São Vicente: Lusophone island countries plan Centre of Excellence in Marine Sciences and Biodiversity

Mindelo, Mar 02 (Inforpress) – Technicians from Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe met today at the Institute of the Sea (IMar), in São Vicente, to lay the groundwork for a Centre of Excellence in Marine Sciences and Biodiversity, under the aegis of UNESCO.

According to the head of the Section for Small Island Developing States of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Zulmira Rodrigues, the creation of the centre is linked to the fact that the three countries face “vulnerabilities inherent to Small Island Developing States” and belong to “a linguistic minority, which reduces their access to training in the scientific field worldwide.”

“Our Section for Small Island Developing States, in Paris, together with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), in New York, decided to create this special project to build capacity and support countries in developing scientific capacity for research and academic training, in order to sustain the blue economy ambitions of the three countries and help them better understand the impact of climate change,” she explained.

According to the same source, in practice, three priority areas will be defined and each country will choose the one in which it considers it has the greatest capacity to develop research and academic training components, but which can also serve the other two countries.

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