Western Indian Ocean – Resilience & Prosperity (WIO-RPI)
“The Western Indian Ocean Resilience and Prosperity Initiative is an essential part of our region’s strategic and policy framework to ensure we maintain a prosperous and resilient Western Indian Ocean. It provides the architecture and the foundations to support existing regional programmes and new initiatives like the Great Blue Wall…It provides the policy and strategic surety for international financing organisations to support the development of the sustainable blue economy."
President Danny Faure, Seychelles
Western Indian Ocean – Resilience & Prosperity (WIO-RPI) is an initiative of the governments of the Western Indian Ocean to co-create an ambitious new regional ocean policy and strategy to continue to support sustainable ocean development that is underpinned by science-based management and protection.
The policy and the first five year strategy is co-developed with regional and international experts and civil society organisations and will serve to support and underpin current and future initiatives in the region, including the Great Blue Wall.
The Initiative has been endorsed as a project by all nations at the Nairobi Convention’s COP10 in November 2021.
The four interconnected objectives of the WIO policy are:
Enhance Marine Science: To inform and coordinate decisions on the sustainable use and management of marine resources and priorities for restoration and resilience.
Harness a Sustainable Blue Economy: To support the development of a sustainable blue economy plan that delivers resilience, jobs and a just, equitable transition
Strengthen Natural Resilience & Restoration: To establish a just, equitably designed and managed connected network of ecologically and culturally representative protected areas in national and international waters, complementing global targets.
Advance Ocean Governance: To advance governance for sustainable use and management of marine resources and protected areas.
It will take two years to create and ratify the new WIO regional policy and five year strategy. It will be implemented by the Danny Faure Foundation and supported by technical partners Nekton and the Nairobi Convention. The Government of Seychelles is the Coordinating Government.
