FAO will lead the Clean and Healthy Oceans initiative with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), in a strategic partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UN educational, scientific and cultural agency UNESCO.
“Together, we can reverse pollution for better production, better nutrition, better environmentand a better life,” said FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu.
The source-to-sea initiative will direct up to $115 million in grants for cleaning up coastal areas and was signed at the 64th Council Meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Solutions for ‘dead zones’
The oceans have lost nearly two percent of their oxygen since the 1950s, resulting in “dead zones,” without enough oxygen to sustain living tissue. Pollution from land resourcesincluding excessive use of fertilizer, organic waste from livestock, and untreated wastewater, often drive hypoxia around the world.
“The face of the ocean is serious maintenance problemsmostly caused, and accelerated by climate change, such as increasingly acidic and warmer waters, rising sea levels and overexploitation of marine stocks”, said the Executive President of CAF, Sergio Díaz-Granados.
“This financing reaffirms the multilateral commitment to lead the fight against climate change and promote the development of the blue economy,”
Through prolonged hypoxia, coral reefs can experience mass mortalitywhile valuable coastal fish species migrate to higher oxygen areas, and marine reproduction rates decline.
Protecting human and ocean health
The Clean and Healthy Oceans strategy aims to prevent land-based pollution in our oceans through policy and regulatory change, infrastructure investment, and environment-based solutions.
The program also maps land-based sources of ocean pollution to better understand the effects of hypoxia and use ocean science to create solutions that improve human and ocean health.
“This partnership leverages the strengths and skills of each organization, ensuring a comprehensive approach to the protection of marine ecosystems. Together, in the spirit of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, we will take a step towards the ocean we need for the future we want,” added IOC-UNESCO Executive Secretary, Vladimir Ryabinin.