Biophysical environment
The purpose of these guidelines is to:
The presentation gave an overview of background to the technical workshop, including a summary of the objectives of the IOC Biodiversity Program. The presented workshop objectives were a) to review and validate the regional status report of sharks and rays in the Nairobi Convention region of the Western Indian Ocean, b) to develop a Regional Roadmap for advancing shark and ray conservation and management in the region, and c) to initiate networking by shark experts in the region. The workshop agenda (see Annex I) was also summarised
The meeting of the Forum of Academic and Research Institutions in the Western Indian Ocean (FARI) was organized by the Secretariat of the Nairobi Convention in collaboration with the Western Indian Marine Science Association (WIOMSA).
The Swedish support to Africa through the UNEP Africa Marine and Coastal Programme was instrumental in a number of ways in catalysing national action at both the Nairobi Convention and Abidjan Convention countries.
The objectives of the Agreement were:
The present Issues Paper aims at analysing how African countries can utilize the opportunities in the Blue Economy to bolster sustainable development and socioeconomic transformation. Agenda 2063 of the African Union declares the Blue Economy to be “Africa’s future” and recognizes the key role that the ocean plays as a catalyst for socioeconomic transformation. The paper examines the opportunities and challenges to developing the Blue Economy in Africa.
Environmental flows improve water management by ensuring a sustainable water supply meets the needs of people, agriculture, energy, industry and the environment within the limits of availability. The application of environmental flows supports the health of aquatic ecosystems and the well-being of people who depend on them. By providing a system for equitable allocation of water, based on available supply, the application of environmental flows can support development and poverty alleviation.
Pollution from land-based run-off threatens coastal ecosystems and the services they provide, detrimentally affecting the livelihoods of millions people on the world's coasts. Planning for linkages among terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems can help managers mitigate the impacts of land-use change on water quality and coastal ecosystem services.
The present study investigated diffusive emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere from three relatively small (3–120 km2) reservoirs (Masinga, Kamburu and Gitaru) on the Tana River (Kenya). Sampling was conducted biweekly in 2011, 2012 and 2013, at sampling sites upstream and downstream of these reservoirs while five sampling campaigns were carried out in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for different sites within each of the reservoirs.
The principle purpose of this report is to provide recommendations, advice and practical guidance, for establishing programmes to monitor and assess the distribution and abundance of plastic litter, also referred to as plastic debris, in the ocean.
Without drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages—the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we compiled coral abundance data from 2,584 Indo-Pacific reefs to evaluate the influence of 21 climate, social and environmental drivers on the ecology of reef coral assemblages.
