Burkina Faso hosted on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 in Ouagadougou, the national workshop to bring its national instruments into line with continental and international instruments for the conservation of aquatic biodiversity and the management of the environment.
At the opening of the workshop, the representative of the minister delegate in charge of animal resources, Désiré Nessan Coulibaly, affirmed that Burkina Faso has two ecosystems which are, among others, lotic ecosystems (streams, rivers, backwaters) and lentic ones (dam lakes, natural ponds).
The representative of the minister delegate in charge of animal resources, Désiré Nessan Coulibaly
According to Mr. Coulibaly, these two types of aquatic ecosystems serve as habitat for bio-aquatic animal resources, including fish, frogs, shrimps, and certain plant species of socio-economic interest such as water lilies, and a micro-algae.
However, he regretted that these biological and physical potentialities are unfortunately exposed to constraints that need to be made consistent with the instruments developed by the regional, sub-regional, continental and international organizations to which our country has subscribed and ratified.
“This is the interest and the challenges of this workshop to which you are invited and, I invite you to reflect, to fruitful exchanges which will allow a better alignment of our instruments for the conservation of biological diversity on the continental instruments and international organizations,” said Mr. Coulibaly.
According to him, Burkina has adopted various legal instruments for better protection and conservation of aquatic animal diversity.
He cited, among other things, the orientation law relating to water management (2001); the national environmental policy (2007); the Forest Code (2011); the Environment Code (2013) and the National Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture by 2025 (2014).
The representative of the Director of the Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources of the African Union (AU-IBAR), Dr Hiver Boussini
The representative of the Minister Delegate encouraged the actors of the workshop to conduct “fruitful discussions from which relevant conclusions and recommendations will emerge (…) for the sustainable conservation of our aquatic potential in a context of climate change”.
He welcomed the initiative of the Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources of the African Union (AU-IBAR) which initiated and supported this workshop. Mr. Coulibaly also expressed his gratitude to the financial partners, in particular the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) which supports this initiative.
According to the representative of the Director of AU-IBAR, Dr. Hiver Boussini, “this workshop is a demonstration of the commitment and the interest that the Government of Burkina Faso gives to the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector, therefore to the issues of food security”.
“The project aims to improve the policy environment, regulatory frameworks and institutional capacities of AU Member States for the sustainable use and conservation of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems thereby contributing to socio-economic development informed Mr. Boussini.
According to him, “the benefits of ratifying, domesticating and implementing these instruments are enormous for AU Member States”.
AU-IBAR Animal Health Representative Hiver Boussini emphasized that these benefits “range from technology transfer, human technical capacity, institutional capacity, capacity building and information sharing, between others “.
Source: Burkina Information Agency