Developing the Regional Ocean Governance Strategy through a co-creation process

The ROGS Support Team supported a diverse WIO ROGS Task Force, involving state and non-state representatives from various sectors and organisations. This inclusive forum facilitated stakeholder dialogue and collaboration, with members providing inputs directly to the ROGS and expanding regional contributions by inviting stakeholders from their networks. The Task Force, along with key stakeholders, contributed strategic and technical insights to the ROGS through Technical Dialogues and regional events.


The Collective Leadership Institute (CLI) supported the Task Force through in-person workshops and online sessions  to enhance collective leadership and collaboration. An experienced ocean governance advisor, Mr. Kieran Kelleher, played a key role in formulating strategy questions and compiling ROGS content.


The inclusive and participatory approach aimed to foster ownership, improving the quality, feasibility and credibility of the ROGS. If adopted at the next Nairobi Convention Conference of Parties, this ownership is expected to boost the strategy's implementation.

 

  • Clear process and goal outlined in the process architecture for drafting the ROGS together

  • Participant interest and openness for individual and collective contribution

  • Capacity development and process stewardship prioritized by CLI, emphasizing authentic participation, trust-building, and co-creation

  • Technical dialogues led by the Task Force, engaging sector-specific stakeholders and experts for a shared understanding and optimal policy recommendations

  • Weekly online meetings of the ROGS Support Team, organized by CLI to ensure a high-quality process

  • Need to assign clear roles within the process including someone who drives the process forwards according to set timelines

  • Both process leadership and technical leadership

  • Consideration of financing and resourcing as an integral part of the ROGS

Political will and mandate to develop a Regional Ocean Governance Strategy

Political leaders of the WIO countries have recognised that cooperation among regional organisations and across sectors, including greater engagement of the private sector and civil society, is required to address growing regional challenges such as marine and coastal conservation, marine plastic pollution, climate change, response to disasters like oil spills or cyclones etc.


A series of successive policy processes, including the 2015 call by African Union (AU) for the development of an African Regional Ocean Governance Strategy through the Cairo Declaration of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), the 2017 Libreville Declaration of AMCEN, and a baseline study on WIO Ocean Governance, led to the mandate for the development of WIO’s Regional Ocean Governance Strategy at the 2021 Conference of Parties to the Nairobi Convention (NC) (Decision CP.10/5). In response, the Nairobi Convention Secretariat convened a Support Team to help guide a participatory development of the WIO ROGS by working with representatives of the NC Contracting Parties, the AU, the WIO’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Indian Ocean Commission, private sector and civil society actors in a Regional Ocean Governance Strategy Task Force.

  • Having a high-level political mandate is an important success factor for engaging in a multi-stakeholder, participatory process for regional strategy development

  • Selection  of Task Force members by countries, the AU and the RECS, and thus country participation in the creation of the strategy

  • Financial support from regionally endorsed projects and partners

  • Coordinating and covening ability of the NCS

  • Long process leading to the adoption of the decision in 2021 and protracted preparation period due to the wide scope and diversity of sectors and themes

  • Coordination of such a regional and political process requires continuous capacities on all sides and a strong will to participate actively

  • Continuity and a long-term process for developing and implementing strategy needs to exist before the start of the process

  • Ability to frame questions and issues in a form leading to consensus through technical dialogues

  • Effective feedback to the TF on consensus positions

Develop a Follow-Up and Monitoring Plan

The objective of this building block is to provide technical teams with parameters for measuring the effectiveness of restoration actions in the field.

The monitoring plan should include elements to evaluate the following parameters: 1) degree of development of planted species and their response capacity, 2) changes in water patterns and abundance, 3) changes in biodiversity dynamics (presence and abundance), as well as in the disappearance of exotic and/or invasive species, 4) changes in the environmental conditions of the area, and 5) changes in land dynamics and use, as well as public use and community demands.

  • Social auditing favors accountability in the quality and quantity of public investment in the territories.
  • Co-administration or co-management agreements favor accountability in the quality and quantity of non-governmental investment in the territories.
  • The creation of local governance platforms favors the creation of robust and transparent accountability systems.
  • The data provided by the monitoring system should have a technical component (how have we progressed in the restoration of our area?) and a social component (what are the monetary and non-monetary benefits of the investments made?), so that the actors involved maintain a real and effective interest in contributing to the restoration of these sites.
step-by-step implementation

the new site management approach will be implemented progressively, in stages. The corresponding deliverables will be proposed and discussed by the site's Scientific Committee and the Natura 2000 site's COPIL.

In order to gradually adapt an exemplary conservation management approach to combat habitat closure, specific studies have been carried out to assess the effectiveness of mowing and grazing, based on changes in vegetation and flora taxa since at least 2010. These studies were based directly on multi-taxon inventories carried out at regular intervals on the marsh. These elements are taken into account in the site's 2023 action plan.

Consequently, short- and medium-term management actions have been identified. In the short term, it is planned to carry out selective clearing and crushing of the overgrown areas (grazed area), with export of the cuttings. Similarly, it is proposed to maintain mowing techniques in the northern zone.

In the medium term, it is recommended to continue ecological monitoring of the conservation status of open environments (every 5 years), as well as monitoring of heritage flora and entomofauna.

Measuring the Impacts on Ecosystem Services

The objective of this building block is to provide developers and implementers of ecosystem and landscape restoration projects with a tool that uses remote sensing, augmentation factors, and the integration of the two as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration interventions on the ground.

To evaluate the line of impact of ecosystem services based on remote sensing, baseline data (baseline, management units and recent images) are collected and the differential between the initial and final year is calculated through: the definition of the increment tables, the normalization and adjustment of images, and the modeling of ecosystem services.

The increment factor approach is used for cropland and/or livestock where spectral indices derived from satellite imagery fail to accurately detect vegetation changes; and is calculated through: definition of baseline data, categorization of restoration practices and estimation of increment factors per implemented measure.

By executing this process, the area directly and indirectly impacted is available.

  • Have a baseline with the same variables and geospatial models to make credible and reliable comparisons over time.
  • Have a database of management units that clearly reflects the restoration actions that were executed in the field.
  • Implement a training and capacity building process with an assigned advisor, where doubts and uncertainties about methodological aspects and technologies to be used are resolved, which facilitates their adoption.
  • The databases that include the restoration measures in the territories should be reliable and preferably have been verified through supervision and control of data in the field.
  • If the developers and executors of restoration projects implement these methods in different areas, it is important to homogenize the variables, their treatment and the scale at which they execute them.
Policy Dialogues or Workshops

A dialogue or workshop with governmental stakeholders to present case studies or solutions that could be incorporated into national policies.

An ongoing collaboration with the national government and close communication about various project updates that are beneficial for policy.

Conducting panel discussions or FGD has been shown to facilitate dialogues between the public and private sectors. Such discussions are important for information accessibility to the private sector, while also influencing policies that are not resistant to project goals.

 

For instance, the carbon market workshop was significant in elaborating the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) plan on the Indonesian Carbon Market. Elaborating projects such as the biogas initiative early on is necessary to ensure smooth implementation once the policies are ready.

Implementation in stages

The works were carried out progressively: 3 phases spread over 3 years to achieve the desired structure and respect the ecological dynamics of the site, given that the stations are different according to altitude.

  • A first phase in year 1 concerning the summit part of the site.
  • A second phase in year 2 concerning the middle part.
  • A third phase in year 3 concerning the lower part.

The cuttings are carried out in a "centrifugal" manner. We start at the edges and gradually move away from them. This ensures that only what is necessary is cut.

The landscape gardener monitors the cuttings "live" from another vantage point, facing the slope, to adjust if necessary.

It became clear that the presence of the landscape gardener was essential to the successful completion of the work and to the proper application of the original plan.

The results after 3 years are satisfactory, but require long-term monitoring. A posteriori, a photographic observatory of the evolution of the right-of-way should perhaps have been set up for more precise monitoring.

Monitoring and management recommendations

Based on the results of the various protocols implemented in the Chriopt'îles project, management recommendations were formulated by the GCOI and presented to the TAAF, managers of the Eparses Islands.

Based on acoustic analyses and the hostile environment on Tromelin, the island does not appear to be home to any chiropteran species. No recommendations for management or further study are envisaged.

Despite the absence of chiropteran sounds in Europa's acoustic analyses, its history and local context suggest that chiropterans could still be present. It is planned to re-deploy the passive listening protocol over periods based on the dates of historical observations. Management recommendations will be made following this research.

2 species of chiropteran have been recorded on Grande Glorieuse, including the Taphien de Maurice and an undetermined species. The renewal of the passive acoustic protocol is envisaged in order to improve knowledge of the occupation of the territory by these species. Monthly visual monitoring of the coconut grove at the life base is also envisaged. The management of invasive exotic species on Filaos or Coconut trees must take into account the presence of these two species.

  • Obtain representative results from the various protocols implemented

  • Organization of a meeting during the project with the TAAF to discuss feasibility, technical, logistical and human constraints relating to the recommendations.

  • Organization of a feedback meeting with the Prefect of the TAAF, Mrs. Florence JEANBLANC-RISLER, to present the established recommendations.

  • TAAF welcomed and approved the management recommendations.

  • Willingness of both parties (GCOI and TAAF) to continue the partnership by considering a follow-up to the project.

  • Establishment of a working partnership between GCOI and TAAF

  • Development of management recommendations for each of the islands studied, based on the overall results of the project.

  • Willingness to pursue the acquisition of knowledge concerning the chiropteran assemblages present in the Eparses islands.

Passive acoustic listening protocol

On each island concerned by the project, 2 SongMeter mini bat ultrasonic recorders were deployed during 2 listening sessions by 7 agents from the Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, previously trained by the GCOI in their use. The two listening sessions took place in winter (December-January) and austral summer (July-August), based on knowledge of the Taphien of Mauritius. Positioned for 5 nights, in 4 pre-selected habitat types, 20 listening nights per recorder and per session were recorded. In all, 240 listening nights were recorded on all the islands.

Sampling plans were based on data on the different types of environment present on the three islands, supplied by the Conservatoire Botanique National de Mascarin.

Once the recordings had been retrieved, the data were processed using a fixed-point protocol derived from the VigieChiro system managed by the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, enabling the chiropteran species recorded in the sound files to be determined. Once the sounds had been processed automatically, a manual acoustic analysis was carried out by GCOI employees to identify any species not detected by the software.

  • Training of TAAF agents by the GCOI in the use of recorders

  • Involvement and autonomy of TAAF agents in setting up the protocol

  • Cooperation with CBNM to provide data on the types of environment on each island studied.

  • Cooperation with MNHN to adapt the fixed-point protocol to a study area other than metropolitan France

  • Involvement of GCOI employees in sound processing and analysis, and in drawing up management recommendations adapted to the results of the study.

  • Presence of two chiropteran species on Grande Glorieuse

  • No chiropterans on Tromelin

  • Doubt as to the presence or absence of chiropterans on Europa

  • Good partnerships with TAAF, CBNM and MNHN

3. Action planning based on the outcome of the SAGE assessment

Development of an action plan after the SAGE process was very crucial as it ensured that recommendations provided in the SAGE process were addressed in a systematic and targeted manner whereby key stakeholders who participated in the SAGE process were also engaged in the action planning process hence, they drew the roadmap for implementation of those recommendations.

 

In addition, recommendations which came out of the SAGE process informed Honeyguide on areas of priority in designing WMA governance capacity building programs.

 

The overall successful preparation of an action plan after the SAGE process required the following;

  • A clear understanding of the assessment findings and recommendations provided
  • Clear goals and objectives to be achieved
  • Strong leadership and coordination with key stakeholders
  • Adequate resources
  • Willingness and commitment from all key stakeholders.

Overall success of the action planning phase based on the outcome of SAGE process provided an opportunity to learn important lessons related to;

  • Keen selection and active engagement of key stakeholders in the planning process
  • Thorough understanding of the local context
  • Effective prioritization and goal setting by all key stakeholders
  • Inclusiveness of all key stakeholders in adequate resource mobilization

These lessons learned can be used as a good source of information to future development planning and programming organs of the WMA and can help to ensure that development interventions are effective, inclusive, and sustainable over the long term.