SAPPHIRE Year in Review 2019

Project Background

The SAPPHIRE project aims to support and assist the appropriate and formally mandated government institutions and intergovernmental bodies in the region to implement activities that contribute to a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) and ensure sustainability of efforts and actions toward long-term management of the Western Indian Ocean Large Marine Ecosystems (WIO LMEs) as well as the sustainability of associated institutional arrangements and partnerships. The project builds on the previous work completed under the Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems (ASCLME) project by UNDP with the financial support of GEF and in close collaboration with different partners.

The Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), undertaken by the countries of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region with the joint support of ASCLME project and South Western Indian Ocean Fisheries Project (SWIOFP), provided a scientific and technical synthesis report on the status of the Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems. The synthesis presented in the TDA was used to develop a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) to address the problems of greatest concern that are facing the marine and coastal ecosystems of the WIO region. In line with this, the WIO LME SAPPHIRE project was designed to implement the priorities set in WIO LME SAP.

The joint ASCLME-SWIOFP TDA and SAP were intended to be complementary to the TDA and SAP for land-based sources of pollution produced by the WIO-LaB project: Addressing Land Based Sources of Pollution in the Western Indian Ocean (UNEP/Nairobi Convention Secretariat 2009). Throughout implementation, the project will coordinate closely with the successor project of WIOLAB, i.e. the Implementation of the Strategic Action Programme for the protection of the Western Indian Ocean from land-based sources and activities (WIOSAP) project, with the intention of harmonizing activities and ultimately combining institutional and administrative process for a single implementation strategy for the two SAPs. This will in turn enhance cost effectiveness and impact at the national and regional levels.

The project will benefit the Governments of Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania. The overall objective of the project is to achieve effective long-term ecosystem management in the Western Indian Ocean LMEs in line with the Strategic Action Programme as endorsed by the participating countries. It has five integrated components and each of them are intended to achieve various outcomes:

Component 1: Supporting Policy Harmonization and Management Reforms towards improved ocean governance.

Component 2: Stress Reduction through Community Engagement and Empowerment in Sustainable Resources Management.

Component 3: Stress Reduction through Private Sector/Industry Commitment to transformations in their operations and management practices

Component 4: Delivering best practices and lessons through innovative ocean governance demonstration

Component 5: Capacity Development to Realise improved ocean governance in the WIO region