Stop polluting Maritime environment | Ghana News Agency (GNA)

By
Thelma Abbey, GNA

Accra, Aug. 7. GNA – Dr Kamal-Deen Ali,
Executive Director, Centre for Maritime Law and Security Africa (CEMLAWS
Africa) has urged the public to desist from polluting and degrading the
maritime environment since its economic potential is huge.

He said the maritime space contributes about
“70 per cent of the land size of Ghana, and the socio economic potential of the
state lies at sea; therefore, if Ghanaians were not able to honour the economic
potential of the maritime space, then human survival would be very critical”.

Dr Ali told the Ghana News Agency in an
interview at the on-going five day training programme being organised by
CEMLAWS to improve ocean governance and maritime security in Africa.

The training programme also seeks to promote
effective national and regional responses to ocean governance and maritime
security through policy analysis, expert-driven deliberations, capacity
building and research.

Dr Ali said the training would expose
participants to the legal framework of the maritime environment and also the
enforcement and legal issues in various maritime zones, including the exclusive
economic zone.

He said the “discussions on the legal issues
on exclusive economic zone is important because, it forms up to 200 nautical
miles into the sea and provides those at the coastal state with many economic
benefits, which aids in the socio economic development of the country”.

Dr Ali said deliberations on exclusive
economic zone would expose participants to honour the economic potentials of
the maritime space of the country; when it comes to how they could legally use
their mandate.

He added “where there are enforcement issues,
we will teach them how to undertake issues related to it and also help them
identify linkages when it comes to the various institutions so that the
connections would then build into a required collaboration”.

He said other models would also focus on
fisheries management, marine environmental protection and transmission,
organised crime at sea, including piracy.

Dr Ali said CEMLAW Africa was building
capacity of government institution in the marine space through education as a
‘think-tank’, raising policy issues, conducting researches and undertaking
training.

He said “the Environmental Protection Agency,
Customs and Immigration officers, all have necessary mandate to execute at sea
but there have been very little or no training when it comes to how their
mandate can be applied at sea”, adding that; the training had been beneficial
because many had acquired the requisite knowledge.

GNA

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