 Good morning and a very warm welcome to our side event on Ocean acidification in Africa. Can I have the slides please? Thank you. So ocean acidification affects the whole ecosystem Since the ocean is absorbing a lot of CO2 to waters getting more acidic and this impacts ecosystem so it impacts Coral reefs its damages coral reefs It leads to thinner cells of shelled plankton and shellfish and it also inhibits the growths and the fitness of fish and that in turn impacts communities and their their economies and particularly coastal communities in Africa which rely on the fishery resources and healthy habitats it damages Coral reef-based coastal protection as well and damage the fisheries and the recreational industry and this is why it is important to address Ocean acidification particularly in Africa raise awareness build capacity and also assess the impacts. I would like to introduce you to the speakers of our event Sam Dupont Sam Dupont is Associate Professor of the University of Gothenburg and he's also since many years a consultant at the IAE a marine laboratories in Monaco working for the ocean acidification international coordination center He is doing research into global changes on marine ecosystems and biology impacts of ocean acidification and within the Ocean acidification International Coordination Center. He is contributing to capacity building program and Innovative science communication methodologies Our second speaker very warm welcome in person is Naira Shaltou She is working at the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Egypt She is Associate Professor of Marine Chemistry and Fisheries and doing research into pollution monitoring impact of climate change and ocean acidification She's at the same time a representative of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Egypt and the focal point in the blue-med initiative of the European Commission Our next speaker is Professor Steve Vidicombe The Plymouth Marine Laboratory. He is director of science and deputy chief Executive and he's doing research as a marine ecologist into Bantic ecology by a diversity and ecosystem function and he is the co-chair of Global Ocean acidification observation network Kirsten Isensee You are very happy to have you as a speaker here and Kirsten is a program specialist of the IOC UNESCO in Paris and Working into ocean carbon sources and things and she is also promoting women in ocean sciences particularly as well in the ocean acidification community and She facilitates collaboration between scientists policy makers and stakeholders We are networks such as the Ocean acidification International Coordination Center Another virtual speaker unfortunately she couldn't make it to our panel could I have the slides back, please with the speaker? Thank you Is Patricia Siveri? She is working at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University Could I have the speaker slide back, please? At the Autonomous University in Barcelona, she's research professor coordinating marine environment research and Coordinating the biogeosciences research group. She is doing research into threats To marine environment and their societal relevance such as ocean acidification and she's also working on Oxygen loss. She's a member of the advisory board of the ocean acidification Africa network Our last Virtual speaker is Shaq Sharif. He is working at the fisheries and maritime she's a fisheries. He's a fisheries and maritime professional and An advisor to the environment protection Agency in Liberia He has a background in marine and particularly fisheries management and maritime governance in the West Africa Subregion. He's the focal person of the Abidjan convention of the UN environment in Liberia With this we are going to our first presentation the keynote is will be given by Some dip on unfortunately couldn't make it to the conference in person. So this will be video Could you please pay the video? Thank you Thank you very much and good morning everyone. Let's talk about ocean acidification So I do not share the ocean acidification is another consequence of all carbon dioxide emission If we put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a significant part is absorbed by the ocean about one fourth and React with water to turn into carbonic acid Changing the whole carbonic chemistry of the ocean and making it a little bit more acidic It's a global and rapid and intense change in ocean chemistry that is happening all over the world And it is projected that if we don't cut carbon dioxide emission The ocean will be two times more acidic by the end of the century and we have Thousands of our scientific article today showing that today and in the future Ocean acidification will have consequences for marrying biodiversity and ecosystem services It is also a well recognized threat requiring urgent action as Illustrated by the fact that as the vacation is one of the target of the sustainable development goals So what can we do? Acidification is a global challenge is happening all around the world and the real only solution We have is to reduce carbon dioxide emission and concentration into the atmosphere. It's mitigation To convince people to do that. We just need data showing that as the vacation is caused by carbon dioxide emission And we'll have consequences and we have that we don't need more science We know more than enough to act just read the IPCC report all this report focusing on Africa So scientists are virtually certain the highest level of certainty that ocean acidification is happening and we'll have consequences But there is another side of acidification, which is more global acidification is a little bit different in different parts of the world and work In combination with a unique set of stressors depending on where you are and the consequences will also depend on the surfaces That are very consistent that are in every location So there's also a local challenge associated to acidification and to address that we really need local Data to be able to implement adaptation that will be only locally relevant so we really need data to understand what's happening locally and Develop adaptation strategies that will allow us to minimize the effect of acidification and by the time we need for mitigation So for that we need local data and unfortunately if you look what is available in Africa, we know very little Along the African continent there are only a few publications available today and very little monitoring happening there It's in getting better with time, but there's still a lot of Unknowns and that limits our ability to implement relevant actions So what we need is to co-design locally what kind of data is needed to Basically buy some time and develop the actions we need To do that we have also to understand the local limitations and that's why in 2016 the AEA through an in-project Organize a working group of experts to develop a questionnaire that could be shared within Experts and institution on the African continent So we try to evaluate expertise and motivation to work on ocean acidification What kind of equipment and infrastructure were there the Regional strength the challenge and barriers and so on the question was distributed all around the world And we received information on 69 institutions from 30 African countries And this is summarized on that figure you can see the map of Africa and every dot is an institution If the dot is dark green that means that You have institution with everything you need to perform ocean acidification research and probably already doing so If it's red that means don't even have access to basic infrastructure and no good labs and sometimes even stable electricity So what you can see from that picture is that there is a lot There are a lot of challenges on the West Coast of Africa That should be a priority in the future Another way of showing that is the average score that you have between zero and four For the different countries. So again, if it's dark green, it's good We've seen none of the countries are dark green at the moment You can see that many countries are red so lacking basic infrastructures and some are green so getting there I just wanted to pay attention to Egypt that is just there where you are at the moment Egypt at the moment is orange so quite low But if you check individually you have excellent institutions there and some of them have some equipment Some other have some other type of equipment and if you collaborate all together the country can turn green So that shows the importance of collaboration in the field of acidification if you want to be able to collect the data we need Based on this information, we organize a multi-level capacity building program with the OAICC So basically we adapt the level of training to the local needs So we have basic training for institutions that have legal with basic methodology or simplified methodology And for countries that have everything we try to be much more targeted and organize advanced training We've been organizing training since 2015 with the first one in South Africa And there will be more training in the future. The next one will be on West Africa in Liberia Just as an example, this is the picture These are pictures from the training that we organized in Kenya in 2019 And we do a little bit of everything some lectures some setting up labs collecting in the field Organizing experiments, so we really try to collect real data there And all these led to quite successful stories. So for example the OA Africa that we will hear about network in a minute Basically was the product of the first capacity building program in South Africa in 2015 Yeah, well so individual successes and just as an example you have Carla here Carla entered the field of education in a basic training in 2016 joined multiple other trainings in the future 2016-2018 became an assistant in some of those and also made a PhD that she could defend in 2020 in the field with excellent research at the is no Published in scientific journals, so she's not definitely one of the leader in the field in our country There's also a really interesting why young sub project that will be also presented a little bit later today and This week a report summarizing all the excellent work that has been done Monitoring and biological understanding is available online The way on some website So there's a lot to be done in Africa for sure West Africa should be prioritized, but There's a capacity program on the way with adaptive training to the needs The good news is that there's a lot of excellent resources in Africa with excellent institution excellent experts And these have been identified we can provide actually a database today That can allow you if you enter the field to find the key partners in your country or in your region But the key word is If you want to address this issue of acidification this global issue, we need to collaborate Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm good Thank you to some people for providing us this great intervention via video and I would like to hand over now to Naira for giving her presentation Adaptation and resiliency North Africa the impact of climate change raising 1.5 degree centigrade of temperature will affect the maritime and will decrease the fisheries production by a more than 20 percent 30 percent decreasing the rainfall and Affecting the climate and the resources by more than 30 percent And also North African countries suffers from sea level rise and sea water intrusion into their coastal lakes This shows how temperature increases for the Mediterranean Sea during the last 30 years and the productive for the next 30 years from to 2031 to 2016 and the diagrams shows that the eastern Mediterranean and the southern Mediterranean Highly impacted by climate change and raising temperature and global warming and how come these coastal area of Norsen Mediterranean or Thousand Mediterranean and northern African countries will be highly impacted During this model This model will show you how acidification of the Mediterranean goes will go for the next Decade for the next hundred years and how a Mediterranean will get us defied by a year 200 2099 and This is the final acidity expected by the 2099 2099 This also will show how the saturation omega saturation Will decrease and how the decrease of omega saturation is concentrated in the northern in the northern African countries Coastal water of Mediterranean and how these areas impacted by the land-based sources and the impacts Magnifies by these discharge so that solution will be high for the organism and habitats in this coastal area This in addition the climate to change and asification addition to multi stressors They magnify the impact of coastal of acidification and sea level and Sea surface temperature in addition to global warming pollution over Exhibitation and extreme events oxygen deficient will impact The coastal resources of these northern African countries So we need if we look to the socio-economic consequences We need to look for fishers and aquaculture tourism and ecosystem services jobs availability food and security trade and and profits Poverty and migration because all of these consequences lead to each other the decrease in resources in the the impact of acidification and climate to change where impact all these Aspects for economic for the blue economy of the Mediterranean Coast of the northern African coast of the Mediterranean For the fishers employment this diagram show how the employment involvement in the Mediterranean Sorry in the southern Mediterranean countries, which is the northern African countries and it showed that Tunisia is the highest country of the fishers employment Which mean that okay, which mean that these fisheries employment jobs in the one of the biggest Sector for the resources for the population in Tunisia and also followed by Egypt followed by Morocco So any impact of climate change or acidification on fishers aspects or fishers sector will will affect the socio-economic impact will have a great socio-economic impact on the Population of these countries in addition for maritime and transportation these sectors highly impacted by climate change for the Hardness for the movement and for the transportation of the trade in the Mediterranean coast so this leads to a big need for the Adaptation strategy to work for a decision strategy for the Mediterranean for the Sustainability sustainable agenda of the United Nations and this could be achieved through mitigation and adaptation mitigation is achieved during by decreasing the carbon dioxide emission and increasing carbon dioxide removal technology and Working for the innovative greening solution while for adaptation we need to more to be more adapted for fishers aquaculture technology and industries and the decreasing the impact of climate change and acidification by Transforming to another species which are more resilient and using more green technology for Facing this impact this is a short recommendation for the It's to establishment of national coordination such as recalling what Sam said that we need and cooperation and coordination for interaction and cooperation between national cities during in the same country and regional between the northern Mediterranean countries Cooperation and integration between national authorities to ensure validation of mitigation and adaptation strategies and we need to work for effective regional scientific adaptation between northern African countries We there is a strong needs for capacity building of stakeholders and policymakers at the national and regional level also We need to work for reducing marine water pollution and conserve carbon sinker ecosystem in order to control The carbon dioxide absorption and decrease the climate change and acidification in marine environment Also, we need to mobilize to high-level national and international funding agencies to support capacity building and to engage more Researcher and stockholders and policy Further studies Discussions are needed to ensure the full inclusion of climate to change ocean acidification and socio-economic Embed for sustainability and low-carbon society performance and transformational needs of Ocean governance policy policies and legalization. Thank you Thank you very much Naira for giving us this insight in the African perspective of the ocean acidification Challenges that we are facing With that, I would like to hand over to our next speaker Philip Vidicom For giving his intervention, please Thank you very much. If I could have the slides up. That's great. Thank you So we heard this morning already that the issue of ocean acidification is indeed impressing one We've also heard that we have enough data and information and knowledge to know that we must act at a global level to mitigate To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide It's clear that we also have a huge amount of work still to do to generate the data knowledge and understanding needed to Support those locally applied adaptation and mitigation strategies And I think I would Refer back to something that Sam said in his presentation that it's really important to Remember that they're a single finger cannot lift this pebble that we we need to lift but actually with ocean acidification I think it's more than the pebble I think it's a huge boulder that we're trying to lift so that the need for Collaboration is so much greater and I also like to refer back to to all the seas We need collaboration. We need capacity building. It's essential. We need co-design We need communication and Actually, we do need cash as well. So there's another sea we can throw in there But at the end of the day that that requires us as a community to really coordinate our efforts and our actions And the good news in ocean acidification is that there are some very Effective structures of communication that have ought that already exist and they're ready to be exploited And the one that's obviously very close to my heart is the global ocean acidification Observing network Formed in 2012 brought together the ocean community of Those people interested in observing ocean acidification its its trends and also its impacts We're now a network of approaching a thousand scientists from over a hundred and fourteen countries and provides a lot of that Communication to underpin all of those things we mentioned before The aims of go and really focus around through three high-level goals The first one is about improving our understanding of global ocean acidification conditions But not just global I would also say local conditions because we're conscious of the fact that Although there are global trends what we're really interested in is how those trends and Manifest themselves at a local level. So where is it happening? How fast is it happening? Why is it happening? And it's important to have that as data so that we can identify the vulnerabilities and the priorities When we start to take adaptation and mitigation strategies The second one is to improve our understanding of the ecosystem response So what what are the observed biological responses? How fast are they happening? Where are those? Impacts happening on what ecosystems are most vulnerable because it's the biological ecosystems that have provide that Connectivity between this biogeochemical change and real impacts on humans health and well-being And finally, how do we create reliable projections into the future because all well and good observing how the planet is Is being damaged and local environments being damaged But we really need to understand the what if scenarios if we do take change in action What would we like you to expect to happen into the future? But as you've heard from both of our Speakers so far, and I'm sure you'll hear from speakers subsequent that it really is important to have that coordination and collaboration at regional level because the context within which we are looking to adapt and mitigate has a huge Geological context associated with it some areas have a particular need for capacity building while others have other Priorities that they wish to pursue through through the network So go and is organized within nine regional hubs and we are currently developing some more hubs And as you'll see OA Africa is one of those hubs and we've heard a little bit about that already You've heard from Naira who's one of our co-leads in OA Africa You'll be hearing from Shek as well and a third co-lead is Rohan But as you'll see from OA Africa launched in 2015 Representing 210 members from 28 countries. There's still a lot of Africa that we don't reach There's still a lot of work to be done and a lot of capacity to be built in this country So in this in this continent cross its huge continent and also it's important to understand that Although our Africa is a great mechanism for coordinating We still need to have that intercontinental regional Organization as well to understand the contextual needs and of particular regions within Africa itself So stepping forward as well in terms of adaptation and mitigation. It's really important that scientists Think about the purpose of doing ocean acidification research the purpose of the data that we're creating and How how it is that we're going to use knowledge and data to be able to create better outcomes For those people who are relying on the marine ecosystem and the ocean acidification research for sustainability program is another Coordination mechanism by which we can kind of bring people together to allow them to do the work in the context of knowing Where it is that work is is aiming for what does what does the future look like? What is a great future look like? and These high-level aspirations and outcomes to land on the ground with real people taking real actions so so it's So that's why yeah, that's why at Goan. We invest so heavily in creating this regional structure So with that I'd like to to to leave my presentation for today Clearly ocean acidification is a huge challenge for Those communities who rely on marine existence right around the world There are there are effective structures in place We need to use them But we also need to ensure that we we create the environment in which we can generate the data that we need to Sustain healthy healthy marine ecosystems and the people that live and depend upon them thank you very much Steve for these insights into the Global ocean acidification Observation network and it only functions because of the many many regional hubs We are having and their contribution and it's very important to to emphasize that all this collaboration is done without funding it's Done just because people are enthusiastic because they know they need to act to combat ocean acidification So it's it's an initiative that is run without central funding and it really needs to be acknowledged So we thank all the regional hubs that make Goa on happen though Thank you all of you in case you are watching and or following us on on YouTube Thank you very much for your contribution Is that I would like to hand over to Kirsten Isensee and to provide the intervention and the few points of IOC UNESCO and ocean acidification, please Thank you very much And it's it's really great to hear where we actually started and where we are now going to hopefully to a place where we are to have the the capacity and the knowledge within Africa to actually address ocean acidification and ocean acidification in Africa of is Supporting the capacity to actually measure and also combat this impact is a priority for IOC UNESCO within our Yeah The government social graphic commission of UNESCO we have 150 member states and we are acting already more than 20 years or almost 20 years Okay, I'm doing it like this Almost 20 years now in the field of ocean acidification in the first ocean in the high sea a two world conference Actually happened at the IOC and the community was very small and in this row now more than 1,000 or almost 1,000 members Africa is a general Priority for UNESCO so our activities really focusing that and That works really spans from Humphill Algae blooms Blue Carbon and of course ocean acidification But why are we also really acting on ocean acidification there are two global calls for ocean acidification data actually out there The first one is a sustainable development Goal target 14.3 another goal 14 which addresses minimize and address the impact of ocean acidification includes including to enhance scientific cooperation at all levels and this is has a proxy and indicator for which IOC is custodian agency means we have to collect data on a regular basis for that average marine acidity pH measured it Agreed suit of representing sampling stations So there we already have this call for regular reporting all over the world and UN member states signed up for that The next one is also within the global climate observing system We have those essential climate variables and we From IOC all to provide these data to the world meteorological Organization on a regular basis every year and the state of the climate was just released as well on the Earth's info day I think and there we all to report on a regular basis the same data So these are a line that we are not trying to actually to report different things in different Places and that because ocean acidification is critical for sustainable development and it's part of climate change so those two there react and As we've seen there is So far still limited capacity and therefore some activities Where IOC of course with its partners Go on and also within OAS we are really We were active and are active in particular two projects right now as Sam Provided said earlier there was an initiative led by the OMSA also supported by IOC on increasing the capacity on the east coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean and there We have now. I think at least the seed planted for continuous measurements on the other hand There's also still what Sam as well showed these capacity need especially in the in the on the west coast and so we were now supporting as well in Nigeria and Koteva and Which is none of us cause Madagascar with some additional instrumentation and also training and a big training online training will be launched early next year for All Africa and I think that is a big stepping stone Which is a little bit copy paste what we did in the Pacific Islands and Well, he had a big impact I think on on policymakers and also on the scientific community So all these capacity building Not of course not only done by us, but mainly as well by the OICC go on and and partners Results now in some regular reporting and this is here. Just a map of where we have SCG data 13.3.1 data this year and you can see there's there are now some blue Spots in Africa as well. I'm quite happy about that, but main Yeah, best parts of the ocean and best parts of the of the world are still gray and don't have any measurements Provided to the UN However, there's some good news and we started with that more lessons to solve 19 There was not one African country which provided data to this collection and now in 2021 we had seven countries already providing data Observation data for oceanification. I think shows really how this capacity building resulted in an additional measurements and really in sustained observation another and just very quickly you see as well as coordinating the UN Decade of Ocean Science and we have within that of course the the OIS program but also there is now a Ocean Decade Africa road map and this can be found on the IOC Website which has nine priorities and it's very tiny and you can't read it and I also can't remember them all but there are priorities on the digital train which I think is very important for us as well to have the predictions and to have the online Data resources and models available for for ocean acidification. There is a priority on ocean and human health seen how important ocean is The impact how important ocean acidification can be in the reduction of human well-being and we also have a And and priority on observation. So ocean acidification is definitely and should act in many of these areas for Africa and I think they are now Especially as well after the latest conference the biomes are conference in South Africa. I think many things will happen but as Said before I think we and we all agree there that in the on the West Coast of Africa we still need to act and we have to act fast to also Really create a level of of capacity which makes Possible to also act Thank you very much Thank you very much Kirsten for pointing the importance to the To the availability of long-term Monitoring data, but also the essential ocean variables for reporting to the Implementation achievement of the SDG 14 and also for assessing the impact of ocean acidification so We need to develop the capacity especially in Africa to provide these really essential data information so now The next Intervention is given as a video as Patricia savoury could not make it to to cop Could you play the video please contribution today? What I would like to focus on is really bridging the gap between social natural sciences in ocean acidification in Africa And I believe this is a very key topic for addressing Resilience and understanding also the way to go for adaptation and medication considering of course that Africa is a huge continent with very diverse type of community and indigenous people and traditions so we are very aware in that human and marine interaction is a very complex Systems and we need to consider also the diversity of the system and now Do people response potentially to climate change to ocean acidification and in general to environmental change? So talking about the marine human interaction in Africa I like to give of course an important example of Fisheries and fisheries is a key sector of course for the co-coaster communities and also for countries around the coast of Africa and Unfortunately, we saw that the projected changes in maximum catch potential and the climate change including ocean acidification Is actually showing a drastic decrease you about 30% in the tropic Regions and with some reason like in Central West Africa like the Gulf of Guinea Where these drastic decrease has been projected to be even more important as you can see here It is of course is as a major issue that Require adaptation and also require some resilience from the coastal community and transition So when we talk about fisheries also wanted to highlight that we talk about Small-scale fisheries. Small-scale fisheries is actually the sector that is the most important in fisheries 90% of the world fisheries even though small-scale fisheries is key for global food security also particularly in Africa and And of course is that we know also that the marine resources coming from the ocean including fisheries are treading back by ocean acidification and climate change With Different changing in the ecosystems and so on Now I wanted also to move a bit even more focused about what we could do in terms of understanding the resilience in this This transition that is happening due to this rapid change in the marine We need to better understand how different communities respond to this change and also learn from the different communities And I wanted to focus on gender and fisheries also because gender has been in the sector been very much Overlooked Since the rule of women Usually is considered a sector that is very man dominated, but in fact women make up about 50% of the fisheries world force globally However, of course women tend to fish in the different parts of the seascape And so they usually target distant species and all complementary knowledge Of marine resources and this complementary knowledge Of course can be very important to then understand What are the possible way of Removing towards a different or different or new way of fishing In just a final message that I want to deliver here In terms of addressing resilience and bridging the gap between natural and social science But specifically we talk about small scale fisheries and also the gender The gender perspective on climate change is that this integrated approach with the target natural data from from local communities Compare also with this perception of changes and Data social data from from the same the same Environment can better understand and allow to better understand this marine human interaction Also learning from local strategy And we also can learn much more about how do people govern the sea in which What are the different ways to do it and and so specifically how they preserve and make their Fishery resources sustainable and how do people use their ecological knowledge to interact with the marine environment Also the final message is that we really need to there's no time very much left and we need to accelerate this collaboration for strategic future regional Laboratories marine school and also initiative aggressive relevant integrated social and natural science research My contribution today Well, thank you for this intervention which was pre-recorded Unfortunately due to technical limitations, we couldn't bring the speakers in virtually So we had to pre-record the interview so that we can't we can't have any interaction with the virtual speakers I apologize for that our last intervention On the pre-recorded video will be given by Shaq Sharif. Could you please play the video? I've been told that we cannot hear Okay, so At this point we are stopping the presentations and are going straight into The discussion so Naira may I address a question to you? But the others could answer as well that can step step in So my question to you is the region in north africa is unique on the continent as it has coastlines on several oceans It's the atlantic ocean as well as the Mediterranean and the the red seas So what are unique? challenges facing north africa related to ocean acidification And what are the most important mitigation adaptation adaptation measures that could be taken to help north africa? resilience Is really bridging the gap Location and they are located surrounded by the red sea to the east and Extended to the atlantic ocean to the west and Surrounded by north of the Mediterranean coast from the north And this lake This coastal area is highly impacted by the invasion of other fissures So The biodiversity in this area in addition to the positions discharged from different land-based sources such as nile river and other land-based sources from The other cantors In addition, the higher population intensity in the coastal cities More than 65 percent of the population of each country increases the intensity of the impact of these Higher population and human activities of the coastal area which maximizes the impact of ocean acidification Lead to the shift in biodiversity and in addition for the real change In fact the fisheries resources in this also in this area also is more over when we Look for the impact of ocean acidification and biodiversity shift and migration of the Local fissures into the close in the north where Whereas the temperature is lower as a result of increasing temperature. This is the most of the Placing challenges for North african cantors for the proposed ways for the mitigation and Adaptation for the mitigation. It's the only solution to decrease the carbon dioxide emissions through direction from Fuel energy and to solar energy when energy and other sources of renewable energy and clean energy Which are environmentally friendly And that's all to decrease the carbon dioxide emission for the mitigate for this is for mitigation and I think for adaptation it's to Uh adapt and to be directed to More aquaculture techniques and more adaptation for The coastal area which is impacted by the seawater intrusion To have more implementation plans for this area and to move for more green biotechnology and also for mitigation To the best of my knowledge that most of the boards in the Mediterranean coast for the northern african cantors converted into green boards for Low carbon and low energy moving to renewable energy and decreasing the pollution I think this is a way forward that northern african cantors took for Decreasing the impacts of oceanification on their resources Thank you very much My next question goes to steve You have mentioned the goa on regional networks and That they are driven by the individual regions and share some of the unique aspects of the ocean acidification africa regional hub So from your experience with the other regional hubs What Are some best practices from other regional hubs that could be important for the oa africa hub Okay, thank you very much for that question. Um, I think my response to that is very much about Goa, Goa is not an entity that endeavors to impose Structure or rules or implications from from unhide It's always been a bottom-up community driven network of individuals Who want to collaborate and work together and share experience and share expertise Because they value the the um, the experiences of working with each other in the knowledge and And and they can gain from that The key thing I think for oa africa and for all of our hubs Is the priorities need to be set by the members of the hub and we've always been very very um We've been very strict in that the hubs themselves are created by and for the people in the region Who are looking to develop the work within that region? Clearly within uh within africa within africa being such a huge content and there could be Structures put in place that allow that to to happen in an even more Finely distributed geographical sense. So we've heard about some of the Requirements and needs in in in north africa Whereas west africa may have a different set of priorities and agendas which is which is absolutely great And we we we have the flexibility in the system to allow that to happen The other thing I would also say is that just because you're a member of a hub It doesn't mean you can't be members of other hubs as well And we've seen the strong synergies that exist between oa africa and the Mediterranean hub in the fact that you share We're sharing an area of research in a place we want to to explore But then again, there's elements of north africa which actually share very strong synergies with other parts of africa in terms of Communicating to to continental level policies to understanding capacity building So what I would say to oa africa is very much it's about and it's exactly what oa africa does It's about set the priorities, which are your priorities Use the goan structure and interactions with other hubs to facilitate your achievement of those And and and really focus in on on on on being Sort of community led Needs and aspirations. Thank you very much. Could you quickly answer? What would be the benefits of Scientists in africa getting involved with the oars program as you mentioned it in your presentation The oars program is effectively a A roadmap of where we feel ocean acidification research needs to be What that will then depend upon are Scientists or not just scientists ocean professionals right across the world Looking at the active activities that they undertake to be able to see how they might be able to contribute To the to the to delivering against the outcomes which have been proposed by the the oars The oars program the benefits are Is the fact that again? It's back to what sam said about the single pebble lifting A single finger lifting the pebble is that in order to really be able to move forward at the speed at which we need to move It's about back to those four C's. It's about collaboration. It's about Capacity building it's about It's it's about It's about the communication and and it's really about the co-design as a well as well So the benefit of being part of oars Is we provide a vehicle to allow that to happen and to really release your research into making greater impact Thank you very much my next question goes to not surprisingly to kirsten easonse and I would like to ask you as a custodian for the stg-143 and ocean acidification IOC unesco is responsible for gathering the data related to indicator 14 3.1 What are some of the difficulties the african region is facing in reporting towards this indicator? And do you have any examples of success stories for the region? Yes, I think I partly answered that in my presentation, but um, so clear needs are still having So in case there are observations, there's a need to have better data management. There's a need to have better instructions on What to do with my data and where do I deliver them? Also, there is definitely still for 14.3 point one It's currently just a one time measurement per year. So there needs to be Um, really the seasons need to be observed really identifying the natural variability is still one of the major threads also one big threat is actually leaving Uh, for continuous measurements leaving the equipment outside. There's a risk of um, that instrumentation gets stolen Um, which is all over the world, but it's really something we also identified and really going back to the individuals that um, the good talents which are also being Yeah, which are there in africa actually to maintain them in their home country and I think there we also really have to support Yeah countries in africa to be able to maintain the talents and to actually keep the talents they have and which were Also supported by this capacity training Thank you very much and uh at the end of our session I would like to play The video recording of sheikh sharif we overcame the technical difficulties and that would be a nice final To our side event, please Good morning everyone. My name is sheikh sharif. I am from ligeria west africa and one of the three group chairs of the ocean acidification africa network Where is the Gulf of guinean located in west africa? The Gulf of guinean spends 17 nations from senigado angura is a strategic region because of its abundant hydrocarbon mineral and fishery resources The Gulf of guinean contains 4.5 percent of the world's proven oil reserve and 2.7 percent of the world's proven natural gas Reserved accounting for 60 percent of africa's oil production These resources among others support the region's economic mortality and in the upcoming years its economic potential is anticipated to rise However, it tends to its stability and prosperity must be addressed before it can achieve and take use of this Recently the west africa hub commonly referred to as the Gulf of guinean ocean acidification network As and back on developing original strategies to support the creation of the west africa ocean acidification research center And the essential key objective will be to address problems Leading to the loss of ecosystem services due to deteriorating ocean and coastal health caused by ocean acidification climate change pollution And resource use undermining sustainable development And now there are a lot of barriers to addressing these problems And these are inadequate legislation and gaps in matching of all the same related ocean acidification Limited institutional capacity and coordination Emitted awareness and knowledge of the value of coastal and marine ecosystem Insufficient public and private financing Poverty and no robust monitoring integrated And to achieve these there are full over 18 objectives that have have been identified by the ocean acidification african network objective one Is enhanced science-based understanding of drivers impacting coastal and marine ecosystem health and services objective two Enhanced circular approaches in addressing marine pollution objective three Is the effective performance and integrated management of coastal and marine ecosystems And finally objective four is enhanced education and public awareness However, the success of the global ocean acidification observing network Which has led to a change in how society views the ocean in this relationship to the ocean Will be built upon by the west africa ocean acidification research center We expect at the end of this process If and when this center is established We have an improved management of coastal and marine ecosystem And poverty reduction about diversity climate change protection and sustainable development And all over the region is to include A focus on oceanographic process Regional policy actions in times to the observation Most importantly regional policy action which has to do with scientists and policy makers speaking On the common language and there should be needs To consider in the scientific advice needed to guide national and regional policy tackle The major challenges we face today Due to the complexity of the issues addressed by the strategy We are developing which include food Nutritional security global health Ocean acidification and climate change as well as the merit of ways in which these issues are Interconnected and integrated multidisciplinary approach is required Also, most importantly to consider as an overall for the region is our information Gathering on ocean acidification Meeting to an increase in involvement of developing states which are of course today for the strawberry West Africa There has been A lack of availability of instrumentation which has hampered the efforts Of most developing countries in the research organization stipulated To make sustained measurements in response to global needs The global ocean acidification observable network has developed Simplified methods and equipment kits for measuring water quality pH, total alkalinity, etc Which is commonly referred to as the geo air the go on In a box which happened this should be the scientists from system countries in Africa And that includes the Pacific regions and in America So due to these outcomes, we are hoping to support the global ocean acidification And their all strategy ocean acidification research for sustainability to ensure that our data Are gathered sufficiently and increase of course increasing the involvement of developing states Especially with focus on the West African origin and we're hoping to do all of this through the West Africa Ocean acidification research center which has been proposed by the West Africa Um I thank you and I look forward to inviting you forever Thank you Thank you very much to Shek Sharif for this very important intervention Since the the hour we are having is over. I would like to thank The speakers of this panel myra steve and and kirsten and also the virtual contributions or the recorded interventions very much and I would Provide you with the the take-home message of this side event that scientists ocean acidification professionals Original communities in Africa I encourage you to reach out to to go on to the global ocean Observation network and the regional hubs to us and to the ocean acidification international Coordination center if you need any support And I would like to close the side event with the african saying Alone you walk fast But together we walk further