Chukwuone N.A., Ukwe C.N., Onugu A., Ibe C.A.
Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria; Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria; Water Management Unit, Energy and Cleaner Production Branch, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, VIC Box 300, A-1400 Vienna, Austria; Bioresources Development and Conservation programme (BDCP), Abuja, Nigeria; Interim Guinea Current Commission, 1 Akosombo Street, Airport Residential Area, Accra, Ghana
Chukwuone, N.A., Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria; Ukwe, C.N., Water Management Unit, Energy and Cleaner Production Branch, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, VIC Box 300, A-1400 Vienna, Austria; Onugu, A., Bioresources Development and Conservation programme (BDCP), Abuja, Nigeria; Ibe, C.A., Interim Guinea Current Commission, 1 Akosombo Street, Airport Residential Area, Accra, Ghana
This study is a first step towards valuing the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME), one of the five world's most productive marine areas that are rich in fishery resources, petroleum production, and an important global region of marine biological diversity. The area is highly degraded and thus demands urgent attention to recover and sustain depleted fisheries; restore degraded habitats; and reduce land and ship-based pollutions. Achieving this goal would be a mirage if the actual value of the ecosystem's contribution to the society is not known. Valuation can help identify the main beneficiaries of conservation and the magnitude of benefits they receive, and help design measures to capture some of these benefits and contribute to financing of conservation. Hence this study used the direct output approach to estimate the value of relevant marine activities in the area. The result shows that the total value of output in GCLME when some outputs namely, marine fishery, offshore oil production, NTFP (periwinkle) and mining, are considered as $49,941.4 million. Among these uses, offshore oil production has the highest value accounting for 59.79% of the total estimate. These estimates provides sufficient evidence to show that GCLME provide enormous value and should be managed appropriately to sustain the gains if the economic development would be guaranteed especially considering that most countries in the GCLM depend on natural resources for their survival. Evolving a well defined property rights regime and an efficient governance system for management is recommended. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Ecosystems; Fisheries; Ocean currents; Offshore oil fields; Biological diversities; Design measures; Economic development; Fishery resources; Global regions; Governance systems; Large marine ecosystems; Marine areas; Marine fisheries; Offshore oil productions; Petroleum productions; Property rights; Total values; Offshore oil well production; anthropogenic effect; biodiversity; conservation; human activity; marine ecosystem; marine pollution; Africa; Guinea; Sub-Saharan Africa; West Africa; Catharanthus roseus