Cooperation with the Western Indian Ocean

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Our agency cooperate with four countries in the Western Indian Ocean region, namely Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa. We collaborate on marine management and marine spatial planning. We collaborate mainly in contexts where the region's developing countries also participate.

This cooperation is to a large extent done together with the Nairobi Convention, in which all ten countries of the region are members. The Nairobi Convention deals with the protection, management, and development of the coastal and marine environment of the Eastern Africa region, sorting under UN Environment.

We also work together with IOC-Africa, a sub-commission of the IOC-UNESCO which is the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

Exchanges on marine planning

Several countries in the Western Indian Ocean and East Africa have started their marine spatial planning, and Sweden has its first ever plans in place.

We exchange experiences about how to do marine spatial planning, useful tools and regional cooperation between countries.

Developing a tool for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning

We have developed a tool supporting ecosystem-based marine planning through cumulative environmental assessment, called WIO Symphony, together with the ten countries in the region and the Nairobi Convention.

Representatives from the countries ensure that the tool is based on the countries’ needs. They also contribute data and quality checks of national data. More than 30 other experts from authorities and academia in these countries and from Sweden participate.

Read about the WIO Symphony tool.

Addressing poverty and gender in marine spatial planning

We have produced a report which summarises three field studies that have tested our framework for addressing both poverty and gender equality in marine spatial planning. We produced the report together with the UN agencies IOC-Unesco and IOC-Africa.

 

In addition to the above, we have a more extensive cooperation with South Africa on oceans and water.

Published: 2022-09-15
Updated: 2022-03-10