Monrovia- Liberia’s first ‘Blue Ocean Conference’ has begun with a call to join forces in ensuring a clean marine environment for Liberia and the West African region.
The event is jointly organized by the Government of Liberia, the Swedish Embassy near Monrovia and Conservation International (CI).
It began with a joint clean-up campaign on a beach in Paynesville, featuring the organizers, local and international guests attending the conference and the Paynesville City Corporation.
Speaking at a press conference following the clean-up campaign, the Chairman of the National Steering Committee, EPA Executive Director Nathaniel Blama, noted that the conference brings together major policy makers, local and international to discuss challenges faced by the marine ecosystem as well as discuss ways in mitigating those challenges.
Mr. Blama further warned that it was now time that Liberia joins the rest of the world in taking concrete actions to save the marine environment.
“There are lots of problems confronting the ecosystem. A lot of time people have misused it, abused it and took it as a source of dumping ground,” he said.
“It has been misused; people see it as a dumping ground, but it is not. It is a major source of our livelihood and our survival. Until we can see it as that, it will continue to harm us and if we don’t conserve it and make it work to benefit all Liberians, especially the most vulnerable, we could be putting ourselves at risk.”
The EPA boss was joined by the Acting Swedish Ambassador, Elisabeth Harleman and the Country Director of Conservation International, Jessica Donovan-Allen.
Madam Harleman noted that her country’s government was excited to work with Liberia and CI in promoting a clean and safe marine environment.
She added the event in Liberia is in support of the United Nations global platform in promoting a clean marine environment as labeled in Goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For her part, the CI Country Director, Jessica Donovan-Allen, noted that since 2002, CI has been working in the terrestrial areas- promoting the conservation of Liberia’s forest and was excited to be part of the team in promoting a safe marine environment. She added: “Liberia does not only have a vast forest, but one of the last rich and intact marine and ocean ecosystems in the region.”
Meanwhile, one of the highlights of the first day’s event was the beach clean-up campaign where the manager of a local recycling company, the Ever-Green Institute, disclosed that his entity is producing several items including diesel fuels, gasoline for cars and generators, cooking gas, roofing tiles from recycled plastic materials.
John Smith noted that with the use of recycled materials, his entity is contributing to the control of plastic materials but is challenged due to lack of logistics and basic automotive equipment.
“We carried out awareness, telling people how to keep their various waste. To all communities, the message is we try to separate and control plastic. Plastic cannot really be the issues, but we can be the issue. So, if we know how to control it, then we will not find plastic all around in the streets and the ocean,” Smith said.
“Some of the challenges right now, we don’t have vehicles, we have to use wheel barrows and hand bags, and this limits the amount of plastic we collect and of course affect production. We really need huge quantity of plastic to do the recycling. We have five reactors that can take about two tons of plastic per day. We set up our own factory and carry out our own production there because of lack of capacity,” he narrated.
The EPA boss was amazed and pledged his commitment to working with the entity to improve their production. He called on every user of fuel and gasoline to purchase the entity’s product as a mean of supporting them.
“We need to promote their work. I will let our technicians work with them, test their fuels and when it is okay, we will buy their fuel as a mean of promoting their work. I would let to challenge all of us that are using diesel generators to buy their fuel as a mean of promoting their work. Indirectly when you do that, you are taking plastic out of the streets, you are taking plastic out of the beaches. Whatever we say we need to live up to it. So, if we want to get rid of plastic, small actions can create great results.” Meanwhile, the conference continues Tuesday with series of side activities to be followed by the official opening statements and panel discussions local and international experts on Wednesday, March 20.