The Importance of Scientific Knowledge as Support to Protection, Conservation and Management of West and Central African Estuaries

The concluding chapter of this volume of the series “Estuaries of the World”, focused on Western and Central African coastal zone, highlights the complexity of such coastal environments and ecosystems. This chapter insists as well on the need for an increased knowledge of the structure and functions of these coastal ecosystems, while highlighting the life-supporting ecosystem goods and services they provide to humanity, including both the scientific and management implications. The challenge ahead of us will be to enhance the networking possibilities and to increase the capacities of young scientists working on African coastal zones.