Seychelles hosts meeting on ocean governance |01 August 2023
Delegates in a souvenir photograph after the opening ceremony
A six-day meeting to enhance ocean governance in the western Indian Ocean is taking place at the Savoy Seychelles Resort and Spa since Sunday.
The meeting of the Nairobi Convention together with the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UN-DOALOS) brings together 60 participants from different parts of the world, to discuss and identify solutions to overcome challenges in regards to ocean governance and related aspects.
It follows a successful engagement in 2022 whereby UN-DOALOS expressed interest to hold a training session for Indian Ocean countries, with special focus on the western Indian Ocean.
The Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, who officially launched the workshop yesterday morning, said it will serve as a primal opportunity for the division of global experts to enrich the ocean governance segment and contribute to the ongoing regular processes being done.
“Through this project we aim to strengthen our collective capacity in the ocean governance studies, future consultations and customise training courses by fostering a series of practices and bring together policies regarding our oceans,” he stated.
Francois Bailet, a representative of the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, said they are here to reinforce their collective abilities to ensure the health and well-being of the oceans.
“We depend on our ocean and we need to figure out how to make this relationship work. There has been some great progress over the last few months, the ocean communities has achieved several important milestones,” he said.
For his part, Timothy Andrew, the representative of the Nairobi convention stated “this is a partnership that shows great example of linkage global processes under the UN umbrella with regional actions. We look forward for the great discussions that we are to have in this workshop”.
The meeting is divided into two components – from Sunday, July 31 to August 1, the focus will be on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and related agreements, and participants will also get an overview of the legal and institutional frameworks for the management of oceans at the global, regional, and national levels.
The first three days will also be to reinforce the knowledge and capacities of government officials from the regions, and other relevant stakeholders, on the science-policy interface and the integrated and inclusive ocean governance frameworks upon which the ocean-based economic sectors can be developed in a sustainable manner.
The second component, which will start from August 2 to 4, will focus on the limited elements of the third World Ocean Assessment (WOA III). This is one of the outputs of the third cycleOpens, a new window of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the States of the Marine Environment, including socio-economic aspects.
Diane Larame
Photos by Yann Dinan
