EU-China Blue Partnership Forum for the Oceans - 5 September - UNEP inputs on Nature-Based solutions

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On 5 September the European Commission hosted the First China-EU “Blue Partnership Forum for the Oceans” in Brussels. The Forum, established under the Ocean Partnership signed between the EU and China in July 2018, brought together EU and Chinese stakeholders in view of helping shape future actions under the areas covered by the Ocean Partnership such as ocean governance, a thriving blue economy and sustainable fisheries.

Ms Susan Gardner, Director of the Ecosystems Division of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),  took part in a panel discussion on ensuring the sustainable development of the oceans, providing UNEP’s views on the opportunities to implement nature-based solutions through this partnership.

“This partnership provides an opportunity to enhance and take forward best practices on nature-based solutions working across multiple sectors for sustainable development and for meeting long term sustainable development goals,” Ms Gardner told the Forum.

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In her address, Ms Gardner highlighted that in preparation of the UN SG Climate Action Summit on 23 September, China is co-leading with New Zealand a workstream in using nature based solutions for climate action, with help from UNEP i.a. 

“ The nature-based solution approach consists in short in “enhancing nature’s ability to provide social and economic benefits” she explained. “Through the use of sustainable practices, the blue economy can simultaneaously pursue economic, social and environmental goals.”    

She gave the examples of the fishing sector and tourism sectors.

For the fishing sector she pointed out that while the marine ecosystem services offer a value of trillion dollars per year, the World Bank estimates that overfishing has resulted currently in a loss of over 50 billion dollars a year. Overfishing also exacerbates poverty. If stocks decline, the fishing industry spends more time and energy to find their resource. Overfishing destroys the resilience of both the ecosystem and the economy and this is complicated by fish stocks that move as a result of climate change, Ms Gardner said. Therefore good partnerships such as the EU-China on Oceans, can enhance good planning and sustainable development. They can also enhance technological innovations that provide more solid activities for fishing. Moreover, such partnership can help ensure proper governance, and education and awareness raising of consumers so that they can be informed consumers.

The other example Ms Gardner gave was that of tourism. Eco-tourism in coastal communities is one of the fastest growing markets in terms of tourism she noted, but when it is done poorly it results in habitat disruption, pollution, loss of local culture, exhaustion of water supplies and the overwhelming of waste management processes, and exarcebate overfishing and biodiversity loss. The opportunity for sustainable ecotourism can however generate revenue for the local public through careful planning and management, and increase local people’s appreciation for their natural resources. It also allows for resources to come in to provide better public services such as waste management so that tourism can also contribute to the solutions. For problems like marine litter in the oceans, it is essential that we address the waste management systems as well as look at the sustainable production and consumption stream, she underlined.

In both these examples we see that solutions require: integrated sustainable approaches, concrete and clear policies that have a very specific vision in mind, planning, and ensuring that right financial incentives are in place, having measurable targets so that we can track progress through monitoring, and having the right kinds of enforcement and public awareness, and making sure that processes are inclusive. A successful foundation for the policies is that there is work across agencies and sectors, and that we are developing policies that carefully consider gender differences in the proposed solutions.  

As a result, through nature-based solutions you can have sustainable management of resources, you can engage the local community and have benefits for the local economy and decrease poverty and work with nature to support the local economy. So basically it comes down to “investments in nature for people”. And, as put by the Chinese delegation as part of the Climate Action Summit preparations, nature beased solutions is also about this idea of “people living in harmony with nature.“

Finally, Ms Gardner provided another example of a nature-based solution from a pilot study that UNEP has contributed to. The pilot consisted of comparing options to reduce flooding in a coastal town in Fiji that was very vulnerable to flooding. These options consisted of using traditional engineering with the building of a sea wall on the one hand, or rehabilitating previously existing mangroves on the other. It was clear that the latter, an ecosystems-based approach, would lead to higher benefits, less maintenance, it was cheaper to implement, and everybody had co-benefits of biodiversity increase, replenishment of fisheries, habitat for bird species…

In conclusion, the ‘nature-based solutions’ approach offers multiple blue economy benefits, Ms Gardner said. They are readily available and are cost effective. They provide co-benefits for multiple sectors and can be part of a strong governance and integrated ocean management system.

During the Q&A Ms Gardner was asked how the finance principles (from UNEP's Finance Initiative) interact with these processes. Ms Gardner explained that the finance principles are designed to reduce the loss of natural capital. One needs to look at long term investments for the pay off that you get from ecosystem services. Finance principles ensure transparency, solution driven investments and the long term.

In the opening session of the Forum, Chinese Administrator Wang Hong had referred to the common Chinese imagery since ancient times of seeing the ocean as “cradle of life and treasure-house of resources.” Building on this metaphor, Ms Gardner affirmed that "you would not want to destroy the cradle to burn the wood, or to sell the wood at the price way cheaper than the value of the cradle and the possibility of having another cradle for future generations." The finance principles provide the foundations for seeing the oceans as a cradle, she concluded.