Background 

The relentless emission of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, has contributed to global warming. To combat this, nations worldwide committed to reducing CO2 emissions in the Kyoto Treaty (1992-2020). The recent IPCC assessment warns of a temperature rise exceeding 1.5 degrees in the next two decades without immediate carbon emission reduction. 

The IORA Secretariat, with the support of the AFD technical assistance to the IORA, organised a “Webinar to review the existing capacity and needs of IORA Member States for aquaculture development”. The objective of this webinar was to have a better understanding of the IORA Member States’ needs and priorities on aquaculture development and to gather information on IORA MS’ needs across a broad range of domains including species selection, site selection, breeding, fish feed development, environment and disease.

The AFD Technical Assistance to IORA organised a webinar on 16 September 2021 on "Combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and especially through PSMA application in the IORA region". The general objective of this webinar was to present recent developments, measures and tools to combat IUU fishing in the IORA region, with particular emphasis on Port State Measures. Furthermore, as part of this webinar, the importance for the IORA MS to ratify and comply with the FAO PSMA and foster the exchange of information on IUU in the region was discussed.

The IORA Secretariat, with technical assistance provided by the AFD and COFREPECHE, organised a training course in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations “Online training course to raise awareness of the benefits of the PSMA amongst the IORA Member States which are not yet Party to the Agreement”. The FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSM) is the first binding international Agreement that specifically targets IUU fishing, which came into force in 2016.

The IORA Secretariat with the technical assistance provided by AFD and COFREPECHE hosted the Training programme on “enhancing by-catch landing, valorisation, traceability, and quality, including the development of safe handling guides and species identification guides”, on 29 March – 1 April 2022, in Seychelles.

The IORA Indian Ocean Blue Carbon Hub in collaboration with the IORA Secretariat hosted the Webinar on “International policy mechanisms to support blue forest protection and restoration” on 11 April 2022. The aim of the webinar is to share knowledge about international policies that can be harnessed to support blue carbon initiatives in IORA.

The IORA Secretariat, with technical assistance provided by the AFD and COFREPECHE, organised an “online training workshop on self-producing aquaculture feed techniques for traditional farmers”. The general objective of the workshop was to provide the necessary skills and know-how on insect farming for feed production in aquaculture. The expected outcome is to provide rural and small aquaculture farms with alternative protein sources for feed production through the support of their fisheries and aquaculture support or extension services.

The Strategic Framework of Action on Marine Debris in the Indian Ocean was finalised at the 3rd Workshop on Development of IORA Declaration on Combatting Marine Debris and a Strategic Framework of Action on Marine Debris in the Indian Ocean, which was held on 28-29 September 2022, in Bali, Indonesia, and organised by Indonesia in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The workshop aimed at finalising the draft framework and identify concerted and tangible efforts in combatting marine debris in the Indian Ocean.