IUCN takes up $15b Indian ocean habitat project as part of the Great Blue Wall Initiative

IUCN takes up $15b Indian ocean habitat project as part of the Great Blue Wall Initiative

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

In News: Citigroup and BNP among banks exploring $15 billion Indian Ocean project.

Key Points:

• Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA and Standard Chartered Plc are among the banks looking into providing financing for a new $15 billion program to protect Indian ocean habitats.
• The private capital would feed into the Great Blue Wall initiative, which aside from the IUCN is also backed by the United Nations. The project has already raised $100 million.
• As much as a fifth of the $15 billion will be raised through debt-for-nature swaps.
• The program, which was first announced at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021, is the latest to tap debt-for-nature swaps to fund ocean preservation and sustainable development.
• Debt-for-nature swaps are gaining traction, with Barclays Plc analysts estimating the market could reach $800 billion. Banks meanwhile are vying to arrange the deals, which yield lucrative fees and can bolster a firm’s ESG credentials.

Great Blue Wall Initiative At the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow, Western Indian Ocean states and partners including International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have launched the Great Blue Wall initiative. The Great Blue Wall Initiative is a project for the western Indian Ocean countries that intends to adopt an action-driven, oriented and focused approach. The initiative sets out to help countries reach the following targets: protect 30% of the ocean by 2030; achieve net gain of critical blue ecosystems – such as mangroves, corals, seagrasses – by 2030; develop a regenerative blue economy and create millions of jobs by supporting local communities through funding, training and technical assistance. It aims to establish a network of marine and coastal conserved areas to benefit biodiversity and local livelihoods, empowering communities to become stewards of the ocean. Under the initiative countries will designate seascapes as IUCN Category VI conserved areas, which allow for sustainable use of natural resources to benefit local communities. Countries will also identify sites for conservation and restoration to achieve net gain of critical ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass meadows and coral reefs by 2030. Led by Western Indian Ocean countries, and supported by  IUCNand a coalition of partners, the Great Blue Wall initiative has called upon innovators to help enable the regeneration of the WIO while creating economic opportunities for the 70 million people currently dependent on it. Under the project, seascapes and conservation/restoration sites will be identified based on country priorities, opportunities, existing efforts, local partners’ needs, and availability of funding as well as on the already available science and knowledge.

What are we doing to protect our oceans?

• More than half of the world’s oxygen is generated by our oceans, and they absorb 50 times more CO2 than our atmosphere. So it is important to protect them against overfishing, plastic and noise pollution, coastal development, poaching and unsustainable tourism.
• Protecting our oceans is a key goal in the UN’s sustainable development goals
• And the World Economic Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda and Friends of Ocean Action recently launched an appeal – known as Ocean Action in 2023 – for continued ambitious progress to achieve ocean health through the suite of opportunities ahead.
• A healthier, more sustainable and profitable ocean may still be within reach with initiatives like the Great Blue Wall and many other efforts that aim to protect our oceans and ensure they are utilized sustainably for generations to come.