Australia established the International Partnership for Blue Carbon and encourages other countries to actively participate. The Partnership builds connections between governments, research agencies and non-government organisations to build awareness, share knowledge and accelerate practical action that protects and restores blue carbon ecosystems. Launched by Australia at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21, the Partnership has grown to almost forty members since its establishment. The Partnership is recognised as the primary international forum on blue carbon. Through the Partnership, members develop and share practical tools to address common questions, share findings between blue carbon initiatives, and together examine policy settings for financing blue carbon. The Partnership also offers a platform for countries to showcase their action on blue carbon to the world. Together with a coordinating group, Australia has served as the Secretariat of the Partnership since its launch. Commitments are sought from other countries to sustain and build on the success of the Partnership. Commitments could include hosting the next annual meeting in 2020 or other events, shared leadership, financial support or taking a lead role of the secretariat, joining the coordination group or engaging in focal groups.

The IORA-CSIRO Blue Carbon Hub aims to build knowledge and capacity for protecting and restoring blue carbon ecosystems throughout IORA Member States by:  • providing a knowledge hub to provide advice and capacity building expertise to IORA Member States  • engaging in research that seeks to improve knowledge and provide the evidence base for the development of robust policy and finance mechanisms  • disseminating best practice information to international partners  • seeking to develop partnerships with organisations that can assist with implementation of activities that meet these objectives.  Blue carbon initiatives address multiple development goals through a single policy framework that incorporates economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness.

Australia has committed $6 million from 2018 to 2021, to support national climate action and livelihoods in Papua New Guinea and Fiji, through enhanced measurement, management and investment in blue carbon ecosystems. The Australian Government, together with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), will work collaboratively with a range of partners in PNG and Fiji, to build technical capacity for gathering and using data on blue carbon stocks, and to incorporate blue carbon into policy and decision-making frameworks. Subsequently the initiative aims to establish blue carbon projects, test and validate offset methodologies, and mobilise markets for blue carbon investments.

Australia has committed $2 million between 2019 and 2022 towards working with Indonesia to address policy and technical priorities for the sustainable management of coastal blue carbon resources. Funding will be used to strengthen Indonesia’s blue carbon research capacity, build tools to inform decision making, and support coordination of policy development for ecosystem management.

During the International Year of the Reef in May 2018, the Australian Government announced additional A$500 million boost to reef protection, including a A$443.3 million partnership with the non-Government Great Barrier Reef Foundation and A$56 million over five years to expand the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s environmental management and compliance operations. The aim of this investment is to accelerate delivery of the Australian and Queensland governments’ Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, which is based on the best available science, draws on 40 years of analysis, and is underpinned by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s strong management. The Foundation has an ambitious target to increase the investment by a further $300 to $400 million through philanthropic, corporate and individual giving, and contributed funds/effort by research and delivery partners. The partnership with the Foundation includes:  • $201 million to improve water quality through changed farming practices such as reduced fertiliser use and adopting new technologies and land management practices  • $100 million to harness the best science to implement reef restoration and support Reef resilience and adaptation  • $58 million to expand the fight against the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish  • $40 million to enhance Reef health monitoring and reporting to track progress and inform better management  • $22 million to support Indigenous and community reef protection activities to increase traditional owner and broader community engagement on the Reef, including Indigenous sea country management, coastal clean-up days and awareness raising activities. Early in 2018 the Australian Government announced additional funding of A$60 million to tackle crown-of-thorns starfish, water quality, to put more Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority field officers on the water and to scope a major research and development program for coral reef restoration.

Japan will continue its support for implementation of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction in developing countries through the Resilience through Investing in Ecosystems — knowledge, innovation and transformation of risk management (RELIEF-Kit) project which has been undertaken by IUCN together with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity funded by Japan Biodiversity Fund. Japan will continue to contribute to the promotion of Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction in developing countries through this project.

In several parts of Japan, local governments, industries and academia have worked for conservation, restoration and creation of coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, tidal marshes, and mangroves, recognizing their multi beneficial values. Japan has conducted distribution surveys of seagrass beds using satellite images in the enclosed coastal seas since 2015.

This €3.1million German-IKI funded project aims to secure and restore terrestrial coastal forests and mangrove ecosystems in Kwale County for biodiversity conservation and community livelihood. This will be done through establishing and building the capacity of public-private-people partnerships. The project is working with communities, government authorities and private sector on ecosystem restoration, sustainable management of resources and the integration of ecosystem values into policies and plans.

The World Bank facilitated the development of Kenya’s national mangrove management plan for the 2017-2027 period. The Plan was prepared in compliance with Forests Act (2005), which provides for preparation of management plans for all gazetted forests. It provides a road map towards sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems in Kenya for enhanced livelihoods. The Plan embraces collaborative and participatory approaches in natural resource governance that leads to ownership of the initiatives by the stakeholders. The estimated budget for implementing the Plan is US$ 3.8million.

The objectives of the project are to: • Measure the health of mangrove forests in Lamu County in terms of their spatial extent, productivity, and biodiversity; • Work with Kenya Forest Service and other agencies in integrating blue carbon into national climate change agenda; and • Train, educate, and empower community and other stakeholders on blue carbon assessment, monitoring, and management. The project fits with both national and local priorities, action plans and programs on environment and food security; and will help to achieve global sustainable goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. The initial budget of US$300,000 has been secured through Pew Charitable Trust (USA) and WWF. Additional financing of US$600,000 is being sought to allow incorporation of Blue carbon into the climate change agenda.

Coral reefs and seagrasses are some of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on earth, protecting shorelines, and nourishing livelihoods of coastal communities. However, natural and human induced stressors have led to increased loss of coral reefs and seagrass habitats with a general decline in ecosystem health. To address these ever-growing threats to fragile seagrass and coral reef ecosystems it was found necessary to develop conservation strategy for Kenya. The strategy seeks to promote biodiversity conservation, safeguard and secure livelihoods of coastal communities, spur sound and focused scientific research. Successful implementation of the strategy will ensure that the structure and functions of these ecosystems is ensured. Innovative vulnerability analysis through the IUCN Red List of ecosystems for coral reefs will be applied in 2019-2020 to inform the new strategy and identify nature-based climate solutions. The estimated budget for revision and implementation of the strategy is US$ 5.0 million over the 2019-2023 period.

Mexico is committed to invest in nature-based solutions to protect and restore the great marine diversity of our country and increase its resilience to the effects of climate change. By expanding and strengthening our Fishing Refuge Areas, we aim to recover trophic chains, reduce bycatch, and protect the natural processes of fish reproduction and fish breeding. To date, we have 13 regulatory agreements in force, including 41 polygons at 13 different sites in four federal entities, covering an area of over 20,000 km2. Within these Fishing Refuge Areas, more than 100 target, secondary and incidental species of fish, molluscs, echinoderms, crustaceans and sea turtles are being protected. Mexico will expand at least 100 000 new hectares of Fishing Refuge Areas on which their planning and design will take into account fishing production as well as socio-political and ecological factors, including the enhancement of marine connectivity in face of climate change.

The Government of Mexico is implementing a Coral Reef Restoration Program, which aims to tackle the effects of climate change in the world’s second biggest coral reef located in the Caribbean Sea. Through this ongoing program, Mexico is committed to restore 47,000 corals by the end of 2019 and 265,000 corals by 2022 looking to increase this target by the end of the administration. The restoration program is based on the reproduction of 13 species of corals using biotechnological techniques and subsequent planting in their natural habitats. This initiative aims to restore the structure and ecological functionality of marine ecosystems that have been damaged by climate change effects such as sea level rise, hurricanes, acidification and temperature rise.

Mexico is developing the Strategic Action Program of the Great Marine Ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. With this program, we commit to improve water quality, restore coastal ecosystems, and prevent depletion of important species for fisheries. The United Nations Environment Program is acting as the implementing agency for this project, which is coordinated jointly by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) in Mexico and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. The program is set to be completed by 2021, with a fund of 12.9 million dollars granted by the GEF. By that date, we aim to: • Improve water quality in the coastal area. • Avoid depletion and promote recovery of living marine resources. Promote community involvement in conservation and restoration of the quality of coastal and marine ecosystems.

Currently, Namibia’s entire coastal belt is gazetted as national parks, and includes 3 coastal RAMSAR sites, namely Walvis Bay lagoon, the sandwich harbour and the orange river mouth, hence they are protected. Further, Namibia’s marine waters which are less than 200 metres in depth are protected from most commercial fishing activities, as they are breeding grounds for fish. The Government of Namibia is therefore confident of exceeding the 10% MPA target once these areas, which are already protected, are gazetted as MPAs.

In response to growing concerns about climate change resulting from increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, considerable interest has been drawn to the possibility of increasing the rate of carbon sequestration. Given the potential of marine organisms (particularly algae) to capture carbon and the need to contribute to global efforts on climate change mitigation, Portugal commits to evaluate marine ecosystems and identify areas to implement carbon sequestration solutions, for instance through new projects aimed at restoration of degraded seagrass and macroalgal habitats or scaling up previous projects developed along the Portuguese coastline.

Protected area networks are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation policies, focusing the protection of ecosystems, habitats, species and genetic resources and thus providing a wide range of benefits to society and economy. Portugal presently has c.a. 7 percent of the coastal and marine areas under national jurisdiction classified as marine protected areas. On the occasion of The United Nations Ocean Conference (New York, 5-9 June 2017), Portugal submitted as a commitment to comply with SDG 14.5 the classification of at least 14% of maritime space under national jurisdiction as a marine protected area. Adhering to the IUCN recommendation approved at the World Conservation Congress 2016, Portugal commits to protect about 30% of its national maritime space by 2030.

The Australian Government is investing AUD$70 million in the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/, a 10-year $329 million collaboration between 45 Australian and international partners. The Blue Economy CRC will bring together expertise in aquaculture, marine renewable energy and marine engineering as part of a collaborative effort between industry, researchers and the community to develop innovative and sustainable offshore industries to increase Australian seafood and marine renewable energy production. The CRC has five research programs: Offshore Engineering and Technology, Seafood and Marine, Offshore Renewable Energy Systems, Environment and Ecosystems, and Sustainable Offshore Developments.

Japan, which is surrounded by the sea on all sides, recognizes that it has great potential for ocean energy such as offshore wind and ocean currents. Above all, the cost of offshore wind power has been drastically reduced in the world, and Japan also has been establishing the rules for use of sea areas through the Act on Promotion of Utilisation of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Generation Facilities and promoting the technology development. In addition, with regard to power generation utilising ocean energy such as ocean currents, there are still major issues in terms of cost and stable supply worldwide.

In 2017 Portugal approved the Roadmap for the Industrial Strategy of Oceanic Renewable Energies. The main objective of the Roadmap is to maximise the investment made in R&D and Innovation in oceanic renewable energies (wind offshore and waves) to formulate a sustainable financing model and an Industrial Strategy for Ocean Renewable Energies. Oceanic renewable energies would be able to supply 25% of the national annual electricity consumption and could replace almost all coal in the national electricity mix. In recent years, several research and technological development projects have emerged, with a strong component of innovation and experimentation, specifically through modelling and testing of new technologies, infrastructure construction, development and installation of wave energy prototypes, tidal energy and wind energy. Within this scope is under way the WindFloat Atlantic, a pioneering project involving the installation of three offshore wind turbines on floating platforms. The high nominal capacity wind turbines (8.4 MW) will be the largest already installed on floating platforms at sea. The 25 MW wind energy production platform will be installed about 20 km from the Portuguese coast, in an area with a depth of 100 metres, with the start of production planned for the near future. This project, currently in the pre-commercial phase, involves an investment of more than 100 million euros over 3 years.

The Australian Government is investing AUD$70 million in the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/, a 10-year $329 million collaboration between 45 Australian and international partners. The Blue Economy CRC will bring together expertise in aquaculture, marine renewable energy and marine engineering as part of a collaborative effort between industry, researchers and the community to develop innovative and sustainable offshore industries to increase Australian seafood and marine renewable energy production. The CRC has five research programs: Offshore Engineering and Technology, Seafood and Marine, Offshore Renewable Energy Systems, Environment and Ecosystems, and Sustainable Offshore Developments.

Japan, as a major shipping and shipbuilding economy, has actively contributed to global initiatives at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce GHG emissions from ships. Since 2017, Japan has been serving the Chair of IMO’s committee in charge of climate actions. Currently, Japan is actively engaged in work at the IMO to develop a new global mechanism to further cut emissions from ships to achieve the GHG reduction target set out in the IMO’s Strategy. To facilitate such global initiatives, Japan provides a number of technical cooperation and capacity building. Nippon foundation, a Japanese NGO, provides nine fellowship programs with multiple partners such as the World Maritime University (WMU) and the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), and more than 1,200 alumni from 140 countries are engaged in ocean policy including climate and environment policy.

Portugal has a valuable geostrategic position to boost the use of LNG in the marine fuel mix. In this sense, one of the main objectives of the planned investments will be the establishment in Continental Portugal and the autonomous regions of Madeira and of the Azores of a service area for supplying Atlantic LNG ships. Moreover, the creation of a re-exporter hub for natural gas is envisaged. This hub will contribute to the decarbonization of maritime transport. In this context, Portugal is committed to invest in the terminal of Sines Port and to boost innovation on specialised ships for LNG supply and in green shipping activities.

In Portugal port activity is of major importance for the ocean economy and for the Portuguese economy as whole. Over the last years much international regulation was designed, approved or came into force that regulates the environmental dimension of ports. Port system in Portugal will implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy that comprises all aspects of their activity that might result in negative impacts on environments, including marine environments.

In Portugal the number of ships that scale the ports, during the last 10 years, had a growth higher than 20%, both in goods and passengers, and even higher in cruises. Simultaneously, the activity of the naval industry started increasing its production and exports. So, Portugal will continue the projects to find and implement in the construction of new vessels or requalification of the existing, to improve the sustainability, annual emissions and reduce air and water pollution. Also, solutions will be implemented for efficient consumption of energy and water.

The Australian Government is investing AUD$70 million in the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/, a 10-year $329 million collaboration between 45 Australian and international partners. The Blue Economy CRC will bring together expertise in aquaculture, marine renewable energy and marine engineering as part of a collaborative effort between industry, researchers and the community to develop innovative and sustainable offshore industries to increase Australian seafood and marine renewable energy production. The CRC has five research programs: Offshore Engineering and Technology, Seafood and Marine, Offshore Renewable Energy Systems, Environment and Ecosystems, and Sustainable Offshore Developments.

Under the Fisheries Management and Development Act, 2016 the Kenya Government is investing in co-management models for small scale fisheries with Beach Management Units (BMUs). Activities include capacity building, leadership development and development of by-laws, including those for protecting fish stocks for sustainable food production through Locally Managed Marine Areas. This is one approach to improve fisheries management effectiveness through the establishment of joint fisheries co-management areas managed by local communities (BMUs) in collaboration with county authorities.

The Kenya Marine Fisheries and Social Economic Development Project (KEMSFED) has an overall goal to increase socio-economic benefits and coastal livelihoods from the marine fisheries and coastal aquaculture while safeguarding associated ecosystems’ integrity by strengthening the governance institutions for Fisheries and Blue Economy.

Portugal is implementing a new large range plan for supporting a scientific control of stocks according to MSY, including an increase in scientific cruises to evaluate the stock conditions and management plans. According to the new plan for sustainable aquaculture Portugal is implementing a huge transformation in the rules and localizations, controlling and reducing the density, the use of renewable energies and the requirements for the control of water. The objective is to contribute to reducing the consumption to levels environmentally compatible with the maintenance of biodiversity.

Portugal has just approved its Maritime Space Management and Planning, the first in the European Union, to map the areas appropriate to different maritime activities and those with potential for carbon capture and storage. In parallel is mapping the natural resources and the geological characteristics of seabed and sub-seabed. The ocean has a major role in carbon absorption, retaining fifty times more carbon than the atmosphere. This central role in the global carbon cycle needs to be considered in the route to a carbon neutral society. Artificial reefs, biological transformation and improvement of storage capacity, will be studied and potentially applied