GLORIA - Global Learning Opportunities for Regional Indian ocean Adaptation

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GLORIA will deliver a variety of model outputs, from climate change projections through fishery recruitment; ecological assets and ecosystem services; to output from socio-environmental models for increasing food security. Spatially referenced information includes model output, a consolidation of environmental and socio-economic information (including local perceptions), supported by methodologies to develop new models, elicit input from local groups, and engaging these in activities to explore, design and implement adaptation options. GLORIA will enrich current understanding of adaptation and adaptive capacity, and thus benefit stakeholders at international, regional national and local levels.
Internationally GLORIA can inform policy implementation of intergovernmental organisations involved in planning and supporting sustainable development, food security and climate change adaptation programmes (UNESCO-IOC, UNEP, UNDP, FAO, GEF). For example, phase 2 of the UNDP International Waters Project, Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem (ASCLME) Project will be launched in 2015. SAPPHIRE aims to enhance ocean governance and will directly benefit from GLORIA research, allowing a focused approach to planning and implementation of climate change adaptation options. The research will also benefit international humanitarian and environmental NGOs working with local communities in developing nations to alleviate poverty and prevent degradation of ecosystem services.
In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region GLORIA will be a catalyst in the planning process for the new African Centre for Capacity Development in Ocean Governance (AfriCOG), a partnership of international bodies and individual specialists facilitating training and capacity development. The research builds both on information from Madagascar and empirical analyses from other coastal countries and island states (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Mauritus). Outputs will therefore be relevant efforts by these countries to plan and implement measures to safeguard ecosystem services, alleviate poverty, and adapt to climate change for similar coastal communities. Beneficiaries also include the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), which works towards integrated development of the region and sees food security as a priority area; and the Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC), which promotes sustainable utilization of living marine resource, taking due account of environmental, social and economic concerns. The research will also be of interest to the NEPAD Agency, the technical body of the African Union, which includes climate change and natural resource management one of its thematic areas. Outputs can also inform the emerging Science-Policy dialogue fostered in the Nairobi Convention.
GLORIA will benefit the project partner, SAGE, and be of recognized value to the Madagascar Government (see letters of support). Stakeholders at the workshop include Madagascar Fisheries Service officers representing Fisheries, Aquaculture, Control and Surveillance; representatives of Regione Atsimo Andrefana; community associations such as Projet d'Appui aux Communautes de Pecheurs (PACP); local fisher organisations and fishers acting as tour operators to supplement their income; locally Managed Marine Area networks such as Velondriake (http://velondriake.org) where community groups work with NGO and research partners to promote sustainable livelihoods, and Association sur Nosy Be, which provides community-based marine ecotourism in the cultural resort and barrier reef marine reserve; regional tourism officers and organisations such as WWF Madagascar, Tany Meva (national foundation to support local communities), and 'Blue Ventures', a charity supporting sustainable development, food security and poverty alleviation. These will benefit from discussions at the workshop, information syntheses, outline of adaptation options, and tools to support local decision-making processes.