Welcome, Nairobi Convention Member States, partners, and friends, to this installment of the Weekly News Round-up! Please keep reading to find out what’s new in efforts to protect, conserve and develop the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region.
We look forward to continuing our work with you to create a prosperous WIO region with healthy rivers, coasts, and oceans.
Upcoming Events
The Nairobi Convention in executing the project on ‘Strategic Action Programme Policy Harmonization and Institutional Reforms’ (SAPPHIRE), is organizing a Regional Ocean Governance workshop for the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region from 04-05 September 2019.
The Nairobi Convention, Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) and Birdlife International are organizing a meeting of the Consortium for the Conservation of the Coastal and Marine Ecosystems in the Western Indian Ocean region (WIO-C) to be held on 06 September 2019 in Seychelles.
News
Money, use and experience: Identifying the mechanisms through which ecosystem services contribute to wellbeing in coastal Kenya and Mozambique
Despite extensive recent research elucidating the complex relationship between ecosystem services and human wellbeing, little work has sought to understand how ecosystem services contribute to wellbeing and poverty alleviation. This paper adopts concepts from the “Theory of Human Need” and the “Capability Approach” to both identify the multitude of links occurring between ecosystem services and wellbeing domains, and to understand the mechanisms through which ecosystem services contribute to wellbeing. The results highlight three types of mechanisms through which ecosystem services contribute to wellbeing, monetary, use and experience……….read more
Mangrove conservation more valuable than ever thanks to carbon trading
The UN Environment Programme, the Kenya Forest Service, the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute and partners recently launched the Vanga Blue Forests Project on the Kenyan coast, a groundbreaking initiative to trade carbon credits from mangrove conservation and restoration…….read more
New Guide: Implementing the Source-to-Sea Approach: Guide for Practitioners
The newly published Implementing the source-to-sea approach: A guide for practitioners supports professionals to apply the source-to-sea approach during project design, implementation and evaluation. The guide highlights the benefits of source-to-sea management in linking implementation of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) with SDG 14 (life below water) to address issues such as land-based sources of marine pollution, fragmentation of wildlife habitat, and overall degradation of freshwater, terrestrial and marine environments……read more
Download the full-length guide
Coral Reefs Shifting Away from Equatorial Waters
Coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters and establishing new reefs in more temperate regions, according to this new research published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The researchers found that the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85 percent – and doubled on subtropical reefs – during the last four decades…….read more
Protect ocean against ‘irreversible’ changes: Experts call for eight urgent measures
This research published in the Aquatica Conservation eight urgent, simultaneous actions are needed to head off potential ecological disaster in the global ocean, amid signs of steeper and faster changes than even recent models predicted. Marine life is threatened with suffocation, starvation, overheating and acid corrosion under current climate impacts. This paper sets out eight practical, but ambitious steps that need to be implemented simultaneously in order to help prevent that.…….read more
The Blue Economy: Identifying Geographic Concepts and Sensitivities
There is currently no generally accepted definition for the “blue economy,” despite the term becoming common parlance over the past decade. The concept and practice have spawned a rich, and diverse, body of scholarly activity. Yet despite this emerging body of literature, there is ambiguity around what the blue economy is, what it encapsulates, and its practices. Thus far, the existing literature has failed to theorise key geographical concepts such as space, place, scale, and power relations, all of which have the potential to lead to uneven development processes and regional differentiation………read more
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