During October the programmes office kicked off the first western
Indian Ocean Information Sharing Workshop which took place over three
days. Sixty high profile scientists, researchers and government
officials from 14 countries attended the meeting which bore much fruit
in terms of sharing ideas and developing a common approach towards
sourcing and identifying data. The group was enthusiastic about a
common framework and agreed that the state of knowledge in the western
Indian Ocean region should be improved through the development of a
regionally owned, shared, information portal.
It was a constructive meeting and one that was enjoyed by delegates
thanks to the professionalism and commitment of ACEP organizers
Christelle Hutchinson, Melanie Darlow and Lucy Scott. Thanks to our
partners and sponsors, the United Nations Development Programme's
Agulhas Somali Large Marine Ecosystem (ASLME) Programme as well as the
Census for Marine Life for making it happen. ASLME's Dr David La Roche
says the GEF regards it as "critically important" that countries which
share vast resources can work together to develop regional approaches.
He said: "Fisheries and currents don't respect national boundaries and
in many cases they move back and forth so it makes good sense for these
countries to talk to each other and develop a common approach to
sustain their ecosystems."Speaking at the end of the meeting, CoML's
Charles Griffiths was positive and said he thought it was an ambitious
project taking the current state of knowledge from one level to a
higher level.
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