Northern Mozambique Channel initiative

Initiative and Project Overview:

The natural assets of the Northern Mozambique Channel (NMC) area include diverse and valuable coastal and pelagic ecosystems (coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, etc.) and harbors high biodiversity, estimated to be second only to the Coral Triangle (Indonesia – Malaysia area). Such rich ecosystems support productive fisheries, important for the livelihoods of coastal communities, and a potential for greater output in pelagic fisheries.

The natural gas fields in the NMC are among the largest globally, and with production horizons of 40-50 years can fuel the region’s development over multiple generations. The economic assets of the region build on the natural assets, many of which are only at early stages of exploitation – hydrocarbon and other mining sectors are set to expand exponentially; the Mozambique Channel is a strategic maritime highway of both regional and global significance, and coastal/urban development and tourism are already growing.

For this reason, the Northern Mozambique Channel initiative (NMCi) looks for sound political buy-ins that will set the bases and apply concrete measures (in terms of policies, plans and practices) for sustainable management of this highly important transfrontier area (between Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania). This area is a high priority one for the Nairobi Convention, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Conservation International (CI), Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO), as it has a high potential to deliver broader economic benefits sustainably while its natural capital can be maintained healthy.

Start date: Initiative starting in 2012

End date: open-ended

Countries covered: Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania

Donor(s): FFEM, Sida, MACP

Principal Lead: Harifidy Ralison (horalison@wwf.mg)

NOCAMO program (funded by the FFEM) is a key means to reach the objectives of the NMCi

(NOCAMO program start in late 2019)

(NOCAMO ending in 2023)

 

Website:

https://cordioea.net/category/northern-mozambique-channel/

http://www.wwf.mg/en/our_work/priority_places/nmc_seascape/index.cfm

 

Aim/Objectives:

Goal: By 2030, the Northern Mozambique Channel’s (NMC) high biodiversity value coral reef and associated ecosystems are maintained and enhanced through effective spatial management of marine uses to secure a sustainable future for coastal communities and economies.

By 2023,

  • The institutional and knowledge foundations are laid for the application of multi-stakeholder based Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) across the NMC region.
  • Effective planning is promoted and best practices in the Oil & Gas sector are adopted by Governments and private sector champions.
  • Community livelihoods and well-being are incrementally secured through the sharing and replication of marine community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) best practices.
  • Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working for the benefit of the NMC region actively influence marine governance, law and policy making and reform processes across the NMC area.

 

Key activities:

In collaboration with relevant regional projects:

Component 1 – MSP

  • Contribute to establish and support national multi-sectoral and multi-actor platforms, and a regional MSP platform.
  • Assessing the Ocean Health Index (OHI) to map and value coastal and marine goods and services of the NMC
  • Assess the specific implications for each Scenario in terms of blue economy potential, of risks and of contribution to the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) n°14
  • Propose a framework of actions and a roadmap to guide the future MSP development in the countries of NMC

Component 2 – Oil & Gas

  • Build capacity of staff of national governments, regional bodies and CSO/NGOs, on use and implementation of guidance to promote uptake of best practice approaches and support harmonisation of national policies
  • Support development of national roadmap(s) for policy & capacity building with governments and private sector in selected priority country(ies)

Component 3 – Community management best practices

  • Identify and map effective practice models for CBNRM and partnership-based population health environment (PHE) linkages, in seascapes of NMC
  • Implement learning network activities, focused on exchange visits within and among seascapes

Component 3 – CSOs

  • Reinforce CSO coalitions’ advocacy capacity to allow them promote effectively integrated management and MSP.

 

Main outputs:

  • OHI for Mozambique, Comoros and Madagascar
  • Refined/deepened Scenarios based on real data and information
  • A roadmap to guide the future MSP development in the countries of NMC
  • National multi-sectoral and multi-actor platforms, and a regional MSP platform.
  • O&G development best practices uptaken by governments staff, regional bodies and CSO/NGOs
  • National roadmap(s) for enhanced policy in selected priority country(ies)
  • Effective practice models for CBNRM in NMC mapped
  • Marine CBNRM learning network operationalized
  • Advocacy actions on sustainable integrated management and MSP by CSO coalitions.

 

Partners involved:

For NOCAMO: Nairobi Convention Secretariat, BV, CORDIO, AMA Mozambique, FFI, WCS, WWF, CI, TNC

For NMCi in general (in addition to NOCAMO implementing partners): WIO-C, SWIOTUNA, FOSCAMC, MOSC, CNPE, TuNA, MRENGO, Dahari