Seychelles to co-host major conference on resilient ocean economies |16 January 2018
Oceans play a vital role in global climate regulation, food security, development and trade. However, oceans are under threat from global warming, pollution and over-exploitation of resources.
Sustainable Oceans/Blue economies provide an integrated approach to address those issues, incorporating sustainable wealth creation in the area of fisheries, tourism, energy, transport, trade and marine biotechnology as well as jobs, food security and the protection of the ocean environment. This is the approach the soon to be released Seychelles Blue Economy Roadmap is taking.
In the light of this, Seychelles and the World Bank Group will be co-hosting the 2nd African Resilient Ocean Economies Conference on February 22-23 at the Savoy Resort & Spa.
The conference will be opened by President Danny Faure and Laura Tuck, World Bank vice-president for Natural Resources.
It is a follow-up to the 1st Ministerial Conference and Investment Forum on the Ocean Economy and Climate Change in Africa, which took place in Mauritius in September 2016.
The aim of the 2nd conference is to advance the agenda on optimising the use of public and private financial resources to support sustainable ocean/Blue economy initiatives in select sub-sectors including fisheries, aquaculture, waste management, coastal resilience, tourism, energy and transport.
The two-day conference will seek to bring together 100-150 representatives from various African countries, development partners, international organisations, private investors, scientists, civil society and academia to share expertise, discuss lessons learned, and engage in pragmatic discussions focused on financial solutions to build the resilience of ocean/Blue economies to climate change.
The department of Economic Planning, the department of the Blue Economy (Office of the Vice-President) and the World Bank Group are organising the conference with the support of regional and international partners including the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the European Union, which will take part in the conference.
The two-day conference will implement the African Union Integrated Maritime Strategy (2063), the declaration of the Decade of African seas and Oceans (2015-2025) and the Lome declaration on Maritime Security which show growing interest in Blue economy as a pathway for sustainable development in the African region. Under this regional agenda, countries are encouraged to build climate resilience of sustainable Blue economies through science, finance, knowledge and policy interventions.
The resilient ocean economies conference will contribute to the implementation of international commitments of African countries including the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda (2015), and in particular Sustainable Development Goal 14 ‘Life under water’ (SDG14), which aims to ‘conserve and sustainably use the ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement (2015).
A financial package by World Bank (WB), the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the African Development Bank (AFDB) was proposed at COP 22 in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November 2016, to technically and financially support coastal and island states in Africa to address the challenges of climate change as they develop their ocean-based economies and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).