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The African Coastal and Marine AtlasLucy Scott 1 , Angora Aman 2 , John Bemiasa 3 & Mika Odido 41UNDP GEF Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems Project, ASCLME House, 18 Somerset Street, Grahamstown,6140, South Africalucyscott@asclme.org2 UFR SSMT - University of Cocody, Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics and Fluid Mechanics, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22,Côted'Ivoireaman_angora@hotmail.com3University of Tulear, Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines, PO Box 141-Route du Port-Tulear (Madagascar)j.bemiasa@odinafrica.net4IOC Sub Commission for Africa and the Adjacent Island States, UNESCO Multi-Sectoral Office in Nairobi, UN Gigiri ComplexBlock C, P.O. Box 30592-00100, Nairobi, Kenyam.odido@unesco.orgAbstractThe African Coastal and Marine Atlas is a continental-scale online resource of public-domain geospatial data forAfrica, developed by participants from 16 African countries and several international partners. The project, runningsince 2006, has seen the development of a continental scale atlas, a metadata portal, a data clearinghouse and theongoing development of national and Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) scale atlases. Some of the successes andchallenges faced in developing the African atlases will be discussed, and the latest products will be presented. Thesewill include the continental scale atlas, the clearinghouse, the national and regional atlases, as well as the AfricanCoastal and Marine Atlas hard copy book which will be published in 2013. The African Marine Atlas, which is nowa member of the International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN), may be found online at (iodeweb2.vliz.be/omap/OMAP/)and a Smart Atlas site for the atlas is at (www.africanmarineatlas.net).IntroductionAccess to reliable spatial data for the coastal and marine environment of Africa has long been identified as a challengeby research scientists and coastal managers (IOC, 2003). The state of availability of data for marine andcoastal management varies considerably from country to country, with economic, environmental, cultural and politicalfactors all playing an influencing role. At a continental scale, a number of web sites provide access to spatialinformation about the coastal and marine environment, among those being the United Nations Environment Programme’sGeo Data Portal (UNEP, 2009) and the European Commission Joint Research Centre African MarineInformation System (European Commission, 2009). Prior to 2007, no integrated, multidisciplinary portal of informationrelevant to marine and coastal management existed for Africa.In support of improved access to data, and to build capacity for creating and applying spatial data for coastal andmarine applications, the Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA) Project implemented bythe Intergovernmental Oceanographic Data Exchange (IODE) programme of the Intergovernmental OceanographicCommission (IOC) of UNESCO, initiated the African Marine Atlas Project in cooperation with participating countriesand regional partners. National representatives of African oceanographic data and information managementinstitutions recognized that increased access to marine and coastal data was essential for the effective managementof the marine and coastal environment in the region. Considerable national-level consultation took place for representativesof the ODINAFRICA Project to identify the most important priorities for their countries to increase accessto information (IOC, 2003). The promotion of access to spatial information was a common thread of importancearound the continent, also coming out strongly from the multinational Transboundary Diagnostic Analysisprocess of the Global Environment Facility-funded Large Marine Ecosystem Projects around Africa.172