Guidelines for Setting Water and Sediment Quality Targets for Coastal and Marine areas

The Nairobi Convention is an important regional platform for addressing coastal and marine ecosystems challenges in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) through catalytic interventions, dialogue, and partnerships. The Contracting Par- ties to the Nairobi Convention include Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and the island states of Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion (France) and Seychelles. The governments of these countries have agreed, through a highly consultative process, on a suite of national and regional collective actions that are required to address significant stresses on the coastal and marine environment of the region, including:

• “Implementation of the Strategic Action Programme for the protection of the Western Indian Ocean from land-based sources and activities” (WIOSAP) – funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• “The Western Indian Ocean Large Marine Ecosystems Strategic Action Programme Policy Harmonisation and Institutional Reforms” (WIO LME SAPPHIRE) – funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the United Nations Development Pro- gramme (UNDP)
• “Enforcing Environmental Treaties in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries” (ACP-MEA Phase III) funded by The European Union.

In terms of coastal and marine water quality management (C&MWQM), it is expected that through improved capacity and the implementation of the appropriate strategic framework ecosystem integrity can be improved, leading to local socio-economic and environmental benefits, in addition to global environmental benefits. The development of a regional strategic framework for C&MWQM could provide a basis for adopting and integrating effective management into national frameworks, acknowledging that countries are at different development stages. Two phases are envisaged:

• Phase 1 – Development of a Strategic Framework for Coastal and Marine Water Quality Management
• Phase 2 – Implementation of the Strategic Framework for Coastal and Marine Water Quality Management at the national and sub-national levels.

Forming part of Phase I, the Guidelines for Setting Water and Sediment Quality Targets for the Coastal and Marine Environment in the WIO region (or simply Target Guidelines) represent an update of a previous guideline document – UNEP et al., 2009, informed by the Situation Assessment on Marine Pollution and Coastal and Marine Water Quality Management in the WIO Region (UNEP et al., 2022a). The Target Guidelines also feeds into the Strategic Framework for C&MWQM for the WIO Region (UNEP et al., 2022b).

These Target Guidelines aim to assist responsible authorities and water quality managers in developing site-specific targets for their coastal and marine areas towards the effective implementation of national-level C&MWQM. For this reason, this document also includes practical guidance on deriving and/or applying water and sediment QTs at the site-specific scale.