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Washington DC, May 22, 2012 - Today, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), together with its 182 member countries, honors the United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity, an effort to bring better understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. At a time when global marine environments and fisheries are under increasing threat, the GEF pointed to the importance – and the results – of its support for protecting marine biodiversity.
Biodiversity encompasses the variety of plant and animal species on the planet as well as the natural ecosystems in which they occur. Robust biodiversity is seen as a key measure of environmental health, while threats to biodiversity present an environmental challenge that the GEF works daily to address. The GEF was established in 1991 as a financial mechanism to assist countries in meeting their commitments to international environmental agreements, among them, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD).
Through its focal area strategies for Biodiversity, International Waters, Land Degradation and others, the GEF has invested well over half of the $10.5 billion it has distributed in grants toward projects and programs protecting the world's biological diversity. The GEF’s member nations, the ten GEF agencies, and the hundreds of partner organizations and institutions from the public and private sectors have created a globally effective community addressing biodiversity challenges. As the financial mechanism for the CBD, the GEF takes guidance from policy decisions driven by science, especially in the marine environment.
The theme for the 2012 International Day for Biological Diversity is Marine Biological Diversity – a focus of significant GEF investment over the last two decades. The GEF has embarked on the world’s largest coordinated ecosystem-based program of action to reverse the depletion of marine fisheries. Working with more than 150 nations, GEF projects today cover 20 of the Earth’s 64 large marine ecosystems, including half of those shared by developing countries. This is part of more than $1.1 billion in GEF grants that have leveraged $6.6 billion in cofinancing for water, environment and community security projects across more than 170 countries.
From investments in increasing our knowledge of the undersea world to working with countries to better manage their resources with marine protected areas (MPAs) and integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), the GEF has been instrumental in keeping our global marine environment healthy. For example, in 1993 the GEF, together with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and International Maritime Organization (IMO), began working with shipping companies around the world to better manage ballast water to prevent the transport of invasive species from one marine environment to another. Titled the Global Ballast Water Management Program, or GloBallast, the project has been successful in a number of ways. By working with the shipping industry to better manage ballast water, the GEF is addressing a key threat to marine biological diversity.
To name just a few of of the ocean regions benefiting from GEF investment, the GEF marine protected areas portfolio includes the Phoenix Islands Protected Area – the largest marine protected area in the Pacific Ocean, the largest marine conservation effort of its kind by a Least Developed Country (Republic of Kiribati), and the largest and deepest World Heritage site on Earth. The Brazil Marine & Coastal Areas Project seeks to increase the marine area under protection to at least 5% of the total Brazilian marine area. Another good example of the GEF marine program is PEMSEA, for the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia. PEMSEA started in 1994 as a GEF project that developed into an international organization specializing in integrated coastal and ocean governance for the Seas of East Asia. It is a cooperative arrangement comprised of 11 Country Partners and 19 Non-Country Partners with a collective commitment to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA). PEMSEA is an innovative effort to integrate local, national, sub-regional and regional initiatives to rehabilitate and sustain coastal and marine ecosystem services and reduce the impacts of climate variation, change and extremes on people, economic activities and natural resources.
In the Danube/Black Sea Basin, GEF projects are reducing nitrogen pollution from agriculture, city sewage, industrial sources, and restoring floodplains to reduce pollution. Agricultural and industrial pollution had created a sizable “Dead Zone” in the western Black Sea. The zone of oxygen-deficient water devastated marine life and commercial fisheries. Through the Danube-Black Sea project, the dead zone has been largely eliminated and thriving marine life has returned to the western Black Sea in recent years, and the diversity of indicator species has roughly doubled from the 1980s as countries have reduced nutrient pollution. Other International Waters partnerships are now underway for the Mediterranean Sea, Large Marine Ecosystems of East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
As more countries begin to rely on coastal and marine resources, marine biological diversity and healthy ecosystems will become even more critical to people's livelihoods, especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The GEF and its partners stand committed to responding to these threats to ensure that the world's biological diversity is properly protected for future generations.