ECOWAS Leads Push for West Africa's First High Seas Marine Protected Area
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is advancing a proposal for a high seas marine protected area (MPA) off the West African coast, following the entry into force of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) accord - commonly known as the High Seas Treaty - in January. The proposed area encompasses the convergence zone of the Canary and Guinea Currents, stretching from Cape Verde and Senegal in the north to Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe in the south, and is recognised as an ecologically and biologically significant marine area providing critical ecosystem services to over 300 million people. A BBNJ coordination committee comprising Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Senegal, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau is leading the proposal, with Nigeria as co-chair, and a draft is being targeted for December ahead of the treaty's first Conference of Parties.
The proposed MPA encompasses waters that serve as vital breeding, spawning and migration grounds for species including sea turtles, manatees, the hawksbill turtle, the sawback angelshark and the sei whale - several of which are threatened. The region already records some of the world's highest rates of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, with Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone collectively losing billions of dollars annually to illegal foreign fleets. Experts have flagged enforcement and monitoring as central challenges, with Nigeria's BBNJ focal point Sikeade Egbuwalo stressing the need for satellite data, artificial intelligence and international capacity-building support to avoid the designation becoming a "paper park." The proposal places West Africa alongside Chile and the joint Seychelles - Mauritius initiative north of Madagascar as one of three regions globally advancing high seas MPA proposals under the new treaty framework.
Source: News Mongabay
