News

The decision to move the Course in Ocean Governance to online was not taken lightly, but after delaying the 2020 training that was scheduled for September, and the continuing uncertainty around Covid-19, it was the pragmatic decision. The training started on the 22nd Feb and finished Friday, the 19th March.

The online format has opened up opportunities to engage with experts from 12 different countries and include our IOI partners from Egypt, Malta, Nigeria and Kenya. It allowed for innovative ways to approach learning, with a strong focus on peer-to-peer learning, discussion and group exercises. The participants, from 11 countries in Africa, and a broad range of professional backgrounds, stepped up to the challenge of engaging effectively online, with lively discussions taking place through the weeks. While we couldn’t take the participants to the field, we did create a short video on Estuary Management, to introduce our participants to governance in action, using Zandvlei Estuary in Cape Town as a case study.

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To find out more about the Course in Ocean Governance click here. The next training is schedule for September 2021.

On 15-19 February, IOI-SA in collaboration with the FAO, held the pilot training event for the Small-Scale Fisheries Governance Training Program for Africa – for creating an enabling environment for the implementation of the FAOs Voluntary SSF Guidelines. 

The training event brought together government stakeholders and FAO country
representatives from the countries of Ghana, Namibia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Over the 5 days, a great group of engaging participants interacted with experts and speakers from the region who delivered sessions of particular relevance to SSF governance in Africa. The sessions centered on approaches to good governance toward the recognition and awareness of the key principles and themes highlighted in the SSF Guidelines -grounded strongly in human rights based approaches. 

The training was well received by the participants, and served as a motivation for positive change for small-scale fisheries in their National contexts. “They (SSF sector) have fed the world. They have come from a place where they have been ignored. And now for the first time the world is looking in their direction. They are too big to ignore… Small-scale fishers lives matter.” – Participant, Ghana. 

Read more about the training event here. 
Read more about the FAOs Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication here.

PETCO and IOI-SA gathered together plastic experts to try unpack some of the myths and mysteries around these issues in a panel discussion that was open to the public and media. The discussion took place on the 12th of March 2020. The experts included Peter Ryan  (University of Cape Town), Douw Steyn (Plastics|SA), Aaniyah Omardien (The Beach Co-op), Anthony Ribbink (Sustainable Seas Trust), Alison Davison (City of Cape Town), Suzan Oelofse (CSIR), Cheri Scholtz (PETCO) and Chandru Wadhwani (Extrupet). The discussion was facilitated by IOI-SA Director, Adnan Awad. The panelists were asked to highlight some of the plastic myths that they have come across and what message they would like the audience to take home. To find out more about the discussion, please click here: PETCO/IOI-SA Plastic Forum March 2020.

 

Applications are now open for the 2020 IOI-SA Course in Ocean Governance for Africa. The course will run from the 7th September to 2nd October 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. Find you application form and more information on the Course Page. 

The course is a unique opportunity to join the growing network of IOI Ocean Governance Ambassadors in Africa.

 

Applications will close on the 19th April 2020 and no late applications will be considered. Spaces are limited. Partial funding is available on a competitive basis and only to participants from Africa.

Participants from South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Gabon, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Liberia met in Cape Town on the 27th and 28th November, 2019, to discuss the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) negotiations that are taking place in New York. The workshop was the first of two that will be run by STRONG High Seas Project partners, the International Ocean Institute – African Region, in collaboration with BirdLife International.

The workshop aimed to bring together representatives from the Abidjan Convention countries, with an interest in the BBNJ negotiations that are taking place in New York, to learn from each other and have a better understanding of the importance of the negotiations for Africa, and how they can contribute to the negotiations at a national and regional level.

To find out more about the workshop, please see the STRONG High Seas Capacity Development Workshop Report.

The presentations from the workshop are included below:

1. Introduction to the High Seas
2. The STRONG Project – an introduction
3. Introduction to the BBNJ Negotiations
4. South Africa and the African Group’s perspective
5. ABNJ and the Southeast Atlantic Region
6. Abidjan Convention and BBNJ

 

IOI-SA, together with our partners at Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), were at the WIOMSA Symposium in Mauritius to launch the West Indian Ocean Governance and Exchange Network – WIOGEN. The network is an opportunity for knowledge exchange and capacity building in the West Indian Ocean region. It complements other regional marine science networks by focusing explicitly on ocean and coastal governance – bridging the social and marine sciences. There are three broad themes under which a series of exciting scientific exchanges, publications and training schools will be developed:

• Nutritional Security, sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and livelihoods
• Marine Spatial Planning and Coastal Management
• Biodiversity conservation, pollution and habitat loss.

Check out www.wiogen.org to find out more

IOI-SA joined the multi-stakeholder team, lead by the Ministry of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping in Mauritius this July to investigate biofouling on ships in Port Louis. Biofouling is the attachment and growth of non-desirable organisms on the submerged surfaces of ships’ hulls. The growth of organisms not only slows down ships, resulting in an increase in fuel costs, but is also an important way in which the introduction of alien, invasive species to new areas can occur. It is therefore an ecological and economic threat to Ports. This was the second field visit for the project and included sediment sampling and sampling of hulls in Port. This project includes a large team from multiple organisations, including the Mauritius Oceanographic Institute, Shipping Division, Mauritius Ports Authority and National Coast Guard.