Category Archives: General

Blue Solutions at the UN Ocean Conference

Written by Ronja Schmidt, Blue Solutions Initiative

2017 is hoped to be a game changer for the ocean. For the first time, the United Nations will hold a conference, co-hosted by the governments of Fiji and Sweden, dedicated to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

The Blue Solutions Initiative is looking forward to contributing to this important Event. Join us on Twitter and Facebook and follow the conference.

Our activities at a glance:

Blue Solutions Corner – 5 to 9 June 2017
Side Event: Capacity Development Solutions for Managing, Protecting, Conserving and Restoring Marine and Coastal Ecosystems – 7 June 2017, 9.00 AM to 10.30 AM
Side Event: Capacity Development for Sustainable Ocean Governance. Lessons Learned from Academia, Policy and Practice – 8 June 2017, 10.00 AM to 12.00 PM, register for the event
Side Event: Blue Solutions Marketplace – 8 June 2017, 1.15 PM to 2.45 PM, register for the Event

Blue Solutions Events at the UN Ocean Conference

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From local examples to inspiring role models: this is how we disseminate marine solutions

Written by Carolin Hoffmann, Blue Solutions Initiative

130 marine and coastal solutions are currently available on the PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet platform.

130! This is equal to 130 successful efforts in the marine realm in different countries all around the world, readily available to inspire marine practitioners and communities who might face similar challenges right now in their work and in their daily lives.

This is where the Blue Solutions Initiative steps in, aiming to promote the exchange and dissemination of knowledge that is already out there. But what exactly is our approach?

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Passion for oceans and coasts meets trainer skills: Blue training of trainers in Bali

Passion for oceans and coasts meets trainer skills:
Blue training of trainers in Bali

Written by Carolin Hoffmann, Blue Solutions Initiative

It is our mission to foster capacity development in the field of coastal and marine management. For that reason, we have just spent 9 days with a diverse group of marine professionals who underwent an intense training program on various elements and skills that constitute a blue trainer. There is one thing we are sure of – what happened in Bali will not stay in Bali!

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Blue Solutions becomes part of Solution Search

Blue Solutions becomes a partner of Rare´s Solution Search

It’s all about solutions! Rare, as well as Blue Solutions, are looking for approaches that work, thus, it is only natural to partner in the ambition to promote practicioners and their success stories. Rare’s Solution Search is built on innovation and competition theory. What is already working must be surfaced and spotlighted so that practitioners around the world can expand their impact as they replicate proven successes. A contest searching for solutions is designed to do just that.

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The Panorama approach – Solutions and building blocks as a model to structure your project

The Panorama approach – solutions and building blocks as a model to structure your project

Imagine you work in a project on protected area management and want to share your results from 3.5 years of activities towards collaborative management strategies. Mirjam de Koning, GIZ Laos, was in exactly this situation. In the Hin Nam No National Protected Area, located at the Lao-Vietnamese border, GIZ supports a project working on multi-level collaborative governance of this protected area to ensure its effective and equitable management. To capture project results and communicate lessons learned, Mirjam used the solution-ing approach to support an upscaling of the successes made in Laos.

The participatory governance assessment across several administrative levels is one of the identified building blocks for the management of the Hin Nam No National Protected Area.© Mirjam de Koning

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Blue Economy: Coral Reefs Matter

Living on the coasts of the tropical countries of our planet would be very different without coral reefs. They provide the foundation for fisheries, for tourism, for coastlines that are stable, and thereby the basis for coastal communities’ livelihoods and sometimes national economies.

This was the starting point for the IUCN World Conservation Congress event “Blue Economy: Coral Reefs Matter” on the 4^th September, 2016 in the Ocean Pavilion. The event brought together a range of projects, studies and initiatives that highlighted the various facets of why coral reefs are critical to the Blue Economy.

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The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2)

The second meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 23-27^th May 2016. With 2400 participants from 174 countries, representing governments, civil society, science and the private sector, UNEA-2 convened for an ambitious agenda under the theme “Delivering on the 2030 Agenda”.

The Assembly, which is a key platform for global environmental policy, decided upon 25 new resolutions, three of which are marine focused: oceans and seas (L.11/Rev.1), marine plastic litter and micro-plastic (L.12/Rev.1) and sustainable coral reef management (L.13/Rev.1).

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The 2016 Potsdam Ocean Governance Workshop

On 12-13 May, the 3^rd Potsdam Ocean Governance Workshop was held at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany. The event gathered over fifty international ocean experts and representatives from governments, international organisations, research institutes and civil society organisations to think creatively about the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and ocean governance. Discussions focussed particularly on innovative approaches to the implementation of SDG 14 and the importance of healthy oceans to work towards all SDG. Participants also voiced their preference to refer to this SDG as “Life in Harmony with Water” rather than “Life Below Water” to better include the human dimension.

Blue Solutions was represented at the workshop by the implementing partners GIZ, GRID-Arendal and UNEP, and it was suggested to arrange for an exchange around ocean governance solutions at the upcoming UN Conference to Support the Implementation of SDG 14 in New York, 5-9 June 2017.

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New partnership between Mission Blue and Blue Solutions

Blue Solutions is pleased to announce its new partnership with Mission Blue, founded by Sylvia Earle and the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A). The Mission Blue initiative aims to “ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas”, with the vision of 20% protection of the ocean by the year of 2020. With this in mind, the initiative is building a large Mission Blue community of organisations, initiatives, campaigns and researchers that promote and protect our blue planet. Currently, the Mission Blue network unites over 150 organisations and the number is continuously growing. Continue reading →

Marine & Coastal Ecosystem-based Management – UNEP’S guide now available in French & Spanish

UNEP EBM-Guide Spanish

The ecosystem approach lays out a series of principles to guide management towards long-term sustainability of marine and coastal ecosystems. With this guide on Marine and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM), UNEP seeks to assist countries and communities to take steps towards making marine and coastal ecosystem-based management operational – from strategic planning to on-site implementation. It has three main sections:

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