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Unlocking the Value of Coastal Ecosystem Services

GEF-IBRD/CCRES project

By IW:LEARN

February 21^st, 2019

In developing coastal countries, ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds provide fish to eat and trade, support tourism, protect coastlines from storms and erosion, and filter water.

Coastal communities rely on these coral ecosystems for their livelihoods, food and wellbeing. Unfortunately, these ecosystems are under threat from pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing, unsustainable coastal development and climate change.

The Capturing Coral Reef & Related Ecosystem Services (CCRES) project (2014-2018) has been assisting governments and communities in sustaining these coastal ecosystems.

In collaboration with project partners and beneficiaries, the CCRES project has developed a suite of technical models, tools and knowledge products to assist managers, policy-makers and planners to strengthen the governance of coastal ecosystems.

Seagrass and human interactions. Credit: Joleah Lam

Batanga, Philippines. Credit: G. Sheehan

The 15 tools are mostly free to use and are downloadable from the CCRES website.

Under a partnership in knowledge management between the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) and CCRES, the tools are hosted in the e-library of PEMSEA’s Seas of East Asia (SEA) Knowledge Bank. They are also hosted at the Marine Science Institute, University of Philippines.

The tools are used for planning Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), modelling socio-ecological systems, developing sustainable enterprises and fostering behaviour change. They have been developed following research by multi-disciplinary teams that include scientists, policy-makers, businesses and other experts from a range of fields. The collaboration is been between centres of discovery, learning and engagement in North America, Australia and importantly our partners in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The tools can be used individually to address a specific coastal challenge, such identifying the size and location of MPAs, or collectively to deliver a system-wide solution.

Mapping coastal characteristics at Parak village, Selayar. Credit: A. Abdurrahim

MPS training at Makassar. Credit: L. Izquierdo

MSP workshop for MPAs, Manila, Philippines. Credit: K. Follosco

One example of the latter is the use of four tools: the MPA toolkit, a governance tool FishCollab, a behaviour change tool My Future, My Oceans, and a business development output Waste2Enterprise provided by the Parak community at Selayar, Indonesia. Parak villagers used these tools to develop community-designed MPAs and a management plan, and to start their own garbage bank to create alternative livelihoods from the collection and value-adding of waste plastic.

The marine planning tools have also been used by WWF Indonesia and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) in 27 locations across34 Indonesian provinces. In the Philippines, the Haribon Foundation, a Responsible Partner of the Department of Natural Resources (DENR)/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Smart Seas PH Project, has also used the Fish SPACE tool to evaluate marine reserve design and fisheries management initiatives in Lanuza Bay, Surigao del Sur, Philippines.

The business development tool EbBD, has been used by The National Park Service in Taka Bonerate, Indonesia, in partnership with the DINAS (government unit) to promote sustainable tourism and small-scale home industries and get commitments for a number of biorock installations around Selayar to promote ecotourism and support conservation efforts.

EcoBiz workshop in Philippines. Credit: L. Izquierdo

SEAMME app on iPad. Credit: L. Izquierdo

Pak Zul on manta board. Credit: N. Wolff

My Future My Ocean hero with wheelbarrow of plastic in Bontolebang, Indonesia. Creidt: P. Bradley

In the Philippines, the systems analysis tools, SESAMME and SYSTORY, have been used by the Eastern Visayas University in undergraduate and graduate teaching programs while My Future, My Oceans has been used by eco-tourism operator Ten Knots Development Corporation, in partnership with the CCRES project, to empower villagers to improve waste management near one of its resorts at El Nido in the province of Palawan.

In Indonesia, FishCollab will be rolled out at five locations during 2018/19:

Langkat, North Sumatra,
Lampung, South Sumatra,
Demak, Central Java,
West Nusa Tenggara, East Lombok, and
Selayar, South Sulawesi,

in a trial organised by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to develop effective interventions for tackling poverty in fishing communities.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and The University of Queensland (UQ) funded the CCRES project. The World Bank implemented it and UQ executed it.