Economic activities

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region faces serious threats from climate change and human activities, impacting its rich marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of millions. To address these challenges, stakeholders are using Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to promote sustainable ocean resource use and support a blue economy. MSP helps coordinate human activities in marine and coastal areas. The Nairobi Convention leads the implementation of MSP, crafting a strategy that focuses on inclusive and sustainable management of ocean resources for human well-being. 
 
The blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) in the Western Indian Ocean, which include mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal marshes, play a crucial role in fighting climate change and supporting the local economy. These ecosystems store much more carbon than land forests, making them important for climate resilience. However, they are increasingly threatened by population growth, pollution, overexploitation, and climate change. 
 
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There is a broad scientific consensus in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region that the critical coastal and marine ecosystems, mainly mangroves, seagrasss beds, estuaries/rivers and coral reefs will continue to be degraded by the impacts of land-based sources and activities without significant conservation interventions that cuts across

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The Nairobi Convention is a partnership between governments, civil society and the private sector, working towards a prosperous Western Indian Ocean Region with healthy rivers, coasts and oceans.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Nairobi Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean Region Secretariat (Nairobi Convention) in close collaboration with the Government of Seychelles, and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), organized the Eighth Conference of Parties (COP8) for the Nairobi Convention under the theme “Conserving the Marine and Coastal Environment for the Western Indian Ocean for the next 30 Years” on 22 - 24 June, 2015 in Mahe, Seychelles.