Профессор Университета Ганы призвала усилить меры по защите океана для развития «синей экономики»

Professor Edem Mahu, Associate Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry at the University of Ghana, has called for stronger national action to protect Ghana’s oceans and harness their economic potential. She said sustainable management of marine ecosystems was essential to safeguarding the country’s blue economy prospects, food security and broader economic development. Prof. Mahu, who is also Co-Lead of the Ocean Margins Initiative and Chair of the OMI Laboratory at the University of Ghana, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency. She said Ghana had significant potential to derive economic benefits from the ocean, but those opportunities could be undermined without greater attention to marine conservation by policymakers, institutions and the public. “Ghana has great potential when it comes to the blue economy and the benefits we can derive from the ocean. But to enjoy these benefits, we need to give the ocean the attention it deserves,” she noted. Prof. Mahu said Ghana’s maritime territory was almost comparable in size to its land territory and, therefore, deserved similar attention in national education, policy and development planning. She said ocean conservation should be treated as a shared national responsibility because of the ocean’s importance to ecosystems and human well-being. “The ocean’s problems should be a problem for all of us, not just scientists or coastal communities. Our future depends on the health of the ocean,” she said. Prof. Mahu also called for ocean literacy to be incorporated into the national educational curriculum to improve public understanding of the ocean and marine conservation from an early age. “People should not only discover the ocean when they get to university. Ocean education should be part of what is taught in our early school days,” she said.