14. Life Below Water

Our smart projects such as Project Hydro help to drastically reduce nutrient contamination and other forms of marine pollution, particularly from land-based activities. 

Plastics have been a great threat to life below water so we work to ensure our Plastic Innov8 project help to sustainably manage, safeguard, and restore marine and coastal ecosystems to prevent substantial negative effects, especially by enhancing their resilience. We partner with organizations on community and beach cleanups to protect our environment.

We aim to effectively partner with the fishing industry to restore fish stocks in the shortest amount of time possible, at the very least to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics, and help to end overfishing, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, as well as destructive fishing practices. 

We encourage policy makers to work on preserving at least 10% of coastal and marine areas in accordance with international and national legislation and using the most up-to-date scientific knowledge. 

We equally advocate on the ban of certain types of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that support illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies. This is done while acknowledging that Africa should receive appropriate and effective special and differential treatment as part of the World Trade Organization’s negotiations on fisheries subsidies. 

Our Nature Conservation project helps to improve ocean health and increase the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of Africa, in particular, our nature reserves, by developing research capacity and transferring marine technology while taking into consideration the criteria and guidelines of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. 

We also make marine resources and markets accessible to small-scale artisanal fishermen.