Nairobi Convention Marine and Coastal News Round-up (15 March 2021)

Welcome, Nairobi Convention Member States, partners, and friends, to this issue of the Weekly News Round-up!
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In this week’s round-up, read about an MSP WIO tool developed by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management in collaboration with the Nairobi Convention, called WIO Symphony. This tool is meant for measuring cumulative environmental impact in the Western Indian Ocean.***
We are getting closer and closer to the Nairobi Convention 2021 Western Indian Ocean Regional Science to Policy Dialogue. There are 4 days left to register. Don’t miss out.
We have also shared the meeting papers in this issue; look out for these in the roundup.
The Third SAPPHIRE Project Steering Committee meeting happens tomorrow, March 16 2021, and we have shared meeting documents with you. Be on the look out for this as well.
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Read about the significance of the Western Indian Ocean Region to outside players, as well as the effect of an oil spill in Madagascar on women’s unregistered fisheries.
***Keep reading for further details on these snippets, and for more WIO news.

Do you have any events, research, or scientific publications on the Western Indian Ocean that you would like to be included in the round-up? Write to [email protected]!

WIO Symphony – a tool for assessing the impacts of your planning decision

In collaboration with the Nairobi Convention (NC) and its ten Member States (MS), a team from Sweden is working on a tool for measuring cumulative environmental impact in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), called Symphony. Symphony calculates how pressures from human activities in the ocean affects nature values in each location in the WIO. The method and associated application is primarily used for Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Representatives from each MS form a Technical Working Group (TWG), who are involved in the collaboration from the start to ensure the WIO Symphony-tool is tailored to the specific needs of the end users.
On February 25^th and 26^th, the WIO Symphony Team held a two-day workshop on data collection, in which both members of the TWG and experts in the field (TWG+) participated. The workshop resulted in several fruitful discussions on data sources, data access, sharing data, as well as discussing the next steps for data collection. The workshop also included inspiring presentations on why data sharing is beneficial, examples of open data, and sharing platforms.

4 DAYS to Registration Deadline: The Nairobi Convention 2021 Western Indian Ocean Regional Science to Policy Dialogue

The Nairobi Convention, in collaboration with the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), is convening the 2021 Western Indian Ocean (WIO) Regional Science to Policy Dialogue. The theme of the meeting will be: ‘Transitioning to a Sustainable Blue Economy in the WIO region: Addressing the challenges and harnessing opportunities’ It will be a virtual Microsoft Teams meeting held over three days from 23 – 25 March 2021 from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m East Africa Time (EAT) every day. Kindly confirm your participation in the meeting by registering through the link below, before 19 March 2021.

Inequity in unregistered women’s fisheries in Mauritius following an oil spill

As the world was dealing with COVID-19, Mauritius faced an unprecedented ecological disaster on 25 July 2020. Mauritius, a small island nation of 1.3 million people, located 500 miles off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, was caught off-guard when the Japanese-owned, Panama-flagged vessel, the MV Wakashio, wrecked on the coral reef of Pointe D’Esny.
The combination of these two disasters – COVID-19 and the oil spill – disproportionately affected coastal communities employed in the fisheries and tourism sectors. This article focuses on the compounded impacts of COVID-19 and the oil spill on women gleaners and their families, an overlooked and neglected subgroup of Mauritian fishers.

Third SAPPHIRE Project Steering Committee Meeting

The Nairobi Convention Secretariat in executing the SAPPHIRE project is organizing the third SAPPHIRE Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting to be held virtually on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 16 March 2021 from 15h00 – 17h00 East African Time.This is following a request for the Project Management Unit to host a third PSC meeting to present the project workplan and budget for 2021.

more details >>

The Growing Significance of the Western Indian Ocean region

The Western Indian Ocean is strategically important not just owing to the energy and resource potential of the region but also because of the ongoing geopolitical contest. Western Indian Ocean is part of the Indo-Pacific region and major global powers have demonstrated interest in this region. Military forces of France, China, Japan, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea enjoy some sort of permanent or semi-permanent presence in the Western Indian Ocean. Russia has now joined these powers. The Indian Navy is a major player in this region as well.

IUCN Green List Orientation Webinar for Western Indian Ocean region

This webinar will provide an overview of the IUCN Green List Initiative and how it can be applied in protected and conserved areas of the WIO region. Experiences and lessons learned from other countries implementing the IUCN Green List will be shared with participants, who will then be able to provide feedback and discuss their potential interest in getting involved in the Green List process.
The webinar will happen on Mar 31, 2021 10:00 AM Nairobi Time.

Enhancing the Role and Impact of Gender Equality in the ACP-MEAs III project

The role and relevance of gender in effectively realizing the objectives of the EU funded ACP MEAs 3 project is an important consideration while implementing the project activities by various partners in the project. The ‘Operational Note’ has been developed in consultation with gender experts both within UNEP and outside, including the project partners.
Launched on 8th March 2021 to commemorate the International Women’s Day, this Note is intended to provide guidance to project partners and their collaborators on using specific gender considerations within the objectives and provisions of the ACP MEAs 3 project.

2021 Science to Policy Dialogue Meeting Papers

The Nairobi Convention in collaboration with WIOMSA and other partners are convening the 2021 Science to Policy Dialogue over three days from the 23rd – 25th March 2021. This year’s theme is: Transitioning to a Sustainable Blue Economy in the WIO region: Addressing the challenges and harnessing opportunities
To access the meeting papers, follow the link below.

Register for the 2021 Nairobi Convention and WIOMSA Science to Policy Dialogue

Don’t miss out on the 2021 Science to Policy Dialogue convened by the Nairobi Convention in collaboration with the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA)

Register now!

Author: A.P.

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