Ecosystem-Based Approaches

Starting Situation

Seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes sequester carbon at rates up to 66 times faster than terrestrial forests and store up to 5 times more carbon per hectare. Pacific Island Countries (PICs) possess significant Seagrass and Mangrove (SaM) resources, providing further ecosystem services related to shoreline protection, food security, tourism revenue and water quality. Habitat loss has been increasing rapidly, yet no adequate baselines exist to determine extent of habitats, rates of loss, or design of targeted management solutions. Methods for the assessment of carbon stocks and emissions in SaM areas exist since 2012, but have not been applied consistently to SaM areas in PICs. Policy makers and researchers note the urgent need to collect nationally relevant SaM data based on consistent methods, that ensure transparency and traceability to mitigate the loss of the world’s coastal carbon sinks and reduce the decline of coastal biodiversity.

Short Project Description

In close collaboration with national and regional partners (SPREP, SPC, USP, CSIRO, CIFOR) and the “Blue Planet” Initiative within the global Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the project will be mapping the SaM status in each of the 4 partner countries, and will assess related carbon storage capacity and ecosystem services. Resulting national inventories of SaM habitats, and associated blue carbon sinks and ecosystem service values will support government partners and policy makers in their efforts to strategically develop and implement conservation, management and rehabilitation efforts. Governments will be assisted to establish nationally appropriate incentives for sustainable management and rehabilitation efforts based on the quantification and documentation of SaM carbon stocks and the resulting emission reductions as part of NDCs and National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs).

Replication Potential

In the context of collaboration with national and regional technical agencies the project will refine and adapt remote sensing data technology for SaM mapping and carbon storage assessment methods for wide-ranging application in PICs during and beyond the project period. Project-based demonstration of effective mapping, monitoring and management regimes aims to foster and support national and regional capacity and up-scaling of these approaches in partner countries and neighbouring PICs. Collaboration and sharing of techniques and experiences with the IKI project “Blue Solutions – Implementing the CBD Strategic Plan in the field of marine and coastal biodiversity” and with the currently planned regional project on “Conservation of biodiversity, seagrass ecosystems and their services – safeguarding food security and resilience in vulnerable coastal communities in a changing climate ” will maximise replicability within the wider region and in collaboration with further global stakeholders

Organizational Expertise Justification:

Members of the consortium have been working in Vanuatu for over 30 years. We have extensive experience working together and with the government of Vanuatu to help address the immediate and long-term needs of Vanuatu communities across the country. We also have strong experience in helping communities recover from the impacts of disaster events.

Members of this consortium were the key partners in a three year, DFAT-supported AU$2 million community-based adaptation project – Yumi stap redi long klaemet jenis – which pioneered a comprehensive approach to helping communities and local governments prepare for, and manage the immediate impacts of climate variability and extremes, while building the capacity of women, men, girls and boys to develop climate-resilient development pathways. CARE and Save the Children built on this foundation to implement a further 16-month, USAID-supported US$0.5 million community-based adaptation project, while Oxfam implemented a further three-year, Margaret A. Cargill-supported US$847,000 community-based resilience program which continued to build on existing networks and aimed to increase collaboration, knowledge sharing and support between communities, NGOs, relevant government departments and development partners around increasing community and government resilience. Our agencies have also worked in collaboration with communities from across the six provinces of Vanuatu, national civil society organisations and government to develop and implement disaster risk reduction projects, such as the DiPECHO funded “Be Better Prepared (Yumi Redi)” series of projects that focused on community-based disaster risk reduction activities and encouraged communities to form Disaster Management Committees and to support sustainable development action across a range of key sectors, including: livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene; education; and gender equality.

Our organizations have extensive experience developing and implementing large scale, long term projects across a range of sectors globally – including multi-year, multi-agency community-based adaptation projects across the Pacific, as well as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, PNG, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, valued at over AU$50 million in the past five years alone.

An Indigenous led Network of community Environmental Champions, working together for the protection of biodiversity, sustainable development, customary governance, and climate/disaster resilience within the Santo Mountain Chain Key Biodiversity Area of the Western Coastline of the Island of Espiritu Santo in the Republic of Vanuatu

Mission

The Santo Sunset Environment Network (SSEN) shall serve as a catalyst to support and empower individuals, villages and communities in the West Coast and North West Santo region in improving environmental protection and conservation; and to influence the design and implementation of effective, inclusive, resilient and sustainable development strategies in keeping with traditional livelihoods.

Charitable Purposes

To contribute to its Mission, the Network’s charitable purposes include the following:

(a) To prevent environmental degradation by affirming and amplifying existing knowledge, skills and expertise of the people of West and North West Santo

(b) Building new skills, knowledge, awareness and capacity in areas of environment, climate change and other topics

(c) Promoting and enabling of traditional knowledge concerning issues of environmental protection and sustainable development.

(d) Reduce negative human impacts on the environment

(e) Facilitate a sustainable transformation in the way West and North West Santo communities use resources, including on the land, forests, freshwater, the ocean, atmosphere, and energy.

(f) To prioritize sustainable development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

(g) To inspire government, business, community, and individual action related to the environment.

(h) To organize, support, inspire and coordinate Network members to work together and speak with one voice.

(i) To ensure inclusion of gender equity, human rights and development justice in environmental management and action

Oxfam International is a world-wide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against poverty. In the Pacific, we work with our partners to ensure that Pacific Islander women and men (specifically those that are poor, marginalised or excluded) are leading and shaping their development and where their voices are heard and acted on by those in power. In the Pacific, Oxfam’s regional office is based in Suva, Fiji, where our Fiji country office and our base for remote cluster management of the Polynesia/Micronesia country office are also located. We also have offices in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The Pacific Islands Climate Change Collaboration, Influencing and Learning (PACCCIL) project is a four year (2018 – 2021) project funded for the first two years by Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). It aims at strengthening the influencing capacity of civil society actors and networks to ensure that action on climate change in the Pacific region is more effective, inclusive and collaborative. The project will work with key climate change action networks in Vanuatu and at the regional level, as well as facilitate the organising and collective action of civil society actors in Solomon Islands and the Polynesia and Micronesia sub-regions against climate change.