WIOSOC2015_FinalDraft

35. Coastal and marine research and capacity building
NGOs
Universities
Government
research institutes
Consultancy firms
Unsolicited Management Solicited
• Research papers
• Research reports
• Conferences
• Popular articles
• Policy briefs
• Commissioned studies
• Reports
• Expert opinion
• Participation in
technical bodies
Table 35.3. Research and academic institutions in the WIO region (those with degree programmes in marine sciences are bulleted).
purposes.
The mechanisms used by research institutions to couple
science to management, and barriers to achieve this, are
contextual and vary between countries. Research institutions
in the region are generally committed to producing
research that contributes to national development needs,
including those related to the sustainable management of
the coastal and marine environment. Similarly, scientists in
both government-affiliated and academic institutions recognise
the importance of undertaking applied research and
transmitting research results to potential users. Despite
wide acceptance of the need to link science and management,
the mechanisms to identify research priorities in the
coastal and marine environment and to communicate
research results to managers and policy-makers are often
still poorly developed.
It is also clear that simply transmitting scientific results
to decision-makers, while important, is not sufficient to
effectively enable their uptake by managers. The use of
science by decision-makers in the region, and elsewhere in
the world, is influenced by many procedural, technical, and
political factors. The role of individual and institutional
values is also important. In this context, there continues to
be a need for the development of new and innovative
approaches to better integrating research agendas with
management planning and decision-making processes
such that both the development of research and the products
it delivers are better integrated into an overall approach
to natural resource management.
Examples of science that supports management can be
gleaned from cases involving institutions and procedures
that explicitly connect science to management. These can
take many forms, but often involve mechanisms to identify
and fund emerging research. Studies linked to extension or
that include a demonstration of the feasibility of new
approaches and solutions, and are ultimately aimed at replication,
appear to be more successful in their ‘uptake’. For
instance, the MASMA-funded project, “Determination of the
Distribution and Characteristics of Fish Spawning Aggregation
Sites (FSAS) and their Importance to the Artisanal Fisheries
Resources of Seychelles”, successfully convinced the Islands
Development Company (IDC) of Seychelles (that was
Western Indian Ocean
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