Register now for the next IOI Ocean Academy course offered by Singapore in the English Language.
Participation is free of charge for interested applicants and the 20hr modules are offered ONLINE.
Visit the IOI Ocean Academy dedicated webpage for more information or to register your interest for other courses. More courses will be announced in January.
The Ocean, Source of Life and Livelihoods - An online Ocean Literacy Course
12 - 23 January 2023
Five More IOI Ocean Academy Courses Successfully Delivered
BLACK AND MEDITERRANEAN SEAS: Sustainable Coastal Tourism Development and Ocean Governance, ONLINE, 17 Nov - 8 Dec 2022 in the English Language
The second IOI Ocean Academy Course of this series, offered online by the IOI Focal Point of Ukraine was successfully completed this December. After a brief introduction to the IOI and its mission, the programmed lectures and discussions focussed on the following topics: Ocean Literacy; Concepts of Sustainability and Integrated Coastal Zone Management; Ocean Governance and Law of the Sea; Governing global commons; Tourism in coastal areas and different approaches to its development; Tools for sustainable tourism development; Sustainable beach management; Blue Flag beaches: an overview of the programme; Ocean Governance Legislative aspects of coastal tourism development; Trends and future challenges of sustainable coastal and marine tourism on the global and regional level.
31 registrations were received from applicants hailing from 14 countries, of whom 26 participated in the course demonstrating high level of interest and completing the course with an attendance of 90%. Most of the participants’ feedback was highly positive, with the programme having met their expectations, and the overall visual design of the course content and materials provided were highly rated.
PORTUGAL: Navigate the Portuguese Sea, Online, 3 Oct - 11 Nov 2022 in the Portuguese Language
The first online IOI Ocean Academy Course for Portugal was offered in the Portuguese language under the oversight of the IOI and implemented and directed by Joana Dionísio (IOI Alumnus) and Cristina Manso Pires. The main goal of this course was to provide a comprehensive view of current and relevant topics in Portugal such as: Legal context of the Portuguese territorial sea; Marine Protected Areas; Sustainable fisheries and consumption and Maritime renewable energies. Also, this course highlighted the historical relationship that Portugal has with the sea, through cod fishing in the history of Portuguese fishing. The course also contained some generic information about the Ocean with special emphasis to Geoethics and Environmental Ethics, one of the pillars of Governance. The selected participants coming from Portugal and other countries from where Portuguese speakers could register, completed the 2-hour sessions held twice a week for a total of 20 hours. The programme included lectures/presentations, videos, reading lists, quizzes and audience polls. The course exceeded initial expectations and below one of the participants’ feedback on completion of the course:
“It was a great privilege to have participated in this training course. The Trainers were very competent, friendly, and tireless in this exciting adventure. I am eagerly waiting for new adventures next year, loaded with useful information and knowledge. Greetings to all fellow participants. Thank you very much.” Victor Ferreira
PAKISTAN: Judicious Utilisation of Blue Resources to Sustain life, Livelihood and Climate for Future Generations with Special Reference to Pakistan - Role of Ocean Literacy, Online, 20 Oct - 04 Nov 2022 in English and Urdu Language
Ocean Academy Pakistan successfully delivered the third online course since announcing its first in July 2022, the fourth programme is currently being offered this December. The topics were carefully chosen to cover the objectives and learning outcomes of the course and the course was opened with a video message from Dr Behnam, Honorary President IOI followed by an address by Pakistan IOI Ocean Academy Director Dr Javed Afzal. The efforts put in by the Lecturers are praiseworthy, where they not only explored vast topics within allocated time but also consolidated conclusions with focus on Pakistan. Discussion and tutorial sessions were very interesting causing inevitable time overshoots and participants were still eager to discuss to extract more from the resource persons. The course was concluded as planned with a very fruitful session on last day highlighting the “role of women and youth in creating ocean awareness”. 290 registrations were received for this programme of which 46 were selected to participate in the third IOI Ocean Academy course. The course was conducted over a period of ten working days with each session spread over two hours.
“It is a matter of immense pleasure and satisfaction that we have completed three courses in a short span of time of just five months from first announcement. Today while I am writing this report for IOInforma, it is a continuation of the initial thoughts that I expressed in my previous report at the time of launch of first course. It is assumed that successful conduct of fourth course of 2022 on the lines of the previous courses will further boost IOI Ocean Academy Pakistan and raise its image besides attracting many hundreds towards IOI and its message. I am glad to announce that the 3rd course also turned out to be an international course like the first one, as we had participants from Somalia and Nigeria. While the courses for the current year are in progress, we have already embarked on planning the courses for 2023. Hopefully, alumni of this course and follow-on courses will lay the foundation of long-term ocean awareness campaign in Pakistan and globally. I render my sincere gratitude to all those who helped me to make this event possible.” Captain Javed Afzal, Director, Pakistan Ocean Academy
Below, some feedback from the participants which was overall very positive.
“A very useful and thoughtful training course on Ocean governance!”
“I am very delighted to finish the IOI Ocean Academy’s online course on the topic of “Judicious Utilisation of Blue resources to sustain life, livelihood and Climate for future generations with special reference to Pakistan - Role of Ocean Literacy”. The course was very useful to thought provoking that how can we benefit from our ocean. The theories and examples on livelihoods related to Ocean and its contributions to local people, Socio-economic impact of CPEC projects, Role of UN SDGs in conservation of Oceans, Blue Economy, Global Warming, Climate Change and Environmental Protection enhanced my knowledge. Through this course I got a chance to know and listen to the highly professional experts from Pakistan. The fruitful discussions at the end of each topic gave us chance to raise questions on the topics that how we can contribute to the ocean governance to make an impact in our society. I am very honoured to remain a participant of this course and hope to attend future courses of Ocean Academy. I intend to utilize this knowledge in my future studies and in spreading awareness.” Engr. Abdullah Hayat Khan
SINGAPORE: The Ocean, Source of Life and Livelihoods - An online Ocean Literacy Course, Online, 21 Oct - 3 Nov 2022 in the English Language
The IOI Ocean Academy mainly focussed on Asia-Pacific, East Asian, South/Southeast Asian Seas with a global outlook and local references to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia’s marine ecosystem, mangroves, marine parks, marine protected areas (MPA), mangroves, bio-diversity and Ocean issues. The programme featured discussions about the Ocean, its bio-diversity, marine environment, concept of sustainability and the Blue Economy for Ocean related activities and business ventures, related IMO Conventions on marine pollution. All the topics were of keen interest amongst the participants. Contributions of Regional Cooperation like “Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia” (PEMSEA) and “Indian Ocean Rim Association” (IORA) were discussed specifically in the perspective of socio economic and ocean environmental management.
The concept and content of the Ocean Literacy Training Program was well appreciated with all the participants propagating the message in their circles of network and amongst peers. The next Singapore Ocean Academy course will be open to laypersons and young students at school/colleges, who are keen to learn more about the Ocean through the IOI’s Ocean Literacy Programmes, as most of them are unaware of the Ocean’s role as our source of life, our lifeline and livelihood.
Dr Jai Acharya, IOI Focal Point, Singapore, at the Fishers’ Conference: ‘A Fishers Life A Fishers Future’, Si Racha (Chonburi), Thailand, 15 - 16 Nov 2022
Dr Jai Acharya was invited to speak in a conference on health and safety in the fishing industry as a distinguished speaker in the perspective of IMO/ ILO/FAO Conventions/Protocols and Regulatory Compliances for the safety of fishermen and fishing vessels under SOLAS, STCW-F, Torremolinos Protocol and Cape Town Agreement, ILO C1888 and IUU. The Conference was organised in Chonburi, Thailand on the theme of “A fisher’s life and fisher’s future” jointly organised by AMCOL, Thailand, Nautical Institute (UK) and Fish Platform, Netherlands. Various luminaries of the industry and UN Agencies Representatives attended the conference including IMO/ILO/ITF/FAO and many more.
Dr Acharya’s Topic of Speech was “Crafting and Executing Strategy for the Sustainable Fishery Industry and Marine Resources”. This included IOI’s vision and mission and its activities on Capacity Building on the Philosophy of “Pacem in Maribus” (Peace in the Ocean). The next conference is scheduled in London tentatively in the month of February 2023 to which Dr Acharya has been invited once again to participate as a speaker.
Dr Jai Acharya
IOI Focal Point Singapore
Director, IOI Ocean Academy Singapore
Principal Consultant IMMC Singapore
KAZAKHSTAN: Marine Environmental Issues of the Caspian Sea and Potential Solutions, Online, 15 - 22 October 2022 in the Russian Language
The course consisted of 10 lectures of 2 hours each and targeted a layperson audience interested in learning more about the environmental problems faced by the Caspian Sea. Selected experts from all around Kazakhstan were invited to deliver an online presentation on the topic of their expertise.
The course was opened with a brief introduction to IOI, its vision and mission, and its history including the courses and training programs offered by IOI Centres and Focal Points. An introduction on the sustainability, sustainable use and governance of the Ocean, was delivered with reference to the SDG14 goals.
Topics in relation to the Caspian Sea included general information about the main environmental issues, the solutions and actions taken to date; the ecosystem services present; biodiversity, overfishing and endangerment of the Caspian Seal population; climate change and sea level fluctuations; the importance of the policy development and information on the existing policies; sustainable travel and tourism in the region, considering a major issue of littering on the public beaches.
Aselle Tasmagambetova, Director of the Caspian Seal Research and Rehabilitation Centre, delivered a lecture on the Caspian Seals and kindly presented gifts to the 3 most active participants, a t-shirt and a hat in a cotton bag, containing the logo of the Research Centre.