18 March 2013: Angola, Namibia and South Africa have signed the Benguela Current Convention, which establishes the first global multilateral Commission to apply the Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) approach to ocean governance. The agreement creates a permanent inter-governmental institution responsible for promoting the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), an ocean area extending from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to the province of Cabinda in the north of Angola.
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This Summit aims to bring together Heads of Governments, Ministers of the Environment, Chief Executive Officers of major corporations and donor agencies to set a new course for the management and preservation of the region's marine and coastal environment. Co-hosted by the Prime Minister of Grenada and the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, the event is supported by Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, and The Nature Conservancy. The Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) was launched in 2008 to provide greater leadership for protecting and sustainably managing the marine and coastal environment across the Caribbean.
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March 2013: The March 2013 issue of the "Micronesia Challenge Newsletter," published by the Micronesia Challenge Secretariat, features articles on: a meeting of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Micronesia Challenge Communications Working Group; and Guam's adoption of a Micronesian Challenge logo.
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8 March 2013: At recent meetings, the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) Steering Committee discussed strategies for achieving GLISPA's goals for 2013, including combating invasive species, stimulating "blue-green" economic growth and accomplishing debt-for-adaptation swaps to finance ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) activities, while the Micronesia Challenge discussed its second phase.
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26 February 2013: The Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) has released an update on recent progress toward the Western Indian Ocean Coastal Challenge (WIO-CC), and on plans for 2013. Plans include formalizing WIO-CC support mechanisms and communications modalities.
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The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) will hold its 28th General Meeting (GM28) in Belize. Launched at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 1) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994, ICRI brings together governments, the CBD and the Ramsar Convention Secretariats, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), development banks such as the World Bank, regional organizations such as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and international organizations such as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ICRI members use annual General Meetings to interact, discuss past and upcoming ICRI-related activities and adopt resolutions or recommendations that bring international attention to specific issues affecting coral reefs.
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14 February 2013: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Governments of Kenya and Tanzania will establish a Joint Cooperative Framework for transboundary management of the Chala and Jipe Lakes and the Umba River ecosystems.
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The Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe (INC-Forests3) will reconvene to discuss, inter alia, the decision on whether to adopt the Legally Binding Agreement (LBA) as a UN treaty, finance, compliance and the roadmap for negotiations through to the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference of FOREST EUROPE, scheduled for late 2013 in Madrid, Spain, where the results of the LBA negotiations will be presented to ministers.
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This panel discussion is being convened by the US National Invasive Species Council, in collaboration with the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA), as part of the opening of the 2013 National Invasive Species Awareness Week (NISAW). In this session, policy leaders and invasive species experts from Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean island countries will discuss the range of invasive species challenges they face, focusing on how leadership, coordination with allied issues and cooperation with partners are key ingredients to their biosecurity, control and eradication efforts.
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2 February 2013: The February 2013 issue of the "Micronesia Challenge Newsletter," published by the Micronesia Challenge Secretariat, highlights recent support for the Awareness Campaign for Sustainable Management of the Tafunsak Marine Protected Area Project in Kosrae. It also spotlights the outcomes of a Micronesian Challenge Communications workshop, which convened in Guam.
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