Indian Ocean Commission

The Indian Ocean Commission (COI), known as the Commission de l'Océan Indien in French, is an intergovernmental organization that joins Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, France (for Réunion), and the Seychelles together to encourage cooperation. It was started in January 1984 under the General Victoria Agreement. The official language of communication is French.

Objectives

The Maldives is an observer of the commission.

The original ideas were to encourage trade and tourism. Recently, cooperation has focused on marine conservation and fisheries management. The COI has funded a number of regional and national conservation and alternative livelihoods projects through ReCoMAP, Regional Programme for the Sustainable Management of the Coastal Zones of the Countries of the Indian Ocean (PROGECO in French). An example of these projects is project to catalyze the development of sea cucumber and seaweed aquaculture in South West Madagascar with the NGOs, Transmad, Blue Ventures, and Madagascar Holothuria. I

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