Western Region, Ghana
SustainaMetrix recently hosted a training session in partnership with the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center. The three day program in early February was designed to discuss and apply the methods being introduced by the Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Governance Initiative. These include the ecosystem approach, examination of long term trends, analysis of the existing governance system, techniques for assembling a baseline as a reference point for future change and framing strategies for achieving a desirable future in a specific place. A total of 26 participants came from the Coastal Resources Center/ ICFG team, Friends of the Nation, Government of Ghana, SustainaMetrix, the Universities of Cape Coast and Ghana, Environmental Protection Agency, SEMA and several District Planners from the Western Region.
Training Modules
Module 1: Introduction to the ICFG Initiative & The Unique Identity
of Coastlines
Module 2: Identifying Issues
Module 3: How Issues Change Over Time
Module 4: The Learning Cycle
Module 5: Issues & Challenges of Fisheries in the Western Region
Module 6: Assessing Outcomes in Governance with Graduated
Progress Markers
Module 7: Features of the Existing Governance System
Module 8: Field Trip to Dixcove
Module 9: Integration and Analysis of Issues in a Specific Place (Dixcove)
Module 10: Scaling up from Dixcove to the Western Region
Module 11: Priority Issues for the ICFG Initiative
Learning Goals
Explain the basic concepts of the ecosystem approach to planning and decision making and how it differs from the sector-by-sector approach; describe the sources and mechanisms of governance as they apply to responses to change in the coastal ecosystems of the Western Region
Apply techniques for assembling a baseline through a participatory process that: 1) integrates available primary and secondary information on the condition of the coastal zone and fisheries with traditional knowledge, and 2) identifies differences in stakeholder perceptions of the key issues and their causes.
Document a reference point against which to gauge future change in the condition of coastal ecosystems and the governance system, reconstruct long term trends for key variables, & analyze the authority, influence, objectives and strategies of the principle governance mechanisms.
Update: 3/20/10
A rapid appraisal was conducted in eleven coastal communities in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Area (STMA) between February 24 - March 15, 2010. The purpose of this assessment was to generate primary information that will ultimately contribute to establishing the overall baseline coastal conditions and socialize the Integrated Coastal Fisheries and Governance (ICFG) initiative among the communities visited.
This appraisal collected mostly qualitative information and some quantitative data on issues relative to fisheries, community infrastructure, governance and institutions, local habitats and perceptions of resource management. The research team comprised 5 members and spent 2 days on average in each community. Data was collected through focus group discussions, participatory mapping, direct observations and interviewing key informants. Information was also collected from secondary sources including development plans of the Metropolitan Assembly.
Emerging trends indicate severe coastal erosion in most communities, weakening of the roles of Chief fishmongers, conflicting perceptions regarding declining fish catches, pressures on coastal wetlands for housing developments, harvesting and consumption of marine turtles where they abound, use of inappropriate fishing methods etc.