Western Indian Ocean Nations Unite to Protect Vital Coastal Ecosystems

An estimated 60 million people live in the 10 countries that fringe the biodiversity-rich Western Indian Ocean (WIO), where they rely on a healthy marine environment for food security, livelihoods, and economic activity.

To advance multiple ocean-related priorities, the region’s governments have committed to the Nairobi Convention, a legally binding partnership framework for governments, civil society, and the private sector to take collaborative action. Signatories to the Convention gathered in Madagascar in August for the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP 11), a forum for attendees to discuss a suite of topics, including management of marine protected areas; biodiversity conservation; and critical habitats.

Amid the region’s growing awareness of nature-based solutions to fight climate change, attendees at the conference sought to conserve “blue carbon” ecosystems, including protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing critical coastal wetland ecosystems such as seagrass, mangroves, and salt marshes—all of which provide a range of benefits for people, nature, and the climate.

That momentum includes the country of Seychelles’ recent commitment to protect all its seagrass and mangrove ecosystems by 2030 as part of its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. That sweeping 2015 deal set a target of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and ideally not beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Each country’s NDC is a specific pledge to help the world meet the Paris Agreement’s goals.

At COP 11, attendees adopted bold decisions to protect and manage coastal wetlands, with an emphasis on seagrasses, an ecosystem that lacks the data of other wetland ecosystems in the region, such as mangroves. The decisions reflect current needs in conservation and management for coastal wetland ecosystems, such as improving conservation measures for all blue carbon ecosystems and developing a regional seagrass strategy with stakeholders in all countries. Attendees also called for countries to improve institutional arrangements, such as establishing data-sharing practices for blue carbon ecosystems across agencies in each country to better manage these critical habitats.

The decisions in the final resolution include:

• To urge Contracting Parties to strengthen measures for the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of blue carbon ecosystems, including seagrass, mangroves, and salt marshes.
• To request that the COP 11 Secretariat, in collaboration with partners, support the development of a regional seagrass strategy, vision, and action plan.
• To urge Contracting Parties to strengthen institutional arrangements to address knowledge gaps for blue carbon systems in their national ocean management frameworks and national institutions.

The Pew Charitable Trusts

Flavien Joubert, minister of agriculture, climate change, and environment for Seychelles, said: “The growing recognition for ocean conservation and the shared vision of a regional seagrass strategy is an opportunity for the region to become a global leader in this space.”

The Pew Charitable Trusts applauds the leadership of the region’s governments and the work of the Nairobi Convention Secretariat, along with all its partners, for moving to protect, restore, and sustainably manage seagrass, mangroves, and salt marsh across the region. The decisions made at COP 11 stand as an affirmation of the goals of addressing the twin problems of biodiversity loss and climate change—and demonstrate to other governments what actions must be taken to build a sustainable future.

Stacy Baez works on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ advancing coastal wetlands conservation project.