The Reef-World Foundation were very kindly invited to participate in the ‘Regional Forum on Solutions for Oceans, Coasts and Human Well-Being in Asia and the Pacific’ held in Cebu City, Philippines in May.
The forum was organised by the Blue Solutions Initiative, World Future Council, and the Lighthouse Foundation in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Philippines. Its purpose was to give over 100 practitioners and decision makers from public and private sectors spanning 17 countries in Asia and the Pacific the opportunity to share successes, challenges and lessons learned from their approach to the ‘blue solutions’ they are involved with. Reef-World had the opportunity to represent Green Fins and present it to fellow attendees as a successful solution under the theme ‘ Ecosystem Approach to Marine and Fisheries Management’. It was a great opportunity to share knowledge and experiences and inspire each other to continue the necessary work being carried out in the region in order to implement the Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Green Fins received many invites to locations and countries that it is not currently implemented in so watch this space!
A clear take-away from the forum was the importance of multi-stakeholder (public and private) partnerships to ensure the successful implementation, management and growth of a solution. This is something that the Green Fins initiative is based and depends heavily upon in each country and location in which it has been implemented. Many common challenges were shared such as enforcement of laws, rule and regulations and there is still a great deal of work to be done in Asia and the Pacific. The overall feeling at the end of the forum however was one of positivity. We are taking the right steps and are in this together so instead of reinventing the wheel for each and every problem we face, why not share the building blocks and experiences from our individual solutions for the greater good of our oceans and human well-being. To find out more visit http://bluesolutions.info/.
