement of the essential technical knowledge base on coastal space management (e.g. management tools, nature of impacts and related risks, management measures) and the provision of information on the initial states of sensitive ecosystems and relevant legal frameworks in the target countries
  • The development of good practice tools for infrastructure planning (infrastructure development plans, development plans in the relevant ministries)
  • The development and implementation of integrated management plans are in progress on priority sites (Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau) 
  • The completion of Environmental, Social and Strategic Assessments (EESS) of impacting infrastructures in two countries (PNBA, Kapatchez Delta)

The main success factors include, among others: 

  • This action plan was developed by the partners, mobilising the expertise of actors in the sub-region
  • The implementation is multi-partnered, with a clear division of roles and responsibilities and a collegial monitoring and adaptive management system at the global level, involving the different categories of actors
  • The establishment and active involvement of National Coordination Teams in the overall implementation of the initiative to promote national ownership and continuity of the projects undertaken

The main difficulties identified are the significant delays of several activities, exacerbated by the COVID19 pandemic. Second, there is a need to strengthen inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration within countries. Finally, the limited involvement of the private sector in the initiative has posed several challenges.

Partners

Technical partners:

  • Wetlands International Central and West Africa and PRCM, 
  • State services (DEEC, ANAT and DAMCP in Senegal, DCE and PNBA in Mauritania, AAAC and IBAP in Guinea Bissau, BGEEE and OGPR in Guinea, INGT in Cape Verde)
  • Academic and research institutions (ISE in Senegal, Nouakchott University, Al-Asriya in Mauritania , University in Cape Verde and the CSE)
  • Sub-regional organisations (RAMPAO and Abidjan Convention)
  • CSOs (ADAD in Cape Verde, GAIA in Senegal, Tiniguena in Guinéea Bissau, Guinée Ecologie in Guinea, BiodiverCités in Mauritania) 
  • Parliamentary networks

Financial partners: MAVA Foundation

Resources

MAVA Foundation website – Regulating the coastal infrastructure development https://mava-foundation.org/oaps/regulating-coastal-infrastructure-development/