UNEP

This publication is a result of Blue Solutions’ second Regional Forum on Solutions for Oceans, Coasts and Human Well-being in Latin America and the Wider Caribbean Region. This four-day workshop was held in Cancún, Mexico in April 2015. During this event more than 40 participants presented their positive examples and engaged with the larger audience in discussions around how these examples can be adapted to address pressing challenges faced in other regions or sectors in Latin America and the Wider Caribbean.

The value and role of mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses for climate change mitigation was established back in 2009 by reports by IUCN and UNEP to focus attention on addressing a critical gap in national carbon accounting and management. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of these ecosystems in stemming climate change, many countries have yet to prepare for and implement targeted climate and carbon policies for coastal carbon ecosystems alongside other coastal priorities, challenges and demands. This National Blue Carbon Policy Assessment Framework is helping to do just that.

Our oceans and coasts are the origin of life on earth, an important food source, and crucial for the global ecological equilibrium,  yet despite their global significance, marine and coastal ecosystems face a wide array of threats. It was in the spirit of making enhanced concerted efforts at the global, regional, national and local levels that the Blue Solutions Initiative was created.

This publication is a result of the Blue Solutions’ third Regional Forum for Oceans, Coasts and Human Well-Being in Africa held in spring 2016. It compiles 32 blue solutions from Africa, most of which were presented during the event. The solutions summarised in this publication focus on topics such as marine protected areas, sustainable tourism, sustainable fisheries, sustainable livelihoods, conservation of resources and biodiversity as well as mitigation of the effects of climate change.

Interim results are presented from five exploratory sector studies (on livestock, rice, agroforestry, inland fisheries and palm oil), while the development of a ‘valuation framework’ provides a common lens for ensuring that the full range of impacts and dependencies can be examined under different applications (i.e. by sector, system or practice). Finally, the report examines the way forward for this study by identifying economic and policy drivers and incentives that influence land-use decisions and management techniques within production systems around the world.

The aim of the report is to assess the status of the protected area network of the Republic of Korea and propose priorities for expansion to support the implementation of international and national biodiversity targets.

The Protected Planet Report 2016 assesses how protected areas contribute to achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and relevant targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, and highlights current research and case studies as examples of the role protected areas play in conserving biodiversity and cultural heritage.

The objective of this publication is to present lessons learned throughout the process of ‘making the case for ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) ’ to government and other stakeholders, encouraging them to include EbA approaches in broader adaptation strategies, and to bring about the required shifts in policy and finance.

This report provides an overview of the increasing vulnerability of World Heritage sites to climate change impacts and the potential implications for and of global tourism. It also examines the close relationship between World Heritage and tourism, and how climate change is likely to exacerbate problems caused by unplanned tourism development and uncontrolled or poorly managed visitor access, as well as other threats and stresses.