Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010 – 2011

• Results of case studies and preliminary policy recommendations for incorpo- rating local/traditional knowledge into EbA disseminated to communities and relevant local, regional, and national or- ganizations to support institutionaliza- tion of the methodology for EbA. • Development of Blue Carbon ecosys- tem based management strategy to support developing states: 2 issues pa- pers representing 2 regional Blue Car- bon action plans produced

• First level policy and science exploration of Blue carbon for the Arabian Peninsula un- dertaken. Over 40 meetings were held with local, national, and regional authorities and organizations throughout the region, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan. The rapid feasibility study Blue Carbon – First Level Explora- tion of Natural Coastal Carbon in the Arabian Peninsula(with special focus on the UEA and Abu Dhabi) was launched in December 2011 at the Eye of Earth of Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Collaborating with partners: UNEP/DEPI, Abidjan Convention, UNEP-ROLAC, WCMC, IOC, UNDOALOS, SOPAC, Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping (GEOHAB), University of Sydney, Mediterranean Action Plan, Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative, Blue Climate Solutions, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Pro- tected Areas Trust of Belize, International Climate Centre, CICERO, Oil for Development, Institute of Marine Research, Norwegian Directorate for Fisheries, Norwegian Ministry of Environment Countries/regions assisted: Pacific, Asia, Western Indian Ocean, West Africa, South Africa, UEA, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

C. Data Management, Visualization and Tools Description 1. Develop tools and methods to link geo- sciences and biological data sets for im- proved marine management. Sub-programme 4: Environmental Gov- ernance 4(d)1, 4(d)3

Indicators

2011 Activities/Outputs

• Dedicated web portals focused on spe- cific marine themes to provide data support to developing countries, de- cision makers, the media, the general public and the scientific community de- veloped: 1-2 • Database service module designed to assist developing countries in building their own marine information data sys- tem to support marine management capacity at the national level developed

• A policy brief prepared as the first follow up step from the Blue Carbon report (available at http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/blue-carbon) • A website for GRID-Arendal’s Blue Carbon Initiative has been launched (bluecarbonpor- tal.org/). It is intended as a robust international Blue Carbon information hub, linked to regional initiatives, and co-hosts the Blue Carbon Blog, an online information and news resource covering all things related to Blue Carbon. • Development of the new OCEANIDS begun in earnest in the third quarter of 2010. Launch of the beta version of the portal is set for April 2011. • The platform that builds the backbone of OCEANIDS, GeoIQ, was used in 2011 in sup- port of the CBD process to identify Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas out- side of national jurisdiction in the high seas of the North-East Atlantic.

52