The coral reef monitoring in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) has been undertaken using the umbrella of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) and the Nairobi Convention’s Coral Reef Task Force (CRTF), since the late 1990s. The CRTF was constituted by a decision of the Nairobi Convention in 2001, with a representative from each country.

Traditionally, the southwest Indian Ocean islands (SWIO) and the mainland East Africa nodes of the GCRMN have operated independently, but in the last decade, these have been integrated more closely through the CRTF. This effort is supported through projects in the Marine Programme of the Indian Ocean Commission – the ISLANDS Project (2009-13) and Biodiversity Project (2014-2018).