Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa (MarCNoWA)

The Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa project is a collaboration between Nature Today and University of Ghana among others. The project is funded by the European Commission and Africa Union Commission.

The Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa (MarCNoWA) consortium is providing marine and coastal operational Earth Observation (EO) services to eighteen (18) coastal countries in North and West Africa. The project is part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES and Africa) continental wide programme to provide human, infrastructure and technical resources to allow beneficiary countries to utilize EO technologies for natural resource management and environmental sustainability. Through a network of national stakeholders, regional fisheries and environmental bodies, academia, private sector and researchers, the project is to impact decision making in the beneficiary countries

The GMES and Africa Programme is co-funded by the African Union Commission and the European Union.
The MarCNoWA consortiusm is lead by the Regional Marine Centre of the University of Ghana. The objectsive of the Action is to provide decision-makers with EO information and tools that would support effective marine and coastal resources management in North and West Africa. This is being achieved through delivering EO services that will enhance the formulation of marine, fisheries and environmental policies to support decision-making at the national and regional level.

The consortium is made up of eleven (11) institutions vested in marine, coastal, capacity building issues in North and West Africa. They work together to implement this project, with the help of key institutions such as EUMETSAT and Joint Research Commission (JRC).

The MarcNoWA initiative, which is part of the GMES & Africa programme Phase II is a follow up to the Marine and Coastal Areas Managmenet in Western Africa inititive in Phase I (2018-2021). MarCNoWA provides a unique opportunity to consolidate achievements from previous projects and to establish its sustainability.

Twelve (12) ECOWAS coastal countries, namely Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo and 6 countries in North Africa, namely Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Libya are beneficiaries of the six servicess provided by the consortium.