Côte d’Ivoire has the second longest coast in West Africa, offering 550 kilometers of rich and unique biodiversity which the country relies on for key ecosystem services. It is estimated that 40% of the population are settled in coastal zones creating intense pressure from urbanization, fishing and tourism. These pressures are exacerbated by the effects of climate change, in particular coastal erosion caused by rising sea-levels and land degradation which has become a real threat to these coastal communities and their livelihoods.The Global Environment Facility (GEF) financed, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) implemented Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) project based in Abidjan is addressing some of these challenges by providing a mechanism for environmental data, information and knowledge management through their national Geoportal for information sharing on Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) in Côte d’Ivoire. However, the project team expressed a desire to strengthen their capacity to capture and promote national and local information on the coastal areas.

Under the GEF LME:LEARN Project Twinning component, a learning exchange was undertaken by the GEF UNDP EMIS project and the West African Coastal Observation Mission (WACOM) hosted in CSE (Dakar, Senegal) to share experience on coastal data and information management. 

The GEF IW:LEARN news article on the exchange may be accessed by clicking on this link.