A Biodiversity Reference Center in Ghana for West African Fresh and Brackish-Water Fishes

Abstract

Renewable natural resources (RNR) are a major source of socio-economic development potential in all developing countries, if they can be conserved, developed and sustainably exploited. For strategic conservation and sustainable exploitation strategies to be implemented, a knowledge of biodiversity at various levels within these RNR has to be investigated and documented in an internationally accepted manner, and preferably as close as possible to the habitat of the resources. However, human and material resources available in developing countries are currently neither sufficiently trained nor sufficient to undertake the appropriate studies. Meanwhile, various forces continue to deplete RNR and their inherent biodiversity. An attractive approach towards study and documentation of the biodiversity of major RNR, while rapidly enhancing the capacities of developing countries, is through appropriate collaborative research and training programmes based in developing countries.