Experts discuss climate change

A five-day workshop on the implementation and operation of Indian Ocean data buoy networks and their application for enhancing regional predictive capability opened on Monday at La Plantation Hotel, Balaclava.

Around 50 ocean data users, researchers and buoy operators from countries of the western Indian Ocean region are attending the workshop, including representatives from Mauritius, India, China, the UK, the US, France, Germany, Japan, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa.

The workshop is a joint initiative of the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI) and the Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM).

Discussions will centre around capacity-building within regional meteorology, ocean and climate institutes. It will provide training in deployment and management of ocean observations as well as for the implementation of buoy programmes.

The workshop also aims to coordinate synergies with African monitoring of the environment for sustainable development of ocean observations for the Western Indian Ocean.

Natural resource management and disaster risk characterisation and reduction in cases of floods, droughts, cyclones as well as biodiversity conservation are also on the agenda.

The workshop will help facilitate collaboration between existing and planned studies of the region.