Biophysical environment
The Regional State of Coast Report for the western Indian Ocean (WIO) provides insights into the enormous economic potential around the WIO, the consequential demand for marine ecosystem goods and services to match the increasing human population, the pace and scale of environmental changes taking place in the region and the opportunities to avoid serious degradation in one of the world’s unique and highly biodiverse oceans.
It has become increasingly clear that cross-sectoral cooperation is crucial and beneficial particularly to the context of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Over the past 50 years (1963-2013) Africa focused her collective on the decolonization, the struggle against apartheid and attainment of political independence for the continent.
The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region spans across a large latitudinal range, from the Somalia region, influenced by the strong monsoon regime of the northern Indian Ocean,to the southern temperate regime of the tip of
South Africa, where the Agulhas current diverges from the northward moving Atlantic Benguela current.
Fifty years after the first thirty-three (33) independent African states gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to form the Organization of African Union, now the African Union, the continent is looking ahead towards the next fifty years.
The Regional State of Coast Report for the western Indian Ocean (WIO) is the first comprehensive regional synthesis to provide insights into the enormous economic potential around the WIO, the consequential demand for marine ecosystem goods and services to match the increasing human population, the pace and scale of environmental changes taking place in the region and the opportunities to avoid serious degradation in one of the world’s unique and highly biodiverse oceans.
In Decision CP7/15.1, Contribution to the United Nations Regular Process, Contracting Parties to the Nairobi Convention agreed to support and actively contribute to the United Nations Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, Including Socio-economic Aspects by nominating national experts or institutions to be part of the Pool of Experts and by providing the necessary information for the process and the assessment of marine environment.
The Nairobi Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean (Nairobi Convention) holds a Conference of Contracting Parties (COPs) every two years to review the implementation of decisions of past COPs.
Aim of this report is to:
- Provide an objective and scientific basis for listing birds in the Protocol Concerning Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora in the East Africa Region
- Provide information on the status of birds and the key habitats in the region
- Use information on birds to extrapolate the status of the wider ecosystems in the WIO region
