The Andalusian Institute of Marine Sciences (ICMAN), a center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) located in Cádiz, will be part of a project contracted by the Government of Angola with international financing. The objective is to promote the sustainable blue economy in the African country.
The CSIC center will lead the scientific-technical component of a public-private partnership, coordinated by the company SATEC. This initiative aims to implement a model for the efficient and environmentally friendly use of Angolan maritime resources.
The project, named KALUNGA, is a strategic initiative driven by Angola to strengthen its scientific capabilities and move towards sustainable development of its marine resources and ecosystems.
Javier Ruiz, a researcher at CSIC's ICMAN-CSIC and scientific leader of the project, explains that Angola's Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and the CSIC are collaborating on specialized training and scientific exchange in areas such as oceanography, fisheries and coastal ecosystem management, aquaculture, ecotoxicology, and remote sensing. "To develop a sustainable blue economy, you need the operational capacity of a company like SATEC, but it's impossible to crystallize and sustain this maritime initiative without knowledge, and that's where CSIC comes in," he added.
The KALUNGA project aligns with the CSIC's strategy for social and economic development in Africa based on science. The organization aims to transform research and development efforts into local products, services, companies, and jobs, following the African Union (AU)-European Union (EU) Innovation Agenda approved in 2020.
In the context of the project's commencement, the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Angola, Carmen Ivelize Van-Dúnem do Sacramento Neto dos Santos, accompanied by the Ambassador of Angola to Spain, Balbina Malheiros Dias da Silva, and the Director of the National Institute of Fisheries and Maritime Research of Angola (INIPM), Filomena Vaz Velho, visited ICMAN. They toured its facilities and met the scientific team. A continuous exchange program between scientists from ICMAN and INIPM is also planned.
