Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME: United Nations World Ocean Assessment (WOA) In support of the WOA, GRID-Arendal has created a dedicated website and helped to organize capacity- building workshops. The new website provides information for the general public as well as an editorial system to assist members of the WOA Group of Experts to compile information and draft their report by the end of 2014. The workshops have enabled developing countries in South East Asia and West Africa to conduct their own SoME reporting and to thus be able to participate in and contribute to the WOA. GRID-Arendal has also developed a new web-based SoME reporting system designed to be populated with information gathered during workshops from regional and national marine experts. The so-called expert elicitation method, successfully applied by GRID- Arendal during workshops in Bangkok and Abidjan, is ideally suited to developing country situations, where conventional scientific data comprised of long time series are rarely available. Instead, the expert elicitation method is based on gathering local knowledge and unpublished evidence from local experts in a workshop setting.  Blue Carbon Programme The Blue Carbon Programme continues to parallel inter- national momentum and interest in the concept as one of GRID-Arendal’s fastest growing efforts. Blue Carbon is a recent concept that describes the role certain coastal and marine ecosystems play in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems include man- grove forests, seagrass meadows, and saltwater marsh- lands, which have been found to store carbon at rates sometimes greater than tropical rain forests. These eco- systems are also vital for coastal and island communities through the other services they provide, such as shoreline protection, fish nursery and habitat, tourism, and cultural significance. The importance of Blue Carbon was brought to the at- tention of the international community by the 2009 UNEP Rapid Response Assessment Blue Carbon - The Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon, 24 produced by GRID-Arendal, and an IUCN report entitled The Man- agement of Natural Coastal Carbon Sinks. Following the international interest stimulated by these reports, GRID- Arendal initiated a Blue Carbon Programme in 2011, and has established itself as a Blue Carbon center of excel-

lence, playing key roles in the Blue Carbon Portal, 25 the (GEF) Blue Forests Project and the Abu Dhabi Blue Car- bon Demonstration Project. GRID-Arendal’s efforts are closely coordinated with UNEP’s Blue Carbon Initiative.

SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME: The Blue Carbon concept gathers momentum The Blue Carbon concept has received rapidly growing interest since GRID-Arendal raised awareness in 2009. Evidence of this ‘sea change’ includes: • a synthesis of publications advancing Blue Carbon policy, economics and science published (by The World Bank, Duke University, UNEP-WCMC, NOAA, Climate Focus, Resources for the Futureand others); • many peer-reviewed journal articles advancing Blue Carbon science; • international working groups set up to address Blue Carbon science and policy issues; • methodologies developed for assessing Blue Car- bon stocks; multiple Blue Carbon demonstration projects around the world are now attempting to employ these methodologies (including the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya, Senegal, and Bangladesh).

25. C:\Users\luana\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\ Content.Outlook\SMKGGTOL\bluecarbonportal.org

24. http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/blue-carbon/

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