Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

12 Deviations from, and adjustments to the annual work plan

Where some deviations from the work plan were to hap- pen or were necessary is listed following our three Divi- sions of work GRID-Arendal was organised during 2012 and 2013. Marine Division We strived to start projects to support developing coun- tries (those we were involved for the Shelf Programme) on the management of the deep seabed in and outside national jurisdiction. 2013 saw the beginning of informal discussions with UNEP (DELC, DEWA and DEPI) on a concept referred to internally at UNEP as “Greening of the Shelf”. From initial discussions started in late 2012, UNEP project 421-1 Promoting the Progressive Development of International Environmental Law has been included in the latest (as of writing) version of the UNEP 2014-2015 PoW. This falls under Sub-programme 4, Environmental Governance. UNEP internal processes continue and a fi- nal review of the PoW by the Programme Review Com- mittee (PRC) will determine if this collaboration will be implemented. Within the Sustainable Seas Programme (Management of the Marine Environment) there have been 2 capacity-build- ing workshops conducted by GRID-Arendal (Bangkok and Abidjan), one of which was in West Africa. The mandate to hold SoME workshops is derived from the UN World Ocean Assessment and GRID-Arendal has responded to the direction given by the UN and acted accordingly. Within the Ecosystem-based Management/Spatial Plan- ning work we aimed to have come further in relation to our involvement with the Global Partnership for Oceans (GPO), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and im- plementing the ‘Greening of the Shelf’ concept in a Re- gional Sea. In 2012 GRID-Arendal engaged in the GPO process and nominated Dr Peter Harris (a seconded staff member to GRID-Arendal from Australia) to be a member of the GPO Interim Working Group. He attended a WG meeting in Washington DC on April 25 and 26, 2013. How- ever, the GPO has not made the progress that had been initially envisaged (the GPO grand launch planned for The Hague in Sept 2013 was cancelled) and GRID-Arendal has substantially scaled back its involvement in 2013. GRID- Arendal has maintained a watching brief on the GPO and stands ready to contribute if this initiative is able to be- come established in 2014-15.

Some informal consultations were held with the Inter- national Seabed Authority and with Norway on possible alignment of technical support for developing states de- livered via the Secretariat of the ISA. The conclusion was that such an approach would be politically risky and would require a re-think of any form of formal partnership. The finalization of the partnership with UNEP was deemed to be the priority and that explorations of formal partner- ships with other UN bodies should not be explored at this time. Collaboration at the project level is encouraged and opportunities could be explored. The process preparing the Global Environmental Facil- ity (GEF) project on “Blue Forests” took longer than ex- pected and led to a substantial budget overrun in 2013. However, the significant efforts of GRID-Arendal seem to be successful when we learned that project preparation documents passed the UNEP Project Review Committee (PRC) with a grade of satisfactory, and UNEP submitted them to GEF. Polar and Cryosphere The main project of Polar and Cryosphere falling under the MoFA framework agreement work plan, the proposal for a GEF project on “Nomadic Herders and land use change” was hoped to get approval in 2013. The activities planned at the start of the biennium period were based on informa- tion and knowledge about the needs and priorities at that time. For example, the Changing Taiga report (published 2011) highlighted the strong need to engage with tourism operators and produce reports related to this. There were also plans to develop a mobile phone application for mon- itoring activities. However, throughout the course of the biennium period, needs and priorities rapidly changed, due to external circumstances beyond the control of the project. The establishment of the Tengis-Shishged Na- tional Park in late 2012, for example, was a major develop- ment. Reindeer herders suddenly found themselves in a protected area, but with little say or role in the manage- ment of their pastures. Hence the re-focus of activities towards dialogue between protected area management authorities and reindeer herders (see activities related to World Environment Day, for example). Furthermore, a significant amount of resources (time, money) was needed to be re-directed towards develop- ment of the GEF proposal. This included extensive consul-

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