2015
The Eighth Conference of Parties to the Nairobi Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean Region.
Science to Policy provisional programme.
The Nairobi Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean (Nairobi Convention) holds a Conference of Contracting Parties (COPs) every two years to review the implementation of decisions of past COPs.
The Nairobi Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean Region Secretariat (Nairobi Convention) in close collaboration with the Government of Seychelles, and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), organized the Eighth Conference of Parties (COP8) for the Nairobi Convention under the theme “Conserving the Marine and Coastal Environment for the Western Indian Ocean for the next 30 Years” on 22 - 24 June, 2015 in Mahe, Seychelles.
The Nairobi Convention holds a Conference of Contracting Parties (COP) every two years to review the implementation of decisions of past COPs. The Eighth Conference of Parties to the Nairobi Convention (COP8) was held on 22-24 June 2015 in Mahe, Seychelles.
At the Conference of Parties 15 decisions were adopted.
In Decision CP7/15.1, Contribution to the United Nations Regular Process, Contracting Parties to the Nairobi Convention agreed to support and actively contribute to the United Nations Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, Including Socio-economic Aspects by nominating national experts or institutions to be part of the Pool of Experts and by providing the necessary information for the process and the assessment of marine environment.
The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region spans across a large latitudinal range, from the Somalia region, influenced by the strong monsoon regime of the northern Indian Ocean,to the southern temperate regime of the tip of
South Africa, where the Agulhas current diverges from the northward moving Atlantic Benguela current.
Over the past 50 years (1963-2013) Africa focused her collective on the decolonization, the struggle against apartheid and attainment of political independence for the continent.
The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region is recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot and is one of the least ecologically disturbed areas of the world. The high biodiversity in the WIO and its broad array of habitats, both in the coastal and marine environment, are however under increasing pressure from burgeoning coastal populations.
Fifty years after the first thirty-three (33) independent African states gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to form the Organization of African Union, now the African Union, the continent is looking ahead towards the next fifty years.
