The Regional State of Coast Report for the western Indian Ocean (WIO) is the first comprehensive regional synthesis to provide insights into the enormous economic potential around the WIO, the consequential demand for marine ecosystem goods and services to match the increasing human population, the pace and scale of environmental changes taking place in the region and the opportunities to avoid serious degradation in one of the world’s unique and highly biodiverse oceans. The report goes a step further and presents exploratory scenarios and policy analysis to better inform anticipatory planning and management of coastal and marine resources. Thirty years after the Nairobi Convention was enacted, there is no better way to mark this major milestone than launching this report in 2015 - a report which amongst others, will provide the Convention with the basis for reflection on where it is coming from and where it would wish to be in another thirty years from now. This report highlights the enormous economic potential and development needs of countries around the WIO and, at the same time, points out the growing natural and anthropogenic pressure imposed on the region coastal and marine environment, and the opportunities to avoid them.