About

MeerWissen supports cooperation between African and German marine research institutions. This initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) seeks to give policy-makers the information they need to take knowledge-based decisions for the effective management and conservation of Africa’s ocean and coasts.

completed2019-20232020-20232022-2025
BIOEELS_TZ
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Assessing the biodiversity of eels (BIOEELS_TZ)

Assess species composition, distribution, abundance of migratory eels and associated fish communities in selected coastal ecosystems and define ecosystem parameters.

Country / Region

Tanzania

NAMares
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Marine Ecosystem Services for MSP (NAMares)

Supporting planners in making more informed decisions by improving the available knowledge base on marine ecosystem services in Namibia and providing decision-support methods, including a spatial cost-benefit approach, that allows trade-offs to be assessed.

Country / Region

Namibia

INDUCE
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Conserving functional diversity and promoting a sustainable Blue Economy (INDUCE)

Producing sound scientific knowledge for the conservation of fish functional diversity from socially inclusive and environmentally-sustainable economic growth perspectives in Senegal.

Country / Region

Senegal

ORIENTATE
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OceanogRaphIc and Ecological dAta for Nature-based coasTAl proTEction

ORIENTATE attempts to facilitate the adaptive governance of the coastal erosion risks in Tunisia by providing sustainable, cost-effective data and developing a living lab of nature-based mitigation.  

Country / Region

Tunisia

CLIMALG-SN
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Seaweed for blue economies, biodiversity and ecosystem services (CLIMALG-SN)

Updating the current inventory of seaweeds in Senegal, assessing their influence on coastal marine biodiversity and identifying bottlenecks for their recent exploitation.

Country / Region

Senegal

SomWAT
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Nature based SOlutions for Mitigation of WATershed pollution: Cross-habitat facilitation by coastal seagrass meadows

The goal of the project SOMWAT is to assess the role of seagrass meadows for reducing watershed pollution.

Country / Region

Tanzania and South Africa

Penguins
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African Penguins and the Blue Economy (Penguins)

Optimize conservation policies through provision of key data and models to inform strategies and monitoring tools as early-warning systems.

Country / Region

Namibia, South Africa

Mancoga
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Mancoga: Mangroves as Nature-based Solutions to Coastal Hazards

The project MANCOGA aims at developing decision support tools for mitigating erosion and flooding along Ghana’s east coast.

Country / Region

Ghana

PULSE
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Taking the pulse of the Ocean (PULSE)

Finding a suitable and sustainable solution of retrieving ocean and coastal data for decision making processes.

Country / Region

Senegal

PAMO
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Participatory Modeling for Nature-based Solutions in the WIO-Region (PAMO)

To facilitate the implementation of Nature-based solutions (NbS), the project intends to provide decision makers with qualitative and quantitative decision support tools through participatory modelling.

Country / Region

Tanzania and Madagascar

WIOGEN
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West Indian Ocean Governance & Exchange Network (WIOGEN)

Project description

Integrated ocean governance approaches for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the West Indian Ocean through establishing a science to policy networking platform, promoting scientific exchange, early career capacity development and integrative social learning approaches. 

Country / Region

West Indian Ocean Region

FiDEA
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Fishing Data East Africa (FiDEA)

Project description

Strengthening a science-based decision-making process in support of sustainable fisheries management in the East African region by developing a regional framework for the collection, sharing and analysis of fisheries data.

Country / Region

Mozambique, Tanzania, Zanzibar

CoastWise
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CoastWise

Improving the integrated assessment of South Africa’s land-sea interface to enhance the knowledge base for informed decision-making. Generating new data, piloting new technology for coastal and marine ecosystem assessments, filling important knowledge gaps, translating this knowledge into formats that can be used in spatial management, and building capacity in South Africa and the region.

Country / Region

South Africa

NeDiT
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Data Linking People (NeDiT)

Project description

Supporting the use of new and innovative digital technologies for policy-making in marine resource management in Eastern Africa. Achieving improved handling of biodiversity data in East Africa, through providing and assessing as well as communicating data.

Country / Region

Tanzania

WASP
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West African Biodiversity under Pressure (WASP)

Project description

Facilitating the mainstreaming of biodiversity protection, into the management of the fisheries sector, the Oil & Gas industry and Protected Areas policies.

Country / Region

Mauritania

CEM_CV
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Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring (CEM_CV)

Project description

Developing standards for a coastal monitoring program to improve local knowledge about the marine coastal environment and the biodiversity around Cabo Verde.

Country / Region

Cabo Verde

partnership
projects

MeerWissen supports partnership projects between African and German marine research institutions.
This collaboration strengthens capacities and generates data for knowledge-based marine conservation.