Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

Ocean Governance in the
Benguela Large Marine Ecosystem – Establishing
the Benguela Current Commission
Michael J. O’Toole
Marine Institute
Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway, Ireland
The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) project (2002-2008)
was a joint initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and by the
governments of Angola, Namibia and South Africa to manage and utilise the
resources of the BCLME in a sustainable and integrated manner. It was designed
to address transboundary problems, including the management and migration of
valuable fish stocks across national boundaries, harmful algal blooms, alien
invasive species and pollutants that can be advected by winds and currents from
the waters off one country into the waters off another. One of the major goals of
the BCLME was to establish a Benguela Current Commission (BCC), which
would enable the three countries to engage constructively and peacefully in
resolving transboundary issues that threaten the integrity of the BCLME. It would
also provide a framework to implement an ecosystem based management
approach, increase the benefits derived from the management and harvesting of
shared fish stocks, and improve the capacity and overall management of human
impacts on the BCLME. This chapter briefly describes the BCLME project and
the processes leading to the formation of the BCC, and summarises the present
institutional structures, future plans and lessons learned from over a decade of
development work in southern Africa. The regional body is the first of its type in
the world to be based on a Large Marine Ecosystem concept of ocean
governance, and it will undergo further evolution from this transitional phase into
a fully developed, legally binding environmental Commission over the next five
years.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Benguela Current LME is one of the most productive upwelling regions of the
world (Figure 1). It supports an important global reservoir of biodiversity and
biomass of zooplankton, fish, sea birds, and marine mammals, while nearshore
and offshore sediments hold rich deposits of precious minerals (particularly
diamonds), as well as oil and gas reserves.
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