Presentation by David Vousden of the Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem at the 1st targeted workshop for GEF IW projects in Africa in April 2012 in South Africa.

1. The Agulhas and Somali Current Large
Marine Ecosystems Project
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenges, how we
resolved them and
what lessons we have
learned so far

2. Agulhas and Somali
New Problems with Research Cruise Planning
Currents LME
Boundaries
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
12°
The exact boundaries have
yet to be defined
Definition is based on
bathymetry, currents,
productivity, etc. in an attempt
to separate out discrete
ecosystems for management
purposes
As the focus is on the
ecosystem, the management
area will inevitable extend
beyond EEZs into ABNJ (high
seas) and will be
transboundary between
sovereign jurisdictions

3. ASCLME Management &
Governance Approach
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
There are five important steps which ASCLME is following in terms of evolving
effective management and governance at the ecosystem level:
1. The Baseline: Identifying the existing status and boundaries of the LMEs in the
Western Indian Ocean region (You cannot manage what you haven’t
measured)
2. Impacts and Causes: Agreeing on the main threats to the ecosystem, its living
resources and the communities that depend on them and identifying specific
areas of concern that need observing
3. Monitoring: Developing an effective monitoring and early warning mechanism
for ecosystem variability and climate change, building on the baseline surveys
and adopting appropriate indicators of change (You cannot adapt to change
unless you can recognise change)
4. Science-to-Governance: Translating the outputs from this monitoring into
policy and management level priorities and guidelines for adaptive
management and decision-making
5. Cooperative Management: Evolving and adopting a Western Indian Ocean
Alliance of partners to achieve sustainability of monitoring and adaptive
management within the LMEs using the ecosystem approach

4. Achievements to date
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
A. A detailed baseline assessment of a previously unknown area. Over 22 coastal
and offshore research cruises over 4 years
B. A detailed and comprehensive Marine Ecosystem Diagnostic Analysis completed
for each country (including socioeconomics, coastal livelihoods assessment,
policy and governance assessment and cost-benefit analysis of an EBM
approach. Causal Chain Analyses now being finalised.
C. TDA currently under construction
D. Over 40 Ecosystem Assessment practitioners have been trained
E. 70 plus regional and international ecosystem-related scientific experts directly
involved in baseline and monitoring process
F. Over 50 related and peer-reviewed publications gone to ‘Abstract’ of which more
than 20 already published
G. Scientific Coordination Expert bodies created in each country to support the
Ecosystem management process
H. A strongly evolving WIO Alliance for scientific monitoring and adaptive (dynamic)
EBM with over 15 partner organisations formally signed-up and many more
cooperating on an informal basis
I. Over $12 million in ‘additional’ co-funding leveraged above the original co-funding
figure through partnership agreements

5. Challenges and Resolutions
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
1. Data-poor region with very little ecosystem information
2. Limited national capacities for data capture and handling
3. Lack of effective country ownership
4. Resistance to any new bureaucracy or governing body
5. Poor Coordination and Interaction across Disciplines and
between ‘Players’
6. Disconnect between Science and Governance
7. Absence of Realistic Community Engagement
8. No Involvement of Private Sector and Industry

6. 1. Data-Poor Region
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
The WIO is one of the least known areas of the world’s oceans
in terms of marine science. Therefore, it was essential to
undergo a strategically focused and comprehensive data
capture period in order to develop an effective baseline which
could realistically drive/support a SAP development process
Resolution
An expansive programme of data capture at the coastal and
offshore level to ensure:
i) a strong enough understanding of the drivers of ocean-climate
interactions and their influence on the LMEs
ii) an early insight into the relationship and interactions
between the LMEs and their dependent communities and
community welfare
iii) most importantly to provide a baseline against which
change could be measured and adaptive management

7. 2. Limited National Capacities
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
Limited national capacities for ecosystem-based management and
monitoring
Resolution
There is a high level of capacity within some specialised institutions in the
region, particularly in terms of oceanographic, fisheries and general
ecosystem management skills. This capacity has and is being captured
and put to good use.
2 three-week training courses in the class and at sea on Ecosystem
Management and monitoring approaches has resulted in over 40 trained
practitioners/scientist and now over 70 regional scientists taking part in the
long-term ecosystem monitoring programmes.
CB&T programme is being expanded now through a growing arrangement
of academic and global institutional partnerships
Because of the presence of skilled EBM experts in the region, less than 3%
of expert consultancies were contracted out to international experts from

8. 3. Lack of Effective Country Ownership
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
Delay between the negotiation phase and the actual implementation phase
(several years) for the Project. Country ownership of the Project therefore
often resided in one or two individuals at best and was not inherent at the
institutional level
Resolution
ASCLME PSC agreed to start the TDA-SAP process with national Marine
Ecosystem Diagnostic Analyses (MEDAs).
This has proved to be a highly valuable and popular new approach as:
i) it required the creation of an in-country nucleus of LME experts which
now forms the core of a long-term national technical inter-sectoral group
ii) it has created a strong sense of ownership within the countries
iii) it provides each country with a baseline ‘State of the Marine
Environment’ report from which they can evolve (or amend and update) a
National Action Programme.
iv) ensures that the TDA and its associated SAP and long-term monitoring
programmes are ‘anchored’ at the national level as well as into regional
institutions and activities.

9. 4. Resistance to any new bureaucracy or
governing body
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
The participating countries and the various Conventions and Commissions
operating in the region made it clear that they did NOT want a Commission-style
management approach. It was felt that there were already sufficient mandated and
responsible organisations and entities and that any attempt to usurp those
mandates or to overarch them with a new body would meet strong resistance.
Resolution
Rather than trying to develop an ungainly and unnecessary overarching new body,
ASCLME is working closely with other partners to develop the WIO Alliance.
The Alliance is a partnership between the countries, mandated bodies and
institutions within the region, and international supportive agencies all working
together to develop an effective long-term management programme for the WIO
LMEs.
The Alliance includes partnerships for undertaking scientific monitoring and
research (and delivering the results and conclusions to managers and decision-makers)
and for CB&T .
One advantage of the Alliance is that it uses existing activities and funding but

10. 5. Poor Coordination and Interaction
across Disciplines and between ‘Players’
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
Large interest and funding commitment in this region in terms of ocean-climate
interactions and the fact that the region was likely to suffer first and
hardest from climate extremes. However, there was little interaction or
collaboration across disciplines or with appropriate national institutions.
This led to duplication and lack of cost-effectiveness of efforts
Resolution
ASCLME has attempted to act as a facilitating agency for all of these
various activities whilst diplomatically avoiding any impression of formally
adopting a coordination role without formal agreements to this effect
The Project has also developed a number of ‘Aides-Memoire’ with various
institutions and agencies working in the region which define the areas of
cooperation between them and the Project
The evolving Alliance aims to consolidate these various Aides-Memoire
under the overall SAP so that each entity agrees to a clearly defined
responsibility within the overall ecosystem management strategy

11. 6. Disconnect between Science and
Governance
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
Very little of the science and data analysis so far has been effectively
translated into management tools or guidelines or into policy briefings.
Science needed to be applied and delivered and adaptive management
needed to be driven through identification of trends and monitoring of
change
Resolution
Both the PSC and the Joint (ASCLME/SWIOFP) Policy and Governance
Assessment concluded that the WIO needed an effective Science-to-
Governance mechanism
This mechanism needs to translate the outputs from scientific work (TDA
and monitoring) into adaptive management and governance guidelines and
briefs to managers and policy-makers.
Such ‘Science-Based Governance’ is now being developed at the national
and regional level using a ‘Weight-of-Evidence’ approach which takes the
science beyond the Precautionary Approach and prioritises those issues
that need higher confidence limits

12. 7. Absence of Realistic Community
Engagement
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
The original Project Document had a limited amount of focus
toward community engagement and coastal emphasis
Resolution
There are now community engagement demonstrations in each
country operating through the concept of DLIST
It is hoped that the lessons learned from these and further
community engagement practices by Alliance partners will help to
develop a more robust and sustainable mechanism for community
involvement in the LME management process and in the decision-making
and policy process
The Project deliverables were expanded to include a detailed and
comprehensive assessment of coastal livelihoods, coastal habitat
mapping and artisanal, small-scale, inshore fisheries

13. 8. No Involvement of Private Sector and
Industry
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Challenge
There was also little focus on engagement with the Private Sector in
the original document. There are many different private ‘sector’
groups that could and should be engaged (oil, gas, shipping,
tourism, etc)
Resolution
Private Sector Engagement is a new and strong focus of ASCLME
The Project aims to develop a ‘one-stop shop’ approach by
partnering with the World Ocean Council
The World Ocean Council and a number of its members have
expressed a strong interest in supporting the aims of the Alliance
partners both at the monitoring and data capture level but also at
the ecosystem management and regulatory level

14. Lessons Learned and Best
Practices - ONE
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
A Project of this nature is not ‘written-in-stone’ and should be dynamic
(Adaptive Management)
One of the first functions of a Manager, PCU and PSC should be to review the
original Project Document to identify any short-comings or gaps, and then
open discussions between the countries and the Implementing Agency as to
how best to resolve these in terms of amendments to activities, deliverables
and budget realignments
In the case of the ASCLME Project, we hired the original Project Development
consultant to come back to the 1st Steering Committee to review the
objectives and LogFrame and, with hindsight, to present some of the gaps and
shortfalls
This proved enormously valuable and the Project was able to get the Steering
Committee to agree to creating some new activities (Policy and Governance
Assessment; Coastal Livelihoods Assessment) and to revise the budget to
cover new posts, consultancies and workshops to support these

15. Lessons Learned and Best
Practices - TWO
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
A top-down approach can often cause conflict and resentment with the
people operating ‘on-the-ground’
Based on recommendations from regional IGOs, the Project developed
its Alliance and partnerships approach (along with new management
and governance structures) from the bottom upwards (not excluding
communities) so as to build support from the grass-roots scientists and
the various institutions which have to undertake the management
process. This has slowly but surely created a strong support structure.
At the same time, the ‘concept’ of an Alliance and new governance
mechanisms have been exposed to Directors and Permanent
Secretaries so as to give them an awareness of what to expect

16. Lessons Learned and Best
Practices - THREE
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
Revising the overall objectives to deliver national MEDAs (Marine
Ecosystem Diagnostic Analyses) has proved to be an extremely
valuable new exercise as:
A. This left each country with a valuable national product prior to
the TDA process and from which they could create or refine
National Action Programmes
B. It has built strong country ownership for the Project
C. It has provided an enormous amount of accurate input to the
TDA process
D. It created in-country teams of experts and specialists that can
now form the core of a national inter-sectoral body for
monitoring and for putting into effect the new science-to-governance
mechanisms as part of the long-term SAP

17. WITH THANKS…
BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MANAGING AFRICAN MARINE RESOURCES
…to all of our
Partners who
have made the
ASCLME project
a success so far
And looking forward to
developing further
partnerships for a
more dynamic
adaptive management
approach