Pick up your latest copy of the GOBI newsletter here.  This issue is all about connectivity, to coincide with the launch of the Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) system during second session of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on an international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) onContinue Reading New GOBI Newsletter – Spring 2019

The second Pacific Bioregionalisation workshop (under GOBI’s Bioregionalisation work stream) was held in Nadi Fiji from 12 to 14 March 2019.  It was attended by 27 experts from 19 Pacific countries and territories. The experts reviewed the outputs from the first workshop and provided additional details and information on the Pacific bioregional provinces.  They refined the boundariesContinue Reading Second Pacific bioregionalisation workshop completed

A workshop and Fourth Joint Meeting of the Sargasso Sea Commission and Hamilton Declaration Signatories took place at the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences, St George’s, Bermuda from 13 to 15 March 2019.  With financial support from DFO Canada, the workshop provided a chance to recall significant progress made by the Sargasso Sea Commission examiningContinue Reading Next steps to strengthen stewardship of the Sargasso Sea

The latest IMMA regional workshop held in Dhofar, Oman (4-8 March 2019) has identified an unprecedented 55 candidate IMMAs and a further 13 Areas of Interest (AoI). The workshop hosted 38 marine mammal scientists and observers from 15 countries with the sole purpose of identifying important habitats for marine mammals in the western Indian Ocean andContinue Reading Latest IMMA workshop most successful yet

With support from GOBI, MarViva Foundation hosted the workshop “Conservation and sustainable use of the marine resources of the Thermal Dome in areas beyond national jurisdiction”.  It was held on 13-14 February, in San Jose, Costa Rica, with representatives from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica and the Central American Integration System (SICA)Continue Reading Second Costa Rica Thermal Dome governance workshop

The IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force has approved 30 new Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in the northeast Indian Ocean and southeast Asian seas region.  These 30 IMMAs were part of the outcome of a regional IMMA expert workshop held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia in March 2018.  Now that they have passedContinue Reading 30 new IMMAs recognised in the NE Indian Ocean & SE Asian seas

Following discussions during the latest Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in November 2018 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 42 new EBSA descriptions have been formally welcomed by the Parties and are soon to be communicated to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) before being added to the EBSAContinue Reading 42 new EBSAs added to EBSA repository

The 2018 UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP14) closed on 29 November with broad international agreement on reversing the global destruction of nature and biodiversity loss threatening all forms of life on Earth.  Amongst other things, the meeting agreed on a comprehensive and participatory process for developing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, with anContinue Reading UN Biodiversity Conference closes in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

On 23 November 2018 during CBD COP14 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, GOBI took part in a day-long event titled Sustainable Ocean Day: Ocean Voices. The event, organised by the CBD Secretariat, provided an opportunity for diverse ocean stakeholders to share stories in an unconventional, informal way, by giving a ‘voice’ to coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass,Continue Reading Sustainable Ocean Day: Ocean Voices

In November 2018, as part of GOBI’s support to the identification an implementation of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs), co-chairs of the Marine Mammals Protected Area Task Force (MMPATF) Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and Erich Hoyt travelled to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, in the Bay of Bengal, to work with Indian scientists andContinue Reading Implementing IMMAs in the Andaman Sea