Sustainable Financing and Payments

This Blue Pacific Ocean 2021 Report (BPOR) is indeed a first of its kind. While sectoral approaches to reporting on development and implementation in the various areas of ocean governance has been the norm, the BPOR is unique in the sense that it is the first attempt at the regional level to compile a comprehensive, multi-facetted, cross-cutting and holistic review and stock take of the state of affairs of ocean governance in the region, in the contemporary period.

This summary provides resorts, tourism operators, and policy makers with an introduction to marine conservation agreements (MCA) and outlines a process for planning and implementing an MCA in Fiji.

Full Summary (Pdf)

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has just finished a report on the "Contribution of Marine Conservation Agreements to Biodiversity Protection, Fisheries Management and Sustainable Financing in Fiji."The report documents the degree and scale to which Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) are being used in coastal waters in Fiji. The study focuses on partnerships involving local communities and the tourism sector.

This Conservation and Management Plan was the culmination of a community-wide consultation undertaken to review the 20-year old ACMCA Management Plan first endorsed in 1994.The scope of this Plan is dictated by AMP’s status as an established and internationally recognized conservation program that has been operated for more than 20 years to date. With such operational status, this Plan is therefore tailored to meet legal requirements for declaration as a protected area under the new legal regime.

The marine environment is vital for Fiji's tourism sector, yet industry and community partnerships to conserve it have largely gone unrecognised. A study from March to October 2017 documented the extent and scale to which ‘Marine Conservation Agreements’ (MCAs) between tourism operators and indigenous, resource owning communities are used in Fiji, and their contribution to biodiversity conservation and fisheries management.

We evaluate methods to calculate the economic value of protected areas derived from the improved mental health of visitors. A conservative global estimate using quality-adjusted life years, a standard measure in health economics, is US$6 trillion p.a. This is an order of magnitude greater than the global value of protected area tourism, and two to three orders greater than global aggregate protected area management agency budgets.

This report presents the findings of the Final Evaluation of the six year1 Global Environment Facility – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (GEF-FAO) Forest Protected Area Management (FPAM) in Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Niue project, which was implemented between January 2012 and July 2017. The project’s global environmental objective was ‘to strengthen biodiversity conservation and reduce forest and land degradation’ and the development objective was ‘to enhance the sustainable livelihoods of local communities living in and around protected areas’

Demonstrating the remarkable power of collaboration and big thinking that Palau so often exhibits, in 2016 a diverse partnership produced the nation’s 1st National Environment Symposium. The event brought together conservation groups, national leaders, business owners, and community members for intimate discussion and respectful debate on the successes, challenges, and opportunities facing Palau’s environment.

Vanuatu signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) joining other 190 CBD parties to protect our global biodiversity. Vanuatu’s first National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) was developed and endorsed in November 1999. Revision of this NBSAP has led Vanuatu to develop this new NBSAP (2018-2030). This revised NBSAP indicates the progress, successes and gaps that lie within the organisational, systemic and individual capacities at national, provincial and community levels to protect, conserve and wisely use our biodiversity.

This report is the outcome of a review commissioned by the Protected Areas Learning and Research Collaboration (PALRC) in 2018, with the following aims:
• Review the range of current models for short courses that meet protected area agency, Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) and non-government organisation land managers’ needs
• Assess the potential for PALRC partners to adapt and/or develop new short courses that meet these needs