14 December 2012: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched a publication titled “Catalysing Ocean Finance: Transforming Markets to Restore and Protect the Global Ocean,” in Washington, DC, US. The two-volume publication illustrates how public investment can reverse declines in global ocean health, scale up ocean planning and policy tools, leverage financial flows and transform ocean markets towards sustainability.

The publication includes a case study of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean tuna fisheries, which highlights how UNDP-GEF interventions contributed to a regional fisheries convention, increased revenue for Pacific Small Island Developing States (P-SIDS) and enhanced ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM).

The report describes UNDP-GEF advisory, awareness raising and capacity building support to advance the negotiation, adoption and coming into force of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention (WCPFC), which aims to conserve and manage oceanic fisheries across its range, including the high seas, and recognizes special SIDS requirements. UNDP-GEF’s interventions, through the GEF International Waters project, supported the participation of Pacific Island Governments in negotiating the agreement. The project then enhanced government capacity to meet Convention obligations, through activities such as realigning and restructuring laws, policies and institutions, and enhancing scientific assessment and monitoring. Since the UNDP-GEF interventions began in 1997, tuna landings by Pacific SIDS fleets have tripled, resulting in US$3.214 million in additional tuna revenue.

Outcomes of the institutional, legal and policy reforms undertaken with UNDP-GEF support include the largest onboard observer progamme in the world and a satellite-based vessel tracking system. Anticipated environmental benefits include maintaining skipjack and yellowfin tuna populations at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) levels and reducing mortality on bigeye tuna, the most vulnerable of the Pacific tuna stocks.

The Western and Central Pacific Ocean region covers over 10% of the ocean’s surface, and falls within the jurisdiction of 15 Pacific SIDS: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. This region has the world’s largest tuna stocks and provides one-third of global tuna catch. The WCPFC is one of the first regional applications of the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement. [Event Information] [UNDP Press Release] [Publication:Volume 1: Transforming Markets to Restore and Protect the Global Ocean] [Publication: Volume 2: Methodologies and Case Studies]