SPREP - Project Brief. 129p. - [572K]

The long-term objective of this project is to conserve and sustainably manage the coastal and ocean resources in the Pacific Region. Project activities are designed to encourage comprehensive, cross-sectoral, ecosystem based approaches to mitigate and prevent existing imminent threats to International Waters. The SAP provides a regional framework within which actions are identified, developed and implemented. Targeted actions will be carried out in two complementary, linked consultative contexts: Integrated Coastal and Watershed Management (ICWM) and Oceanic Fisheries Management (OFM). ICWM actions will focus on freshwater supplies including groundwater, Marine Protected Area (MPA) enhancement and development, sustainable coastal fisheries, integrated coastal management including tourism development, and activities to demonstrate waste reduction strategies will be stressed. The OFM component will target the Western Pacific Warm Pool ecosystem, whose boundaries correspond almost precisely to the Western Pacific tuna fishery. Participating countries and regional organizations seek to achieve long-term sustainable development of ocean fisheries, explore regional level options to increase domestic benefits from the tuna fishery, increase the contribution of offshore fishery resources to regional economic food security, and divert fishing pressure away from overexploited coastal resources. Interventions will include three other pressing concerns related to SIDS, namely biodiversity, vulnerability to climate change, and land degradation. Management capacity at the individual country and regional level will be strengthened and global benefits would accrue. The project will provide working examples of economies of scale in environmental management.