3rd Workshop on Development of IORA Declaration on Combatting Marine Debris and a Strategic Framework of Action on Marine Debris in the Indian Ocean, 28 – 29 September 2022, Bali, Indonesia

Marine pollution has devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and the oceans, threatening marine animals and plants. Plastics (including microplastics) and marine debris items are some of the prominent marine pollutants that injure and kill marine life, interfere with navigation safety, and pose a threat to human safety and health, and most importantly affecting countries’ economy. There are a number of ongoing initiatives by regional/international organisations to improve litter prevention, recycling, and other waste management infrastructure.  Given that this issue has already been highlighted in previous IORA Meetings, Indonesia and Germany initiated the Project entitled “IORA Actions Against Marine Debris”, which aims at developing an “IORA Declaration on Combatting Marine Debris” and a Strategic Framework of Action on Marine Debris in the Indian Ocean.

In this regard Indonesia in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) organized the first two workshop online and will be organising the 3^rd Workshop, which aims at finalising the draft Strategic Framework of Action on Marine Debris in the Indian Ocean and explore the wayforward for implementation of regional project to address the marine debris issue in IORA

The overarching objective of the proposal is to minimize the waste generation on land, thereby reducing the amount of plastic waste that enters the rivers and oceans. For this purpose, the specific objectives of the proposal are to:

• Support projects on policy advice, capacity building, technological cooperation and investments;
• Develop and implement strategies to reduce the amount of waste and thus plastic waste;
• Develop marine debris strategy framework directive that ranges from land based via waterway-based (rivers) to sea-based (fishing activities/ghost net) pollution sources.
• Promote the international exchange of knowledge and experiences in waste management, circular economy and marine litter;
• Initiate the implementation of pilot projects to develop the capacities of Member States;
• Enhance collaboration with the Dialogue Partners in combatting marine pollution;
• Explore the possibility of implementing an IORA Initiative to combat the marine plastic contamination in the region; and
• Develop an IORA Framework on Combatting Marine Debris, supported by a list of projects recommended by Member States.
• Exchange information and share knowledge to design and develop a tool for the monitoring of marine debris and its impact to the ocean.
• Strengthen the cooperation and community development in a reuse-reduce-recycle initiative