Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Management Strengthening Project

active

The Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Management Project seeks to address the challenges for coastal and marine management in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), including anthropogenic pressures, institutional fragmentation, policy and regulatory inadequacies, and lack of adaptive capacity through data-driven solutions. The Project will be funded by a GEF Trust Fund grant in the amount of US$3.65 million. The project includes three major interacting components implemented in parallel. Component 1 will support the operationalization of the Oceans Policy and Strategic Action Plan (NOPSAP), including the strengthening of the National Oceans Coordinating Committee (NOCC), primarily by further developing the institutional capacity for mainstreaming coastal and marine policies and management for the key sectors that rely on and impact these resources. Specifically, this component will engage a consultancy to analyze and improve the institutional and legal framework for coastal and marine management. Component 2 will support activities to demonstrate spatial planning, participatory conservation, and innovative financing arrangements through on-the-ground investments in four target coastal and marine pilot sites. These piloting will complement processes in Component 1’s activities supporting coastal and marine planning. The identified pilot sites include: (i) St. Vincent Southeast Landscape/Seascape: Milligan Cay, Brighton, Diamond and Stubbs beaches; (ii) Grenadines Landscape/Seascape: Union Island and Tobago Cays Marine Park; (iii) Leeward Coast: Richmond Beach, Chateaubelair Bay, Petit Bordel Bay and Troumaca Bay; and (iv) Colonarie Beach.Component 3 will support the improve the quality and availability of coastal and marine data to inform policy and decision-making processes in SVG. This will be primarily accomplished through the development of the National Environmental Data and Information Platform (NEDIP), which will be a publicly available resource that consolidates existing data from relevant Government entities and eventually could include data from NGOs, private sector, and communities. The component will also support communication and knowledge management plan for coastal and marine areas and include capacity building for project stakeholders, including government, NGOs, private sector, and communities to understand and address gender dimensions in the sector as well as the implementation of the gender action plan. In addition to the above 3 key components, component 4 ‘Project Coordination and Management’ will support the direct equipment, and operational and incremental staff costs for project coordination and management. The Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) under the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development & Culture will be responsible for implementing the project.