Together for stronger marine protected areas in the Western Indian Ocean

The Varuna Biodiversité programme, financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and implemented by Expertise France, alongside the Indian Ocean Commission’s RECOS program (on coastal resilience) and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Protected Areas Network (WIOMPAN) have jointly organized five days of technical exchanges in Nosy Be, Madagascar from March 27 to 31 2023. The aim of this event was to define common actions between these 3 initiatives to strengthen the skills of marine area managers in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region.

40 participants from 7 territories attended the event: Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte, Reunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Seychelles.

For 5 days, managers of locally managed and voluntary marine protected areas had the opportunity to meet, sometimes for the first time, to get to know each other, to reflect on avenues of research into the management effectiveness of the region’s marine protected areas, to identify their expertise and to express their needs to successfully manage their marine area. Outcomes of the event include a first-ever common roadmap for capacity building for WIOMPAN and the RECOS and Varuna_AMP projects, as well as a consolidation of the dialogue between Western Indian Ocean marine area managers. They also enabled the RECOS and Varuna action plans to be drawn up, and actions to boost the contribution of WIO island territories to the WIOMPAN network.

A summary report is available, as well as other deliverables via this link:
https://padlet.com/internationalrnf/journ-es-d-echanges-techniques-wiompan-recos-varuna-2pkgbnm8b0xq4ug