Western Indian Ocean Science to Policy Workshop of the UNEP-Nairobi Convention

The Western Indian Ocean Science to Policy workshop of the UNEP-Nairobi convention, hosted by the Ministry of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping and the Mauritius Oceanography Institute were held from 27th to 29th May 2019 at the Sofitel Hotel, Flic en Flac.

At the official opening ceremony that was held on Monday 27th May 2019, opening statements were made by the President of the Board of WIOMSA, Dr. J. Uku, the Officer-in-Charge of Environment and Climate in the Indian Ocean Commission, Mrs. G. Bonne, the Acting United Nations Resident Coordinator for Mauritius and Seychelles, Dr. L. Musango and the Head of Nairobi Convention Secretariat, Mr. D. Waruinge followed by the opening speech of the Honorable Premdut Koonjoo, Minister for Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping.

 

The workshop had two major segments:

  1. Science to Policy workshop
  2. Regional Experts Stock-taking Workshop on Oceanographic Research and Data in the WIO Region

 

Science to Policy Meeting

Goal

The overall goal of the meeting was to establish and operationalise the Science to Policy Platform as a core structure within the Nairobi Convention.

 

Objectives

  1. Review of the Terms of References of the Platform, its membership and modus operandi;
  2. Discussions on the need for a regional ecosystem/indicator monitoring framework and road map on its development;
  3. Discussions on topical emerging scientific findings with potential policy implications in the management of coastal and marine resources in the region;
  4. Regional stock-taking of oceanographic research and data in the region;
  5. Validation of various regional toolkits and Guidelines.

 

Regional Experts Stock-taking Workshop on Oceanographic Research and Data in the WIO Region

Goal

The overall goal of the regional stocktaking workshop of experts on ocean/LME assessment in the WIO was to review the existing and planned initiatives on scientific data as well as marine and oceanographic research and to identify needs and gaps to be addressed through any future initiatives through coordination and collaboration with wider partners.

 

Objectives

  1. To take stocks of research cruises/ocean-based monitoring and identify the gaps in data capturing and management.
  2. To design appropriate mechanism to support the countries to improve their access to oceanographic/marine science data collected by a number of ongoing and forthcoming initiatives in WIO, through Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis/ Marine Ecosystem Diagnostic Analyses (TDA/MEDAs) update. 
  3. Bringing together all partners to exchange information and coordinate efforts to stretch collective impacts of our respective investments (programmes) in the WIO.

 

Dr. Daniel Marie, Deputy Director of MOI made a presentation on projects of the MOI during the session on Regional Stocktaking on Oceanographic data and Scientific research in the WIO region under the SAPPHIRE project. 

The closing remarks were made by Mr D. Waruinge, Head of Nairobi Convention and Dr. Ruby Moothien Pillay, Director of MOI.

 

Participants

There were about 90 participants from 15 countries comprising of representatives of formal and informal knowledge generating institutions, practitioner, Policy makers, communities and private sector within the WIO region. The workshop was also attended by experts and consultants from within and outside of WIO.  

 

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