dc.contributor.author | Odada, Eric O. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-06-11T07:53:41Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2010 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Journal of Oceanography and Marine Science Vol. 1(3), pp. 40-52, October, 2010 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 2141-2294 ©201 0 Academic Journals | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/31188 | |
dc.description.abstract | The coastal and marine environments of the African region are uniquely situated to support a
variety of activities and to serve diverse human needs for food, transport, and recreation. The
pressures from growing populations in coastal zones of Africa, expanding coastal tourism,
intensified fisheries, and a large number of other economic activities pose an increasing threat,
which jeopardize the quality of these coastal and marine environments. Large-scale destruction
of some of Africa's most valuable resources, the coastal forests and mangroves, the lagoons and
coral reefs has caused serious degradation of the environment, thus affecting the life of the
coastal inhabitants and the economic devel9pment of the countries of the African region. The
Seychelles Island in the western Indian Ocean for example, was famous for its luxuriant forests
and an incredible abundance of wildlife. But many reefs have been mined for coral for the
purpose of construction. Mangrove forests on the granitic islands have been raised to the ground
or drained and reclaimed. Severe erosion is as a result of this destruction. Many African
countries are confronted with serious manpower problems, which are proving to be great
impediments in the economic development, especially of their coastal and marine areas. In many
cases, the most important cause underlying these problems is the lack of adequate training
facilities for the type of manpower required. The teaching of marine science and marine
technology in universities of the region is a recent development and in many of the universities,
there are as yet no comprehensive study programmes covering the whole spectrum of marine
science and technology at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. The situation in regard to
research in marine science and technology is equally unsatisfactory. To implement sustainable
development of coastal and marine resources of the African region, there is an urgent need to: (1)
build human resources by undertaking short-term academic training to strengthen existing
capabilities; (2) promote public awareness by producing educational materials on the ecological
and socio-economic contributions of the marine resources and the consequences of unsustainable
exploitation (3) organize policy workshops, seminar and/or conferences involving relevant
policy and law-makers to increase their understanding of and commitment to the sustainable use
of the resources in their coastal and marine areas, and (4) implement integrated coastal zone
management programmes by establishing case studies in pilot sites in selected countries of the
African region. The object of this paper is to review background information on the present
status and trends of coastal and ocean development in Africa, and on the existing capabilities in
the region to implement sustainable development strategies. It is intended to layout the
framework and strategy to be used in the design of an integrated management of coastal and
marine areas in the region. | |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Journal of Oceanography and Marine Science;Vol. 1(3), pp. 40-52, October, 2010 | |
dc.title | Journal of Oceanography and Marine Science | en |
dc.type | Article | en |
local.publisher | Departmentof Earth Sciences, Marine Geology and OceanographyUnit, University of Nairob, | en |