1st Meeting of the Board of Directors for the SADC Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC)

Africa is abundantly blessed with a coastline of over 30,000 kilometres, adjacent to vast expanse of oceans and seas. Maritime zones under Africa’s jurisdiction total about 13 million square kilometres including territorial seas and approximately 6.5 million square kilometres of the continental shelf. Thirty eight of the fifty-five African Union Member States are coastal States. The continent is also endowed with huge networks of rivers, lakes, floodplains, waterways, and wetlands with massive potential for socio-economic advancement of the continent. These natural aquatic endowments represent significant opportunities for social and economic development much of which remains underutilized. Some of these opportunities include fisheries, aquaculture, transport, energy and minerals, tourism, rural economic development and increased environmental sustainability. To actualize the opportunities contained in the sectors outlined above, Africa Union’s highest political level of the continent endorsed the Africa Blue Economy Strategy (ABES). The Strategy incorporates key critical vectors for promoting blue economy development of the continent, including fisheries, aquaculture and ecosystem conservation; shipping, maritime safety and trade; climate change, environmental sustainability and ecotourism; sustainable energy and extractive mineral resources; governance, institutions and job creation.

The objective of the Africa Blue Economy Strategy (ABES) is to guide the development of an inclusive and sustainable blue economy that becomes a significant contributor to continental transformation and growth, through advancing knowledge on marine and aquatic biotechnology, environmental sustainability, marine ecosystem utilization, management and conservation and carbon sequestration, the growth of an Africa-wide shipping industry, the development of sea, river and lake transport, the management of fishing activities on these aquatic spaces, and the exploitation and beneficiation of deep sea mineral and other marine resources.