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During the inception period, significant in-country
progress has been made towards the two key country-
scale project outputs of ‘improving understanding’
and ‘improving ecosystem management and capacity
building’. For example, activities of the Madagascar
small-scale intervention site included:
• Data collection in 76 mangrove forest inventory plots
• Finalisation of a first draft of the Project Idea Note for
advancing mangrove carbon under REDD+
• Completion of the first round of analysis of soil organic
carbon for all sub-samples
• Discussions held at the Institut de Recherche pour le
Développement in France, regarding soil carbon results,
with a focus on loss of carbon following deforestation.
5H Green Economy – The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity for Oceans and Coasts
Development of the TEEB for Oceans and Coasts
(TEEB4OC)47 GEF proposal has continued with the
level of international interest growing quickly. By the
end of December, an extensive group of parties48 had
submitted formal Expressions of Interest with indicative
co-financing (currently totaling USD 81 million) to help
support the project through the GEF approval process.
Additionally, the governments of Norway, Sweden, the
USA and Canada are engaged in internal processes to
become project partners. A second advanced draft will be
submitted to UNEP by June 2015 and a final proposal will
undergo UNEP review with planned submission to GEF
Council at the October 2015 Council meeting.
The TEEB4OC effort will respond to the growing demand
from decision makers to better manage human activities
and their impact on marine ecosystems and their
services and to better understand and acknowledge the
dependence of societal progress, sustainable economic
development and the success of ocean-based business
and enterprise on healthy marine ecosystems.
5I Green Economy – Blue World Capacity
Development
The Blue Solutions partnership project of GIZ, GRID-
Arendal, IUCN and UNEP was established in June 2013
through an award grant of Euro 425k from GIZ. The
project aims to support marine and coastal planners and
decision makers by collecting and promoting approaches
and tools that have proven successful, and inspired
others to apply them. Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing
is at the heart of the project. Between the partners, the
project covers a range of marine management topics,
including Marine Protected Area Governance, Marine
Spatial Planning, Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate
Change, and Conservation Finance and Ecosystem
Services, for which GRID-Arendal has the lead. The
project grant extends until November 2015.
Several activities were organized during 2014. To help the
uptake of ecosystem services into decision-making, GRID-
Arendal organized a session at the August International
Marine ConservationCongress (IMCC) inGlasgow, Scotland,
which brought together Forest Trends,49 the Institute
for European Environmental Policy,50 Duke University
47.
48. GRID-Arendal, The Nature Conservancy, Government of New
Zealand (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Ministry
of Primary Industries, Department of Conservation), Government
of Barbados, Government of Abu Dhabi (via its Abu Dhabi Global
Environmental Data Initiative), European Commission, German Agency
for Development Cooperation (GIZ), World Resources Institute, WWF
International, Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Presencing Institute, UNEP Regional Seas
Programme, UNEP-WCMC, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, World
Ocean Council, Caribbean Environment Programme, Skandinaviska
Enskilda Banken AB (SEB).
49.
50.
Building on the Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon Demonstration Project
and contributing to the GEF/UNEP Blue Forests Project, blue
carbon investigations continue on the national scale in the UAE.
Photo: AGEDI/EAD.
As climate mitigation benefits, mangrove forests provide many
ecosystem services including helping to protect shorelines from
the impacts of storms and tsunamis. Photo: Sarah Frais-Torres/
Marine Photobank.