Cooperation with the Western Indian Ocean
Our agency cooperate with four countries in the Western Indian Ocean region, namely Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa. We collaborate on marine management, marine spatial planning and Environmental assessment.
We mainly collaborate in contexts where the region's developing countries also participate. This cooperation is largely 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 are doing 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.
Tool for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning published
We have co-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.
Learn about the WIO Symphony tool
Increasing Kenya's capacity to assess cumulative impact
Thruout 2026 and 2027, the Symphony Kenya project is a joint project by KMFRI and us at SwAM to build both capacity and a tool for cumulative impact assessment for Kenya marine spatial planning.
The project will give Kenya the capacity to assess cumulative impact on the environment and test various ways of using the ocean. The outputs will be useful to marine spatial planners and marine managers.
The Kenyan part is made possible thanks to the Strengthening Blue Food Systems in Shimoni and Vanga project, a NORAD-funded Kenya-Norway 2025-2028 bilateral programme.
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.
- Read the report Developing metrics of poverty and gender considerations in Marine Spatial Planning: a synthesis of case studies in Kenya, Madagascar and Tanzania, on the UNESCO web.
- Try the step-by-step Guide: Address poverty and gender in marine spatial planning
In addition to the various cooperation above, we have a specific cooperation with South Africa on oceans and water.
