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T1 Measuring Ocean Health in the Western Indian Ocean
T2 UNEP-DEPI-EAF-CP.7.Inf.6 Ocean Health Index Full text
A1 United Nations Environment Programme, 
YR 2012
FD 2012-10
LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/21169
UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/21169
NO The Ocean Health Index is a new method to define and quantify the health of the ocean in acomprehensive and integrated way. A healthy ocean is defined as one that can sustainability deliver a range ofbenefits to people now and in the future. The Ocean Health Index (the Index) tracks how countries are doingacross a portfolio of 10 goals that people have for a healthy ocean. Countries can track how well they are doingfor each of the 10 goals and across the goals that they have for a healthy ocean. Over time, the Index can beused to highlight areas of success or improvement. This paper summarizes some of the assumptions, methodsand results of the first calculation of the index, released in the journal Nature in August 2012. At this levelanalysis focused on 171EEZs, belonging to 151 of the world’s coastal countries.This paper presents general information about the Index and the performance of the 10 NairobiConvention countries (Comoros, French Indian Ocean Territories, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique,Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania) to explain why such an Index is needed and what it can beused for from the perspective of the member States of the region. Future application of the Index at a regionallevel will provide opportunities to use a finer scale, more comprehensive data than were used at the global level,and to develop regionally-relevant weightings for the 10 goals. Additionally modeling approaches that weremade in the global analysis can be improved for regional level comparisons.The paper and discussions of the results will be used to gauge interest to conduct a regionally focusedapplication of the Ocean Health Index for the Nairobi Convention region in 2013-14. This will culminate in anassessment of the usefulness of the index for the countries of the Nairobi Convention region to assess the healthof their EEZs, inform future management and policies, and to increase the provision of ocean benefits to thecitizens and coastal communities of the countries sustainably.
DS UN Environment Document Repository
RD Sep 23, 2026