Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

those goals in mind, BCLME became a strong driver for the establishment of a
Pan-African LME Alliance (see below).
Human capacity
Within any LME, sustainable management of fisheries and other kinds of uses of
the goods and services of the sea, including biodiversity, requires a sound
scientific basis in natural and social and economic sciences, strong assessment
methods, indicators comparable across LMEs, effective monitoring routines and
good governance based on full stakeholder participation.
In each LME project good science is needed, often to be done by many more
marine scientists and social and economic experts very competent in their own
field but also willing to enter fruitful discussions with experts in other fields in
order to develop overarching concepts and solutions. In Africa alone several
thousand professionals of different levels of training and experience are now
engaged in the LME projects. They have been trained by the concerted efforts of
the countries of the region with substantial and continued outside support. The
greatest need for further capacity building is in countries bordering the tropical
and subtropical parts of the world’s oceans. Here the need for food security is
most pressing and the loss of biodiversity is greatest.
Enhancement of scientific and technical capacity means primarily investing in
people and institutions. The BCLME Programme and other LME projects have
done much in terms of augmenting the scientific, technical and administrative
capacity for marine activities in many countries. Human capacity was created by
overseas fellowships, training courses in the region and particularly by training on
the job. Any programme for advanced capacity building should be based on close
relations to the universities of the region.
Much of the capacity built over the years was quickly lost through brain drain.
The LME projects together with the local research institutes and universities lost
many of their best people moving into more lucrative jobs within the region or
overseas. Therefore, any new capacity enhancement programme has to include
measures for combating the brain drain. This is mostly a matter of governmental
policies providing adequate incentives in terms of higher salaries, career
assurance and better working conditions particularly for women, who constitute a
major or even the major part of the scientific and technical staff in marine science
in developing countries.
The need for a new generation of experts
The complexity of the ecosystem approach to fisheries and other marine
activities calls for a new generation of professionals, addressing the sustainability
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