ICZM in the Western Indian Ocean Region

 

ReCoMaP was able to support the Western Indian Ocean and Eastern African Countries to further advance from coastal environmental conservation and coastal resources management towards the management of a general sustainable development of their coastal zones. It has generally been recognized that the sustainable development of the coastal zones of the Western Indian Ocean countries plays a crucial role in the overall economic development of the Region. Financial, Economic, Planning, Decentralisation, Social and other Governmental Sectors that were until recently not sufficiently involved in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) have started to join forces with traditionally more 'environmental' and/or 'coastal' sectors like Environment, Fisheries, Forestry, and Agriculture in forming National Multi-sectoral ICZM Frameworks.

ICZM Developmnts at Regional Scale with Support from ReCoMaP

ReCoMaP supported a suite of very specific activities related to advancing ICZM in the Western Indian Ocean, both at regional and national levels such as

  • Support to the creation or consolidation of National and Local ICZM Committees and Issue-specific Working Groups in all focus countries.
  • Support to the drafting and negotiation of the ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention.
  • Development, Publication and Provision of ICZM Training Material such as the DVD 'Resources for Short Courses in Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the South-western Indian Ocean Countries'.
  • Integration of Non-State Actors (NSA/NGO) into ICZM at national and regional levels.
  • Support to the Improvement of Communication Structures within ICZM Frameworks in all focus countries.
  • Support to International Networking beyond the WIO Region, in particular in relation to Transboundary Issues in ICZM and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA).
  • Significant ICZM Capacity Building, e.g. through the development and organisation of Regional and National ICZM Courses.
  • Support to follow-up activities related to the Strategic Action Plans (SAP) and National Plans of Action (NPA) on Land-based Sources and Activities (LBSA) developed under the GEF WIO-LaB Project as well as follow-up on the implementation process of the related LBSA Protocol to the Nairobi Convention.
  • Introduction, organisation and facilitation of the 'Conferences of National ICZM Committees in the Western Indian Ocean'.

 

Regional ICZM Conferences in the Western Indian Ocean

As a pre-cursor to a Regional ICZM Policy Platform to be established over time, ReCoMaP introduced the 'Regional ICZM Conferences in the Western Indian Ocean'. These conferences serve several long-term and short-term purposes, among them

  • Providing a policy and governance forum for exchange and discussion on the implementation of ICZM at the national levels, including the processes related to the development and implementation national ICZM strategies, policies and related legislation (long term), and
  • Providing a regional forum to further elaborate and discuss the ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention (short term until 2012).

 

 

Country Delegates to the 3rd Regional ICZM Conference in the Western Indian Ocean (Mauritius, 25 July 2011)

6th Conference of the Parties of the Nairobi Convention (COP6, 29 March - 1 April, 2010)

 

Ministers of Environment signing the new instruments (Photo: UNEP, NC).