Top Ghanaian Officials and Fishing-Industry Leaders to Visit URI and Washington D.C.

Senior officials from Ghana’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD) and representatives of the Ghanaian fishing industry will be conducting a fact-finding tour this month. Their goal is to learn from the United States’ experience and examples of fisheries management and return to Ghana with new ideas and capabilities to rebuild and preserve their nation’s fisheries.

The visit is sponsored by USAID/Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) implemented in Ghana by the Coastal Resources Center of URI. SFMP’s goal is to assist the Government of Ghana to rebuild targeted marine fish stocks that have seen major declines. MoFAD was established as the trustee of fisheries development and sustainable management in Ghana. The Fisheries Commission is the implementing agency of MoFAD responsible for monitoring, control and surveillance, evaluation, and compliance functions in all areas of fisheries development and management, including licensing, fish health and post-harvest activities.

The range and scope of the visit is ambitious. Through a series of presentations, meetings, and workshops the delegation will learn more about:

Fisheries data collection and the Atlantic Cooperative Coastal Statistics Program
U.S. fisheries management authorities and state and federal coordination mechanisms
U.S. fisheries law enforcement and strategies for combatting illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing
U.S. Sea Grant Program and the role of extension programs and public/private partnerships in fisheries and aquaculture development
U.S. approach to collaborative fisheries management through policy, laws and regulations, and implementation through management councils
Aquaculture development, planning, and regulation.

The delegation is being hosted by the Coastal Resources Center at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Meetings and tours have been planned with senior officials from Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), enforcement officials from RIDEM and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, URI’s Fisheries Center, Commercial Fisheries Center of RI, Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, and Rhode Island Sea Grant.

US EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy Visits USAID/Ghana SFMP

Administrator Gina McCarthy observing the Ahotor fish demonstration stove and interacting with fish processors and project staff

… Lauds Project Efforts on Improved Fish Stoves

Administrator Gina McCarthy of the US Environmental Protection Agency, says 17,000 Ghanaians die annually from air pollution. “Women and children are more vulnerable; 200,000 children in Ghana keep suffering from air pollution. When children suffer, the economy suffers. It is therefore important and ideal to continue developing technologies like clean cook stoves that reduce air pollution.” She made the remarks at a public lecture in Cape Coast after a visit to a focal site of the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project – SFMP – in Elmina on Monday, October 10.

The visit, forms part of a series of tours in Ghana, to foster greater collaboration and commitment between the US and Ghana Governments relative to climate change. Administrator McCarthy, accompanied by other US Government officials, visited the USAID-funded fish smoker demonstration facility of the Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association (CEWEFIA) located in Elmina, Central Region. CEWEFIA is a project implementing partner.

SFMP team showing Administrator McCarthy round — Brian Crawford (center) and Victoria Koomson (Exec. Dir., CEWEFIA) showing Administrator McCarthy round

Hosting the delegation, Dr. Brian Crawford – Chief of Party of SFMP noted that The SFMP takes an integrated approach to improvements in the fisheries sector. While overfishing and illegal fishing are of main concern, poor post-harvest practices are also targeted for improvements. This is especially important from a gender perspective as the post-harvest value chain is dominated by women. “Over the life of the Project, more than 4000 micro, small and medium scale businesses involved in the fish value chain will have benefited from post-harvest improvements.” A sustainable scale-up strategy has been developed for the promotion of the improved stoves, providing a 30% incentive for the first 150 early adopters.

The fish smoking sector in Ghana is highly dependent on fuelwood as a source of energy, leading to the degradation of these forest systems. Between 2005 and 2010, Ghana’s deforestation rate was estimated at 2.2% per annum, the sixth highest deforestation rate globally for that period. Contributing to this high rate of deforestation is the widespread use of inefficient fish smoking technologies. The World Health Organization estimates that harmful cookstove smoke is the fifth leading cause of death in developing countries, with the most popular being the Chorkor stove. However, using this technology, women work under often strenuous conditions (exposure to heat and smoke) and for marginal incomes.

Women in traditional wear, welcoming Administrator McCarthy — Women clad in colorful local traditional outfit, welcoming Gina McCarthy with songs

The newly improved fish stove – Ahotor (meaning ‘Comfort’) promoted by the project, produces lower levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which is considerably lower than the Chorkor and 32 per cent more fuel efficient. The SNV Netherlands Development Organization leads the smokers research and development engineering efforts.

CRC Welcomes Graduate Students as Milestone in Major Effort to Strengthen Africa’s Coastal Management Expertise

The University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center (URI CRC) is proudly hosting seven graduate students from Africa, with affiliations at several colleges, who are, with CRC guidance, pursuing URI master’s and doctoral degrees in varied fields to ultimately help build the capacity of their own communities to engage in innovative coastal management planning and practice. CRC is engaged in extensive coastal management and fisheries related projects in the countries of Ghana and Malawi; bolstering the professional development of emerging leaders and in-country practitioners is a critical aspect of the work — a focus emphasized by URI President David M. Dooley at his recent meeting with University of Cape Coast/Ghana (UCC) leadership to initiate a learning exchange between the schools. Funding for the graduate student effort is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While one student, Evans Arizi of Ghana, is already well underway with his URI study program, six more are embarking this semester. From Ghana: Rosina Cobbina, Ivy Gyimah, Vida Osei and Evelyn Takyi. From Malawi: Innocent Gumulira and Elliot Lungu. Please join CRC in extending a warm welcome to this student group.

US Ambassador Jackson calls on Fisher folk in Ghana to Allow Children to Grow in their Home Environment and Develop Well

“Just like fish, Big is Good; Small is Bad!”

US Ambassador Jackson in an address at Elmina

August 12, 2016 – The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P Jackson on Friday, appealed to fisher folk in Elmina, an important fishing port in the Central Region, to maintain children in their home environment with their families and offer them good education instead of trafficking them into child labor-related activities that affect their health and ability to develop properly in life. Ambassador Jackson made the call when he visited the fishing community, which is a focal site of the USAID-funded Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), implemented by the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island.

He interacted with fisher folk and anti-Child Labor Advocates in the Elmina port area and neighboring fishing communities where the project is implementing a behavior change communications campaign against child labor and trafficking in the fisheries sector. This work is supported by the US Government global Feed the Future Initiative.

Mr. Jackson was accompanied by the Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development – USAID/Ghana – Andrew Karas and other US Government officials.

In 2016, Ghana has for two years in a row been classified as a Tier 2 Watch List Country by a US State Department as detailed in the most recent Trafficking in Persons Report; which concluded that the Government of Ghana does not meet all the minimum requirements for the elimination of trafficking in persons. Under US law, a classification for a third year in a row could result in significant reductions in US foreign assistance to Ghana.

Ambassador Jackson interacting with SFMP team — Ambassador Jackson exchanging greetings with Dr. Crawford and SFMP team

Consequently, the Ambassador’s visit to the SFMP focal site was intended to learn more about this issue in the fisheries sector the related SFMP project interventions to combat this problem in the Central Region; a region noted as source communities for child recruitment into fisheries-related child labor and trafficking activities.

The Chief of Party of the project, Dr. Brian Crawford, who is also a senior manager at CRC, noted that child labor and trafficking in fisheries had worsened due to declining fish harvests and increasing poverty in coastal fishing communities where there are hardly any other viable forms of livelihoods. “Female-headed single-parent households with large families are most vulnerable to child labor and trafficking activities; and many parents give their children away to others for a fee, oblivious to the maltreatment meted out to the children”, noted Dr. Crawford. Many of these children are forced into dangerous fisheries labor practices and are not kept in school, which is illegal under Ghana law.

Kojo, child labor victim — Kojo Mensah, Child labor victim, now an advocate, narrating his story

Participants in the visit, organized by the Central and Western Region Fishmongers Improvement Association, included child labor and trafficking victims, who have now become advocates as a result of the project intervention, narrated life threatening experiences as victims and related success stories after benefiting from Advocacy Training on child labour and trafficking.

“As it is with fish, so it is with children. Big is Good; Small is Bad! Just as we should not harvest the juvenile fish, so must we leave children in their environment and homes with their families to enjoy education, and so on; so they can develop well instead of sending them away into child labor”, stressed Ambassador Jackson.

URI President Dooley Spends Fruitful Week in Ghana

University of Rhode Island President David M. Dooley traveled to Ghana for a week in April 2016 to solidify relationships with Ghanaian universities and visit projects led by CRC: USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) and USAID/West Africa Analytical Support Services and Evaluations for Sustainable Systems (ASSESS).

President Dooley met with University of Cape Coast (UCC) Vice-Chancellor Professor D.D. Kuupole to talk about an ongoing collaboration between the two institutions and student exchange programs and said he sees his visit as an opportunity to strengthen collaboration and friendship. He also visited Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana to discuss a partnership with that institution as well.

Hundreds of people attended a public lecture by President Dooley at UCC and later witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CRC/URI and UCC’s Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and Centre for Coastal Management.

During his talk, President Dooley said his vision upon assuming office as president of URI was to increase internationalization and globalization of the school and its students because the world is not just interconnected and interdependent but hyper-connected. Such hyper-connectedness includes a global economy and society in which citizens communicate in seconds and not in days or weeks. The complexity of the modern world includes great challenges, such as climate change, which is beyond one single nation’s ability to solve alone, he continued.

“With these global challenges also come global opportunities. We need to focus more on the opportunities,” he told the audience.

He continued: The less-developed world is not responsible for the lion’s share of atmospheric changes, but it and the entire world have to live with the consequence. That is not the only challenge with global consequences: War in one country affects the entire world; the outbreak of diseases, quality of the air we breathe, sustainability of the food supply, disputes and conflicts are all global issues, he said.

“We are no longer insulated by borders and oceans as we once were, but in all this, are global opportunities and demand for higher education,” President Dooley said.

During the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, President Dooley received a gift of rich local Ghanaian kente cloth and sandals. The entire URI delegation received souvenirs from UCC as a symbol of friendship.

President Dooley also met with four doctoral and two master’s students bound for URI on a USAID-funded scholarship program. The graduate students went through an intensive and competitive selection process to emerge as recipients of the scholarships. President Dooley congratulated and welcomed the students in advance to URI and hoped they make the most of the experience. Two USAID projects, USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) and USAID/UCC Capacity Strengthening Project are collaborating in this effort.

In addition, two research assistants from UCC supporting SFMP’s research and improved data quality systems activities demonstrated for the president how they collect fish stock data.

President Dooley’s weeklong visit stemmed from CRC’s leadership of the sustainable fisheries management project and builds upon January 2016 and spring 2015 visits to URI by faculty and administrators from UCC.

CRC has a long relationship with the Ghanaian university. URI is leading the five-year, $24 million USAID-funded SFMP, which aims to revitalize marine fisheries stocks and improve the fisheries ecosystem and livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on fisheries and related activities. The engagement of local universities is part of the project’s capacity building component, which seeks to strengthen the knowledge and skills of Ghanaian educators, students and practitioners so they can better manage and sustain the nation’s fisheries sector, which is vital to food security.

SFMP is funded by the largest grant ever awarded to URI.

USAID Awards URI $24 Million to Lead Sustainable Fisheries Project in Ghana

Crawfordfishermen — Brian Crawford poses with the chief fishermen at a village in Ghana. (Credit: Coastal Resources Center)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a $24 million grant to the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography to lead a five-year sustainable fisheries project in Ghana, West Africa. The grant is the largest in URI history.

The objective of the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project is to rebuild key marine fisheries stocks through responsible fishing practices.

Ghanaian fishing boats return to their village to unload their catch.

“This will be a very challenging and ambitious project. If successful, our work with the Ghana Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development will reverse the trend in declining fish catches,” said Brian Crawford, who will move to Accra, Ghana to lead the project for URI. “With improved management, tens of thousands of metric tons of high-quality, low-cost fish protein supply can be recovered, benefiting not only tens of thousands of fishermen and women processors, but improving food security for millions of people in Ghana and its neighbors in West Africa.”

The project is part of USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and will meet the government of Ghana’s fisheries development objectives. Working closely with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and the Ghana Fisheries Commission, the project seeks to end overfishing of stocks important to local food security. It will accomplish this by working to ensure a legal framework exists for adoption of management plans that give use rights to the fishermen/women; ensuring decisions affecting fisheries and ecosystems are based on strong science; and widely communicating knowledge and information that educates the public and policy makers, so that support for lasting change emerges.

More than 100,000 men and women involved in the local fishing industry are expected to benefit from this project. Included will be tens of thousands of women involved in the processing and marketing of smoked fish.

“We are very proud of CRC and its outstanding record of outreach and education,” said Bruce Corliss, dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography. “The center does outstanding work on coastal policy and planning, both in Rhode Island and abroad, and this award demonstrates the confidence USAID has in CRC’s performance and its international leadership in this field.”

In leading this project, CRC will work with a consortium of international and local partners, including SNV Netherlands Development Organization, SSG Advisors, Hen Mpoano, Friends of the Nation, the Central & Western Fish Mongers Improvement Association in Ghana, Daasgift Quality Foundation, Development Action Association, and Spatial Solutions.

Included in project activities will be efforts to reduce child labor and trafficking in the fisheries sector in the Central Region of Ghana. The project also includes a university strengthening component with the University of Cape Coast to improve their applied research and extension services in coastal and fisheries management.

Ghanaian Fisheries Experts Visit URI to Study Outreach Models

edit4 — From left CRC Director Dr. Anton Post, Dr. Denis Aheto of UCC, CRC’s Chief of Party in Ghana Dr. Brian Crawford and Dr. John Blay at CRC earlier in January. (CRC photo)

Fisheries experts Dr. Denis Worlanyo Aheto and Dr. John Blay of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana braved the snow and cold to travel to URI in early January to study models of integrated coastal management and outreach programs and to foster research cooperation and learning opportunities for students at both universities.

“Our primary objective is to look at the various models for how universities can support capacity building in fisheries and coastal management,” said Aheto, head of the department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at UCC and project manager at UCC’s new Centre for Coastal Management, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Fisheries capacity building, research and extension are at the core of the center’s mission, said Blay, UCC fisheries professor and coordinator of the new center, and URI and Rhode Island are leaders in those areas.

The Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography hosted the men for a week as part of CRC’s USAID/Ghana Sustainable Management Fisheries Project (SFMP). Aheto and Blay held discussions with faculty and top administrators across URI, met with members of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation and Save the Bay, visited National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Department of Environmental Management offices and learned about Rhode Island Sea Grant’s extension and outreach work. “The Sea Grant model is fantastic,” Blay said.

“The role of the state is very strong in driving research in fisheries (in Rhode Island),” Aheto observed. “We would like to adapt this to the situation in coastal Ghana.” They said the URI and Sea Grant experiences have provided them with a framework for addressing the challenge of bringing the government of Ghana on board in terms of commitment and funding for fisheries and coastal management and overcoming the lack of connection among organizations. “That is really the issue (in Ghana), the need to establish a strong connection. There is too large a gulf between the university, the government and the fishermen,” Aheto said.

“The Commercial Fisherman’s Research Foundation is very interesting” in its strong connections to URI and fisheries research, Blay said. “In Ghana the fishermen are not seeing the university as a resource.” That lack of integration translates to a lack of support for university research, the men say, and they want to change that.

Aheto said Rhode Island and Ghana do share similarities when it comes to fisheries and coastal management. “We have the building blocks of a good system in place. We have UCC; we have a ministry of fisheries; we have fishermen’s organizations. The structure is in place, the problem is to bring up the capacity of the people in these institutions.”

Developing that capacity is where the role of URI is particularly important. One of the goals of the five-year SFMP initiative is to strengthen UCC’s fisheries and coastal management department by hosting up to 10 masters and doctoral students from UCC at URI, sponsoring other student and faculty exchanges, conducting joint research and holding a fisheries leadership course in Ghana that draws on URI’s experiences.

Such capacity building already is underway. Next month UCC students begin SFMP fieldwork in two estuary areas in Ghana, said Najih Lazar who is transitioning from the URI Fisheries Center to join SFMP in Ghana as fisheries advisor. “We will focus on applied research, working directly with two communities. UCC students will collect data from fishermen and exchange information with them,” explained Lazar.

Back in Ghana, Blay and Aheto will share what they have learned with their colleagues and counterparts in the government and make their case for outreach and integration. “We are going to make ourselves relevant through discussions with government and fishers and get the dialogue going,” Blay said.

UCC’s Center for Coastal Management already is gaining momentum, they said. The fisheries and coastal management department has bought three vehicles that will allow its 50 undergraduates and 20 graduate students access to field sites for research, and laboratories are getting new equipment and renovation. “We are like new kids on the block. There is much to be excited about,” Aheto said.

Partners Emphasize Cooperation, Collaboration at Ghana SFMP Meeting

More than 40 members from the nine local and international partners implementing the USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP) were joined by USAID and Government of Ghana officials at a retreat in Accra, Ghana, Feb. 25 and 26 that combined fruitful discussions, technical presentations, role-playing and sharing of knowledge and expertise.

Ghana’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Hanny-Sherry Ayitey, and other ministry officials attended a reception at SFMP’s Accra office following the retreat.

CRC is the lead implementer of the project, and the center’s Brian Crawford and Najih Lazar have relocated to Ghana as SFMP’s chief of party and national fisheries manager, respectively.

breakoutgroup2 — Meeting participants enjoy a lively exchange of ideas during a meeting breakout session Feb. 26, 2015.

Objectives of the meetings were to understand better the marine fisheries context and other donor projects supporting Ghana’s sustainable fisheries efforts, to foster teamwork and activity execution and to understand policies, procedures and requirements of the five-year project. SFMP’s main objective is to rebuild Ghana’s collapsing fisheries stocks, with an initial focus on small pelagics—a key food and protein source throughout the region that is critical to Ghana’s food security. In this way, SFMP contributes to USAID/Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

Officials and participants acknowledged that the team has a demanding and large task before it, with difficult decisions and measures ahead. Officials and project leaders stressed that coordination and cooperation are integral to project success, particularly given the number of partners and activities. Key SFMP activities include improving legal conditions for implementing fisheries co-management, use rights and effort-reduction strategies; enhancing information systems and science-based decision-making and increasing public support and political will needed to make hard choices and change behavior. These components feed into applied management initiatives for targeted fisheries ecosystems.

Rhode Island-based CRC staff Donald Robadue, SFMP project manager; Cindy Moreau, CRC business manager; and Carol McCarthy, CRC communications specialist, traveled to Ghana to participate in the retreat. Partners embraced the spirit of collaboration solidified in the meetings and immediately got to work the next day in more informal, activity-focused meetings at SFMP’s Accra office.

Ghana Fisheries Course Stresses Inclusion, Cohesion

Class participants test their teamwork skills through simple, fun yet instructive exercises. August 2015 — Participants in the August fisheries management leadership test their teamwork skills through simple, fun, yet instructive exercises. (Credit: Kathy Castro)

If a problem is systemic, then addressing it at identified critical points might be the best way to solve it. The URI Coastal Resources Center (CRC)-led Leadership for Fisheries Management program that recently concluded in Ghana, Africa, took that approach, both in and out of the classroom.

CRC, based at the Graduate School of Oceanography, and the College of the Environment and Life Sciences’ Fisheries Center have come together for years to offer such programs on campus and across the globe. This 10-day Ghana course differed a bit in that it brought together two dozen participants from all parts of the Ghanaian fisheries system (and one from Malawi)—from chief fishermen and women processors in villages, to boat owners, to government officials and representatives from non-governmental organizations.

“One of the strengths was that you had people from throughout the system, and you had everyone talking to each other, which is unique for Ghana,” said Glenn Ricci, a coastal manager at CRC and co-leader of the course along with Kathy Castro of the Fisheries Center.

In addition, the course was offered early in the tenure of the CRC-led USAID/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP), which aims to help Ghana rebuild its collapsing small pelagic fishery, providing a broad window of opportunity for learning and implementation. “The primary difficulty is that even though there are strict rules and regulations in place, very few people are complying with them,” Castro said. SFMP and the fisheries leadership courses strive to change that.

The program, hosted at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), included faculty participants with the aim of building their capacity to offer these courses in the future. Next year, SFMP and UCC will co-facilitate and jointly implement the course.

Unlike some of the fisheries management programs CRC offers, which focus more on the technical aspects of fisheries, this course focused more on building leadership skills and empowering participants to understand that they can influence behavior throughout the fisheries system. The program covered how to influence people, how to understand your role in influencing positive behavior change, how to address conflict through finding common interest and understanding with those you might think you share no common ground.

With SFMP now underway, “there will be a great deal of follow on. We will offer programs like this twice a year. We want to create a group of 100 leaders throughout the fisheries system, strengthen their knowledge and ability to influence discussions from the local to the regional and national level. The courses are just a small part of a larger capacity development strategy to foster learning outside of the classroom,” Ricci said.

Ghana’s small pelagic fishery is crucial to its food security, and with SFMP, the timing is perfect for supporting a cadre of local people who can lead the country toward some tough decisions on how to reduce fishing effort in hopes of rebuilding fish stocks. For a renewed strategy to work, all stakeholders throughout the fishery system have to believe in the actions, despite low levels of trust and a history of ineffective management. Improved relations across the fishery system can make a new small pelagics fishery management plan more meaningful going forward.

In addition to classroom instruction in leadership, goalsetting, developing co-management plans and creating action plans, the group did a preliminary community analysis and then ran a stakeholder meeting in the fishing village of Elmina, Castro explained. This gave them hands-on experience to understand how local people see the way forward, what their visions are and to learn to listen more and talk less: a skill critical to being a successful leader. “It was very good for them to talk and listen to each other,” she said.

One message that emerged is that women fish processors have a good deal of power in the fisheries system. Many own boats and decide what fish to buy. “If organized, they could really influence the system,” Ricci said, much as the women in Cayar, Senegal, have as part of the CRC-led USAID/COMFISH project.

SFMP is there to guide and support Ghanaians’ progress toward a sustainable fishery, “but really it’s for them to do,” Ricci said. “The goal is to develop a viable network of informed, motivated people that understand the fisheries system and the power of vision driven changes.”

Throughout the tenure of SFMP, which concludes in 2019, CRC will return to Ghana with additional programs that build individual capacity that then strengthens the organization and ultimately the institutions and networks made up of those individuals and groups.

“It’s the follow-up, learning by doing method. It’s the CRC way,” Ricci said.

Weekend field trip to nearby Kakum National Park's canopy walk offers an opportunity for participants to jointly face their fears and build team trust. August 2015 — Class participants took a weekend field trip to nearby Kakum National Park’s canopy walk , which offered an opportunity for participants to jointly face their fears and build team trust. (Credit: Glenn Ricci)

Ghana University Officials to URI as Part of $24 Million Sustainable Fisheries Project

A delegation from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana will visit the University of Rhode Island next week as part of a $24 million sustainable fisheries project led by the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

The Ghana delegation will meet with URI President David M. Dooley Jan. 27 to expand on a memorandum of understanding that the universities signed in May 2015.

The agreement includes opportunities for cooperative research as well as faculty and student exchanges in Ghana and at URI. The West African university has a longstanding partnership with URI through CRC-led coastal management and food security projects in Ghana. Currently, CRC is leading the implementation of the five-year, $24 million United States Agency for International Development Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project. The USAID grant is the largest ever awarded to URI.

Two fisheries experts from URI’s coastal center, Brian Crawford, in-country project director, and Najih Lazar, senior fisheries advisor, have been living in Ghana for the past year to help lead the project. Its goal is to revitalize marine fisheries stocks through responsible fishing practices and improved governance and ultimately benefit the more than 100,000 women and men involved in the Ghana fishing industry.

As part of this project, CRC and URI are working to build the research, educational and outreach capacity of the University of Cape Coast in coastal and fisheries management.

“Collaboration with the University of Cape Coast is an important element of the project, as one of the critical objectives of it is to build the skills and knowledge of Ghanaian stakeholders so they can continue the vital work of sustaining their fisheries sector and coastal communities long after this URI-led project has ended,” said Donald Robadue, sustainable fisheries project manager at CRC.

Leaders from both universities will discuss several aspects of the collaboration, with particular emphasis on student and faculty exchanges. These include developing an undergraduate program for URI students in Ghana during J Term, identifying areas of joint research among faculty, exploring opportunities for professional development and examining other areas of potential cooperation in marine fisheries, aquaculture and coastal resources.

The University of Cape Coast delegation also will visit URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus to meet with Graduate School of Oceanography Dean Bruce Corliss and talk with CRC colleagues about the details of the ongoing collaboration.