Ghana to extend coastline (9/04/09)

THE Commonwealth Secretariat and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) have presented documents of Ghana’s application and evidence for the extension of the country’s coastline to the Minister of Lands and Natural resources, Alhaji Collins Dauda, in Accra.
The document will give the country the opportunity to extend her coastline from 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, which area Ghana would have exclusive sovereign rights over all natural resources.
Making the presentation at the ministry, the Legal Adviser at the Special Advisory Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Ms Judy Nadine, said the preparation of the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) claims was part of the secretariat’s mandate under its Maritime Boundary Delimitation Programme of assistance.
She said the Commonwealth had for the greater part of the decade being encouraging its member states to prepare their claims, and had a priority of helping its member states to maximise their maritime claims under Article 76 of the United Nations (UN) Convention.
She said under this process, Ghana stood to gain an additional continental shelf area (coastline) of between 9000 and 12000 kilometres in the Eastern and Western parts of the country.
She noted that the partnership with the committee for the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project, chaired by the minister, had been productive and fruitful, under which a significant amount of legal, technical and diplomatic work with neighbouring states had been done.
Ms Ndaona said the technical work included a boat cruise in November and December 2008, which gathered seismic data in the relevant areas of the continental shelf to support Ghana’s ECS submission before the deadline on May 13, 2009.
She said the document included an executive summary, the main body and appendices including the supporting scientific and technical data.
She said the necessary discussions had been made on the next steps to be taken by the government to ensure the successful lodging of the ECS submission to the UN before the deadline.
The minister said the importance of the subject could not be overemphasised, since it was tied to the socio-economic development of the country.
He said he was confident that Ghana was set to make her submission to the UN before the deadline in May.
He thanked the Commonwealth secretariat and BGR for their support, and said the government acknowledged their support for and sponsorship packages to the project.
He said it was his hope that the discussions and comments that would follow would be in the interest of the country.