Every year, sea turtles return to the beaches of northern KwaZulu-Natal where they began life. Once they leave the shore, national boundaries disappear. Some travel north through the Mozambique Channel, using waters and coastal habitats off Mozambique and Madagascar. Others journey into the wider Indian Ocean.
South Africa can protect their nesting beaches. But no country can protect their entire journey alone.
The turtle carries the central challenge of Western Indian Ocean conservation on its back. Strong national action is indispensable, but migratory species, connected habitats and shared ecosystems also require countries to work together. The finance supporting that cooperation must be capable of making the same journey.
For the approximately 60 million people living within 100 kilometres of the Western Indian Ocean coastline, the stakes are immediate. Healthy marine ecosystems support food security, livelihoods, trade, tourism and protection from storms. They are the natural foundation of the sustainable blue economies our countries are working to build.
Their value reaches far beyond the region. Our mangroves and seagrasses store carbon. Our reefs sustain biodiversity of global importance. Our waters support migratory species whose journeys connect coastlines and the wider ocean. Protecting them is both a regional responsibility and a global interest.
The WIO does not lack ambition. Nor is it waiting for others to define what ocean conservation should look like.
In my own country, Seychelles, we have seen what can happen when ocean ambition is matched by political commitment and innovative finance. Our marine spatial planning and conservation-finance experience demonstrate that protecting the ocean can be integrated with national development. This learning does not belong to Seychelles alone, across the WIO, other countries are now advancing approaches shaped by their own priorities and circumstances.
Through the Nairobi Convention, governments have committed to stronger cooperation, sustainable blue economies and effective, inclusive ocean governance. The Regional Ocean Governance Strategy has established the mandate. We are now tasked with building the financing mechanisms capable of delivering it.
That task is no small feat. Conserving 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030 requires more than drawing boundaries on a map. Protected areas must be supported by science, effective management, enforcement, community participation and investment in sustainable livelihoods.
With the landmark BBNJ Agreement now in force, new possibilities are opening for conservation beyond national waters. The WIO must be ready to influence how the Agreement is implemented through regional research, proposals, and cooperation from the coast to the high seas.
But these responsibilities will extend far beyond any single project or grant. Reefs do not recover according to project deadlines. Fisheries do not rebuild within funding cycles. Conservation requires continuity.
On Anjouan in Comoros, women from three coastal villages formed an association after learning from fishing communities in Madagascar and Zanzibar. They temporarily closed part of their reef to octopus fishing, helped enforce the closure and waited. When the fishing ground reopened, the average octopus caught was twice its previous weight.
The idea crossed borders because communities could learn from one another. WIO communities are not waiting for conservation to arrive. They are already leading it. Sustaining and extending their progress requires finance that supports local leadership, shared knowledge and long-term management.
National institutions and project investments remain essential. But some responsibilities are regional by nature. Fisheries move, species migrate and habitats connect. Protecting offshore and transboundary ecosystems therefore requires countries to work together over time.
No single fund can finance every aspect of the WIO ocean agenda. Pollution control, greener ports, maritime priorities and conservation require different instruments. Within that wider architecture, a Western Indian Ocean Regional Conservation Trust Fund (RCTF) could fill a specific gap: mobilising and deploying sustained finance for conservation priorities that cross borders and are best addressed together.
Designed to complement and not compete with national funds, development banks and project finance, the RCTF would focus only where regional cooperation adds clear value.
The region is not starting from zero on this issue. Consultations with governments, conservation organisations and financial partners have begun, informed by experience within the WIO and elsewhere. The next phase must remain government-led, determining the fund’s priorities, safeguards, governance and relationship with existing institutions.
International partners can help accelerate that work. They are not being asked to create a new agenda or finance another isolated project. They can help build one component of a regionally owned financing architecture, directed toward conservation needs that conventional funding struggles to sustain. This is not simply an opportunity to fund conservation in the WIO. It is an opportunity to invest in the WIO’s capacity to lead it.
When governments meet at COP12 in October, they will mark 40 years of cooperation through the Nairobi Convention. They must also look ahead. A sustainable blue economy for the region must be built on healthy ecosystems backed by reliable, long-term finance.
COP12 should authorise a government-led next phase for the RCTF, defining where it can add value and how it should operate within the regional architecture already endorsed. International partners have an opportunity to invest early in a regionally owned mechanism designed to sustain conservation impact well beyond a single project or funding cycle.
The Western Indian Ocean is one connected ocean. Its future demands finance equal to the distance its species travel, the connections its ecosystems sustain and the ambition its countries are ready to turn into action.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Environment, Climate, Energy and Natural Resources, Seychelles.