This consultation workshop is the last step before the validation workshop of the Marine Spatial Plan to be held in November 2021.

The Ivorian Anti-Pollution Center (CIAPOL), a structure under the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and the Abidjan Convention, organized from October 25-27 2021 at the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (CERAO) a workshop for the pre-validation of the report on the marine spatial plan of Grand-Bassam.

This workshop, which was part of the implementation of the activities of the Integrated Management of the Marine and Coastal Area from Abidjan to Assinie (GIAMAAA) project, follows several capacity development workshops and field missions for the collection of information, as well as the organization of a workshop to finalize the first draft of the report submitted for pre-validation. As a reminder, the GIAMAA project is a pilot initiative from which Côte d’Ivoire benefits, in the same manner as Benin and Ghana, as part of the Mami Wata project.

For Professor Ossey Bernard Yapo, Deputy Director, representing the Director of CIAPOL, “The workshop that brings us together today is about the marine spatial planning process (MSP). It aims to submit to the approval of stakeholders that you are, the draft report of the marine spatial plan of Grand-Bassam, in order to collect your comments for the improvement of the content of this report”, he declared in front of workshop participants.

Professor Yapo said he was counting on the participants to enable Côte d’Ivoire, and more particularly the town of Grand Bassam, to have a marine spatial plan for better management of marine and coastal resources along the country’s coastline. Finally, Professor Yapo did not fail to express his thanks to the German Government, the World Bank, the Executive Secretariat of the Abidjan Convention, GRID-Arendal and the Centre de Suivi Écologique of Dakar, for “their respective financial and technical support in the implementation of this [MSP] process”.

For three days, participants, divided into three groups representing the three chapters of the report, had their hearts set on the task. They developed proposals and suggestions that were presented during the plenary session. At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Marguerite Békoin, GIAMAA Project Coordinator, on behalf of the CIAPOL Director, congratulated all the participants for the work done during this three-day workshop. Ms. Békoin invited participants to meet again in the coming days in Grand Bassam for the validation workshop, which will definitively ratify the remarks and suggestions made during this pre-validation process.

Charles GNAE

Images: GIAMAA project