The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), as part of capacity building for stakeholders to better implement the project at the national level, held a national training workshop on marine spatial planning (MSP) at the headquarters of the High Council for the Sea (HCM) from 24 to 27 June 2025 in Lomé, Togo.

The opening ceremony of the workshop was marked by speeches from the HCM Blue Economy Director, Mrs Kadjogbe Olanlo, and the MarEcoPlan Project Coordinator, Kossi Ahoedo. Mrs Kadjogbe, on behalf of the Minister Counsellor for the Sea, welcomed this initiative and affirmed that this training consolidated the achievements made and will help define new perspectives for advancing the MSP process already underway in Togo in 2021 with technical and financial support from the World Bank, IOC-UNESCO, and the national WACA project. Mr Ahoedo thanked the Minister of State, Minister of Fisheries and Animal Resources and Transhumance Regulation (MRHART), and the Minister Counsellor for the Sea (HCM) for their support to make the workshop possible. According to Ahoedo, the training on marine spatial planning is part of a series of sessions aimed at stakeholders, focusing on key themes to strengthen the essential capacities required for the effective implementation of the project.

The workshop is the second MSP national training workshop (after the first one in Ghana) under the “Using Marine Spatial Planning in the Gulf of Guinea for the Implementation of Payment for Ecosystem Services and Coastal Nature-Based Solutions,” dubbed the MarEcoPlan project, a three-year pilot project being implemented in three FCWC Member States: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo. The MarEcoPlan project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and is being jointly implemented with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The workshop aimed to provide participants with fundamental tools, methodologies, and frameworks that support effective Marine Spatial Planning. It also provided a platform for dialogue, exchange of ideas, and national cooperation, as effective marine planning relies on shared understanding and integrated approaches.

The workshop was facilitated by MarEcoPlan’s International MSP Consultant, Mrs. Dieynaba Seck, in collaboration with MarEcoPlan’s Togo MSP consultant, Pr. Segniagbeto, on Blue Planning MSP concepts. MSP is one of the components of the MarEcoPlan project, aiming to establish a regional-level framework for MSP through national spatial plans, thereby generating a coherent, cross-border, and collaborative system for management.

The meeting’s participants included representatives from the HCM, MRHART,  Ministry of Environment and Forestry Resources (MERF), Ministry of Maritime Economy and Coastal Protection (MEMPC), Ministry of Mines and Energetic Resources (MMRE), Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), National Agency for Support to Grassroots Development (ANADEB/COSO), Maritime Prefecture PREMAR, Town halls of Commune of  Golfe 1, 4 & 6, and Lacs 3, ONG AJEDI, University of Lomé (UL), , Marine Nationale, Autonomous Port of Lomé, KABA QUALITE, National Federation of Unions of Fishing Cooperatives of Togo (FENUCOOPETO),  ).

Participants were trained in marine ecosystem services, MSP data needs identification, spatial and temporal segregation of use, mapping seascapes, stakeholder identification and involvement, and the development of management scenarios for coastal areas.