Nairobi Convention Marine and Coastal News Round-up (22 March 2021)

Welcome, Nairobi Convention Member States, partners, and friends, to this issue of the Weekly News Round-up!
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The 2021 Western Indian Ocean Science to Policy Dialogue is finally happening this week on March 23-25. If you did not manage to register, do not fret, as we will share highlights of the discussions that will be held. Be sure to follow us on our socials to keep up: Facebook, Twitter.***
Read about an MSP WIO tool developed by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management in collaboration with the Nairobi Convention, called WIO Symphony. This tool is meant for measuring cumulative environmental impact in the Western Indian Ocean.
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In this roundup, we also notify you about the release of a new book: Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) that is now freely available online. The book has been released by the World Maritime University.
***Are you a new Women in Marine Science (WiMS) member? You don’t want to miss the first annual meeting of the antenna of Réunion in Saint Louis on March 25, 2021. Look out for the registration link in the roundup.
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Do you have any events, research, or scientific publications on the Western Indian Ocean that you would like to be included in the round-up? Write to [email protected]!

WIO Symphony – a tool for assessing the impacts of your planning decision

In collaboration with the Nairobi Convention (NC) and its ten Member States (MS), a team from Sweden is working on a tool for measuring cumulative environmental impact in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), called Symphony. Symphony calculates how pressures from human activities in the ocean affects nature values in each location in the WIO. The method and associated application is primarily used for Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Representatives from each MS form a Technical Working Group (TWG), who are involved in the collaboration from the start to ensure the WIO Symphony-tool is tailored to the specific needs of the end users.
On February 25^th and 26^th, the WIO Symphony Team held a two-day workshop on data collection, in which both members of the TWG and experts in the field (TWG+) participated. The workshop resulted in several fruitful discussions on data sources, data access, sharing data, as well as discussing the next steps for data collection. The workshop also included inspiring presentations on why data sharing is beneficial, examples of open data, and sharing platforms.

The Nairobi Convention 2021 Western Indian Ocean Regional Science to Policy Dialogue

The Nairobi Convention, in collaboration with the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), is convening the 2021 Western Indian Ocean (WIO) Regional Science to Policy Dialogue. The theme of the meeting will be: ‘Transitioning to a Sustainable Blue Economy in the WIO region: Addressing the challenges and harnessing opportunities’ It will be a virtual Microsoft Teams meeting held over three days from 23 – 25 March 2021 from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m East Africa Time (EAT) every day.
Stay tuned to our social media accounts to keep up with the discussions to be held: Facebook, Twitter.

Bottom trawling releases as much carbon as air travel, landmark study finds

Bottom trawling, a widespread practice in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed, pumps out 1 gigaton of carbon every year, says the study written by 26 marine biologists, climate experts and economists and published in Nature on Wednesday.

The carbon is released from the seabed sediment into the water, and can increase ocean acidification, as well as adversely affecting productivity and biodiversity, the study said. Marine sediments are the largest pool of carbon storage in the world.

WiMS La Réunion Members Meeting

WiMS will host the first annual meeting of the antenna of Réunion in Saint Leu on March 25, 2021, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm in Kélonia for the creation of the antenna.

Register here to attend in person or online. In-person space is limited to 10 people due to Covid-19 restrictions. Login details will be provided closer to the event.

Book release: Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction Series: Center for Oceans Law and Policy, Volume: 24

The World Maritime University (WMU) is delighted to announce that the new book on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) is now freely available online. The volume is jointly edited by Professor Myron Nordquist, Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP) at the University of Virginia and by Professor Ronan Long, Director of the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute.
Ambassador Rena Lee (Singapore), Ambassador Havas Oegresseno (Indonesia) and Hans Corell (Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations 1994–2004) share valuable insights on the complexity of the issues that must be overcome in developing an internationally legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

High impact, small scale with MARPLASTICCs projects: the results of circular economy work in the fight against plastic pollution

Through the capacity component of the Marine Plastics and Coastal Communities project (MARPLASTICCs), IUCN has supported five Circular Economy initiatives that are actively reducing the amount of plastic waste that leaks into the marine environment. These projects focus on diverting plastic waste from coastal and marine areas and generating value from the plastic that currently ends up in the ocean.

In February, 2021, MARPLASTICCs released a series of video stories covering the circular economy projects in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as a 24-minute film covering the three African countries.

Register for the 2021 Nairobi Convention and WIOMSA Science to Policy Dialogue

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with discussions from the for the Nairobi Convention 2021 Western Indian Ocean Regional Science to Policy Dialogue

Author: A.P.

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