Praia, Cape Verde - Six West African coastal countries will begin a meeting on Monday in the capital of Cape Verde, Praia, to discuss a sub-regional approach on projects to extend the continental shelf beyond 200 miles. Representatives of Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mauritania will analyse practical issues related to the collection, treatment, management and storage of scientific, technical and seismic data during the third sub-regional meeting of the committee determining the continental shelf. According to a press release from Cape Verde's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these data will be used in the preparation of individual or joint proposals to determine the outer limits of the continental paltform beyond 200 miles, to be presented to the United Nations in accordance with Article 76 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The document on the continental shelf of each of the six countries was carried out by Norway, which has already benefited from the Convention and which finances the Committee.

After finalising the document, Norwegian experts will conduct a series of research missions in the sub-region between the first half of November and end of April 2012.

A seminar will therefore be held next Wednesday in Praia for the collation of information with institutions, academia and civil society in Cape Verde.

At this meeting, Cape Verde and Norwegian experts will have the opportunity to present important information on the Law of the Sea, its application and relation to the extension of the continental shelf of coastal countries of West Africa.

The Liaison Committee was established under the Framework Agreement for sub-regional cooperation on the determination of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, signed in New York on November 21, 2010.

Pana 30/10/2011