Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA)

• Developing an ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention (NC) for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region
• Reporting on MEAs
• Improvement of Negotiation Skills for MEAs

ReCoMaP has successfully supported a suite of activities related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements and advancing ICZM in the Western Indian Ocean Region. While thematic and technical coverage of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - 1992 (UNFCCC) and Convention on Migratory Species - 1979 (CMS) was interwoven into numerous national-level support activities, in particular those on capacity building, the programme focused specifically on the Western Indian Ocean Regional Coastal Protection and Management Convention, which is the Nairobi Convention of 1985.

ReCoMaP support activities in this Result Area targeted both, capacity building in drafting and negotiation skills of MEAs, and the actual application of these skills during the processes leading to an ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention.

All targeted outputs in this Result Area were reached and with respect to the actual development of a Regional ICZM Protocol far exceeded. The Protocol Document is intended to be opened for signatures during the 7th Conference of the Parties (NC-COP7) in 2012.

 

An ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention

ReCoMaP was a regional ICZM programme. As such, its support to Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) activities did as well have a special regional focus towards enhancing regional MEA coordination and cooperation mechanisms between the Western Indian Ocean Countries. ReCoMaP supported capacity building and skills development in MEA negotiations and improved reporting on national MEA implementation with a special emphasis on regional coordination and cooperation.

Over the past ten years, the states of the Western Indian Ocean have brought forward several times the need for a specific Multilateral Agreement on Integrated Coastal Zone Management. In response, and as a first step, ReCoMaP conducted an Assessment of the Feasibility of an ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention. The assessment came to positive conclusions, both regarding an ICZM Protocol and the future establishing of a Regional ICZM Policy Forum in the WIO.

ReCoMaP coordinated and cooperated with the United Nations Global Environment Fund (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Nairobi Convention Secretariat (NCS) in this important regional development.

In Mach 2010, during the 1st Conference of National ICZM Committees in the WIO Region, the countries of the Western Indian Ocean decided to endorse a decision to enter into a drafting process of an ICZM Protocol to the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6) of the Nairobi Convention. This COP6 was held in Nairobi, Kenya, between the 29th March and 1st April 2010. Mauritius introduced the draft decision on the regional ICZM protocol for consideration by Parties to the Nairobi Convention. The draft decision was submitted to the Secretariat of the Nairobi Convention by Mauritius during the preparatory meeting of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries and the Sixth Meeting of Contracting Parties to the Nairobi Convention. The draft decision was unanimously approved by the technical committee on the 31st March 2010, and formally adopted as Decision CP6/3 of the Sixth Conference of Contracting Parties (COP) to the Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region (the Nairobi Convention).

For the next two years, ReCoMaP supported the Western Indian Ocean Countries and the Nairobi Convention Secretariat during the drafting and negotiation process of the ICZM Protocol. ReCoMaP rendered specific technical and financial support to the Ad-hoc Legal and Technical Working Group for the Development of an ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention (LTWG) composed of official delegates from the countries. The programme additionally supported special National Working Groups (NWG) having advisory and support roles to the national representatives in the LTWG.