Western Indian Ocean
Dugongs occur in shallow tropical and subtropical coastal and island waters of the Indo-Pacific.
The dugong (Dugong dugon) is the only herbivorous mammal that is strictly marine, and is the only extant species in the Family Dugongidae. It is listed as vulnerable to extinction at a global scale by The World Conservation Union (IUCN).
This Regional Synthesis Report on the status of pollution in the WIO region synthesises information presented in the National Status of Pollution Reports which form the basis for the TDA of the WIO region. The TDA is an important part of the overall strategic planning process, providing a basis for formulation of the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and the harmonised National Action Plans (NAPs) on environmental protection of WIO region. The focus of this study is on land-based sources of marine pollution, i.e.
The coastal and marine habitats of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region support the livelihoods of a rapidly growing population, currently estimated at over 60 million. The region is still one of the least ecologically disturbed in the world, hosting over 2,200 species of fish, including rare and endangered species, such as the dugong, coelacanths, marine turtles, sharks, birds and over 350 species of corals and a diverse assemblage of coastal forests, mangrove forests and sea grass beds.
The coastal ecosystem of the Indian Ocean includes environments such as mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs. These habitats are some of the most productive and diverse environments on the planet. They form an essential link in the food webs that leads to fish and other seafood providing food security to the local human population. In addition coral reefs and mangrove forests protect the coastal areas against erosion. Unfortunately, due to a number of human activities, these valuable environments are now being degraded at an alarming rate.
The issue of shoreline changes has increasingly become a major social, economic and environmental concern to a large number of countries in the western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, where it poses a serious problem to the environment and human settlements.
The countries of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region share a common but varying dependence on the coastal resources including fisheries resources. Currently the coastal zone of the mainland states is home to over 30 million people and about 7.7 million more live on the Islands of Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Réunion (Linden and Lundin, 1997). Coastal resources in the Eastern African region have supported the livelihoods of generations of coastal dwellers and have contributed to the economic development of most countries in the region.
Deteriorating quality of the coastal waters of the ASCLME region poses a significant threat to public health as well as to the health of its living marine resources and ecosystems – and thus also to the economy to which fisheries revenues, for example, contribute US$943 million annually (ASCLME). The sources of pollution which contribute to this deterioration include both land-based and marine and maritime related activities.
Part A of this report examines the full range of regional environmental and resource management organizations in the Western Indian Ocean, outlining their competences and main areas of operation. It then looks at the range of environmental and resource management projects which are being, or have recently been, funded in the region, assessing their key objectives and outputs.
The overall objective of this project is to develop specific spatial data products at regional scale, for the coastal and/or marine areas of all the western Indian Ocean countries, including South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Comoros, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius and France. This report summarizes the data products, which have been prepared, on the basis of their relevance to the Large Marine Ecosystems (LME’s). The preparation of these data products involved retrieval from various sources, spatial analysis and modelling, and scaling.
