How can African countries exploit the enormous potential of their oceans?

Over the past decade, attention to the responsible use of the oceans to contribute to economic growth, or the so-called blue economy, has been steadily increasing in Africa. Opportunities around Africa's blue economies are enormous and offer considerable potential for job creation and livelihood improvement.

But what is often missing in the debates is the issues of governance and security. Five themes are particularly important for ensuring both security and safety, the rule of law and transparency, respect for human rights, sustainable economic opportunities and human development.

Neglecting these issues will hinder the growth potential promised by the African oceans. Africa's vast coastline is home to a maritime industry estimated at $ 1 trillion a year. This only scratches the surface.

Africa has 38 coastal states and several island states such as Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros. Together, African coastal and island states encompass vast ocean areas of about 13 million km².

Seychelles, for example, has 1.3 million square kilometers of ocean territory that remains largely underdeveloped. Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa (about 3,000 km) and boasts an ocean territory extending about 120 km from the coastline. Most are poorly governed.

Many African countries are failing to ensure safe and secure conditions for those who work and live in the oceans. The expanses of sea off the east, west and north coasts of Africa are often referred to as anarchists. Illegal fishing, piracy at sea and armed robbery, drug trafficking and human trafficking have taken on astonishing proportions. The cap is the rise of illegal migration.

For this to change, various actors need to start cooperating across national borders to secure and use ocean territories. It has become well known that individual states can not do anything on their own. The solution of cooperation is simple but difficult to sell to a critical mass of African governments that are often wary of collective agendas.

Hot spots

Failure to guarantee the safety of ocean territories favors the creation of ungoverned spaces exploited by criminals. At worst, neglected maritime areas benefit insurgents and terrorists, as is evident in Libya, Somalia and Nigeria.

Africa has had to deal with three unstable ocean regions where crime prevents countries from realizing the potential of their oceans. These are the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the waters of the Mediterranean north of Libya.

A common denominator in the three centers is that the countries on these coasts have failed to secure the areas. This opened the door to criminal actors. A recent report from Greenpeace revealed that illegal fishing in the West Africa region is losing about $ 2 billion.

Most African countries are well aware of the ocean's potential and the threats it faces. A number of initiatives are moving in this direction. These included:

• the African Union's Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050 of 2012, which recognizes and encourages the importance of African countries paying greater attention to their maritime interests.

• the recently adopted Lomé Charter – a continental effort to encourage and coordinate the efforts of African states in maritime security, development and security.

• the Yaoundé Code of Conduct for West Africa, which defines an interregional set of areas of responsibility to oversee and facilitate responses to growing crime in the Gulf of Guinea.

• an increase in the presence of international naval capabilities off the Horn of Africa to stem the flow of piracy off Somalia. This code was supplemented by the Djibouti Code of Conduct, which allowed East Africa to intervene to fight against the threats of piracy. The code has been extended to other maritime crimes.

• At the national level, the Seychelles government has set the tone by explicitly focusing on the importance of the blue economy. A national blue economy roadmap aims to promote economic diversification, unlock investment and improve food security.

Although the approach adopted by Seychelles seems obvious given their dependence on the surrounding oceans, the link is equally important for the other 38 coastal states of Africa.

South Africa has launched many maritime initiatives to build on the blue economy. The country has recently adopted a policy called Operation Phakisa, which focuses on four priority areas: maritime transport and manufacturing, offshore oil and gas exploration, aquaculture and marine protection services.

Despite all these initiatives, much remains to be done. The most important ones concern governance and security.

Stem the criminal tide

Unfortunately, networked actors threatening the security of African waters are growing at an alarming rate.

African countries could tackle this problem by first ensuring that their national laws are aligned with the UN's Ocean Safety Treaty.

Second, they must start working together. It is clear that individual countries can do very little alone. They must subscribe to multilateral initiatives. A growing network of collective maritime security is essential to exploit the blue economy.

By Teacher. Francois VreÃ, Research Coordinator, Institute of Security for Governance and Leadership in Africa, University of Stellenbosch

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.