The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR), the only blended finance vehicle dedicated to coral reefs globally, has launched a new monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress on coral reef biodiversity and community resilience to climate change with the aim of enabling replication and scaling of successful interventions in the long run.
The framework has been developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and will be integrated across all GFCR programmes.
To boost the resilience of coral reefs and coastal communities to climate change, the monitoring and evaluation framework identifies a global set of shared indicators across all GFCR programmes that include trends in coral reef health, area of coral restoration, the number of local jobs created in sustainable businesses and the number of financial mechanisms that help coastal communities or coral reef ecosystems recover from disasters.
Aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework negotiated by nearly 200 countries in December 2022, the GFCR indicators will support global efforts to reduce the loss of biodiversity and the threat this poses to coral reefs and the 1 billion people who depend on them, say experts.
“UNEP is delighted to bring this innovative approach to monitoring and evaluation and give coral reefs a fighting chance through a better, and measurable, understanding of what it will take to save them,” says Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator of UNEP’s Marine and Freshwater Branch.
The launch of the framework comes less than three weeks after a historic global agreement to protect marine biodiversity in international waters.
Emily Darling, Director, Coral Reef Conservation, at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who supported development of the framework and is a member of the GFCR’s Science and Technical Advisory Group consisting of more than 30 scientists and experts, said coral reefs and coastal communities “urgently need measurable wins for nature and people”. She added that the new framework identifies practical and cost-effective indicators that will track global progress to save coral reefs.
UNEP – together with WCS and Marine Ecological Research Management AID – is also working alongside impact investors, coral reef experts, and GFCR implementers to develop a new monitoring tool to strengthen capacity for data collection and management that will eventually support the monitoring and evaluation framework.
Coral reefs, home to at least 25 per cent of all known marine species, are under relentless stress from climate change, declining water quality, overfishing, pollution and unsustainable coastal development, among other pressures.
The monitoring and evaluation framework was launched at Monaco Ocean Week, 20-26 March 2023. During the week, GFCR also announced the launch of blue finance programmes for the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of Maldives, and welcomed a new collaboration with IceBreaker Studios to support the development and impact of the Coral Planet initiative.
The week marks five years since the original workshop held during the 2018 Monaco Ocean Week led to the conception of GFCR ahead of its official launch during the UN General Assembly in September of 2020.
For further information, please contact Lisa Rolls: lisa.rolls.@un.org
