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Washington D.C, June 7, 2012
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) joins the United Nations and countries around the world in celebrating World Oceans Day today, June 8th. This is no ordinary anniversary. Awareness is rising in the environmental community and among governments and international institutions of the critical importance of oceans to our planet’s health and to human wellbeing. More than 60 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast, almost 81 percent of the world fish production is destined for human consumption, and 57 percent of the atmospheric carbon captured by living organism is captured by marine organisms. World Oceans Day presents an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the importance of oceans in our everyday lives and what we can do to preserve its natural resources for future generations.
The GEF has been involved in conservation of the world’s oceans since its inception 21 years ago, working with over 125 countries together on coastal and marine projects, including 19 of the world’s Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) in developing countries. These grants have been used in a variety of ways to advance ocean health. GEF has supported programs to establish hundreds of thousands of hectares of marine protected areas. GEF grants have helped create new national and regional institutional reforms for pollution reduction and sustainable fisheries. The GEF promotes market-based solutions to support the sustainable use of biodiversity. Among the earliest GEF programs were efforts to reduce land-based pollution caused by fertilizer and other nutrients entering marine environments. GEF grants also help ensure the development of sustainable financial mechanisms for marine programs. And these are but a few of the projects and programs supported by the GEF.
The GEF’s ability to scale up its response to the threats facing ocean environments is instrumental for the conservation of the marine and coastal biodiversity. For example, the GEF supports the development of large regional projects such as the areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) program. ABNJ promotes efficient and sustainable use of fisheries resources and biodiversity conservation in the High Seas. The program has generated unprecedented cooperation among regional organizations and countries for the management of the world’s last global commons. Similarly, GEF support to local initiatives also plays a critical role. For example, a project in the Philippines supporting local government and communities in their marine protected areas management will lead to the protection of 95 marine key biodiversity areas. In Brazil, the GEF has recently invested in the Brazilian strategic Marine and Coastal Protected Areas project, first national conservation initiative of this scale in the marine environment. This project will bring much needed changes in coastal zone management and marine protected areas. Specifically, the project aims to increase Brazil’s protection of 9,000 kilometer coastline from 1.5 to 5 percent.
The 2012 World Oceans Day is particularly special because its origins, like the GEF’s, trace back to the preparations for and results from 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In just a few short days, the international community will return to Rio for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), commonly referred to as Rio+20. The GEF will be actively engaged in a number of ocean related issues at Rio+20, including the Oceans Theme Day hosted by the Rio Conventions Pavilion. Please see the list of events that GEF is participating in here.
The GEF is committed to preserving the natural beauty, health, and wealth of the world’s oceans through the International Waters and Biodiversity Focal Areas. The International Waters Focal Area was established to help countries work together to overcome these tensions in large water systems. The Focal Area helps countries collectively manage, and thus share, the benefits of their transboundary surface water basins, groundwater basins, and coastal and marine systems. About $800 million in GEF grants and almost $4.5 billion in co-financing has been devoted by the International Waters area to improving coastal and marine management. In addition, the GEF Biodiversity Focal Area address the key drivers of biodiversity loss with well over $1 billion in GEF grants in marine and coastal projects. The Biodiversity Focal Area constitutes over one-third of the GEF’s portfolio, making it the largest at the GEF.
There are many threats to the world’s oceans today. Overfishing, loss of habitat and biodiversity, land-based and marine pollution, and the ramifications of climate change are just a few that the GEF addresses in its fifth replenishment (GEF-5), as highlighted by the GEF-5 Focal Area Strategy. The GEF is building on 21 years of success in these endeavors. For example, the multilateral Coral Triangle Initiative is effectively protecting marine resources to ensure income and food security for the millions of people in Southeast Asia. The Black Sea Nutrient Reduction Partnership has successfully reduced nearly 16,000 tons of nitrogen and over 5,000 tons of phosphorous loading into the Black Sea and Danube River basin per year. Waters in the western Black Sea that had become a vast anthropogenic anoxic dead zone, with detrimental effects on the livelihoods of the people in Southern and Eastern Europe, have been brought back to life by this program. Similar success can be found in a collection of projects focusing on reforming the fisheries sector in Africa, which has led to unprecedented cooperation among coastal countries.
Together, GEF and its partners will continue to lead to way in ocean conservation through innovative and transformational impacts that address core problems and ensure long-term success.