Marine cadastre a possible tool for effective marine and shoreline management in Ghana

This paper discusses the importance of marine cadastre to the reduction of conflict among maritime stakeholders and how it can contribute to effective integrated coastal zone and shoreline management in Ghana. Ghana is endowed with numerous valuable natural recourses both on land and sea. Exploitation and management of these resources often leads to conflict, land tenure dispute and environmental problems due to poor administration of land and marine rights, interest and responsibilities. In June 1999, the government of Ghana lunched a new national land policy that sought to address some fundamental problems associated with land administration and management in the country. A computer aided information system land cadastre was proposed. At the moment the government of Ghana is working on implementing a system for the management and administering land in a spatial context with limited attention to the interface (shoreline) and marine spatial data infrastructure where issues of pollution, overexploitation, conflict and disputes are not only national but also international. This paper concludes that marine cadastre could provide the basis for identifying wider variety of stakeholders and involving them in the decision-making processes associated with good marine administration and coastal zone management. The identified stakeholders could be made to take responsibility of any damage they may cause to the environment.