Objectives: Recovery of depleted fish biomass and fisheries to promote greater food security, sustainable productivity, and socioeconomic benefits. Reduction in pollution and eutrophication levels of coastal waters. Restoration of degraded habitats including coral reefs, mangroves, and wetlands.

1. Large Marine Ecosystems
Assessment and Management
Approach
2005-2010
GEF International Waters Conference
Salvador, Brazil
20-27 June 2005

2. ECOLOGICAL CRITERIA
USED TO DETERMINE
AREAL EXTENT OF LMES:
• Bathymetry
• Hydrography
• Productivity
• Trophodynamics

4. Human
expansion
Climate change
Altered
ecosystems
5
Introductions
3
Mechanical
habitat
destruction
2
Pollution
1
Fishing
4
“Then” “Now”
(from Jackson et al., Science vol. 293, 27 July 2001)

5. GEF – LME Programs Partner with
UNEP Regional Seas Programme
More than 140 countries participate in 13 regional
programmes in the Black Sea, Caribbean, East
Africa, East Asia, the Kuwait Convention Region,
Mediterranean, North-East Pacific, North-West
Pacific, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, South Asia,
South-East Pacific, South Pacific, and West and
Central Africa—all under UNEP’s auspices.
There are also 5 partner programmes for the
Antarctic, Artic, Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea and
North-East Atlantic.
121 countries currently involved in 17 GEF-LME
projects

6. Map with
LMEs
THE 64 LMES OF THE WORLD:
1 East Bering Sea
2 Gulf of Alaska
3 California Current
4 Gulf of California
5 Gulf of Mexico
6 Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf
7 Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf
8 Scotian Shelf
9 Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf
10 Insular Pacific- Hawaiian
11 Pacific Central-American Coastal
12 Caribbean Sea
13 Humboldt Current
14 Patagonian Shelf
15 South Brazil Shelf
16 East Brazil Shelf
17 North Brazil Shelf
18 West Greenland Shelf
19 East Greenland Shelf
20 Barents Sea
21 Norwegian Shelf
22 North Sea
23 Baltic Sea
24 Celtic-Biscay Shelf
25 Iberian Coastal
26 Mediterranean Sea
27 Canary Current
28 Guinea Current
29 Benguela Current
30 Agulhas Current
31 Somali Coastal Current
32 Arabian Sea
33 Red Sea
34 Bay of Bengal
35 Gulf of Thailand
36 South China Sea
37 Sulu-Celebes Sea
38 Indonesian Sea
39 North Australian Shelf
40 Northeast Australian Shelf –
Great Barrier Reef
41 East Central Australian Shelf
42 Southeast Australian Shelf
43 Southwest Australian Shelf
44 West-Central Australian Shelf
45 Northwest Australian Shelf
46 New Zealand Shelf
47 East China Sea
48 Yellow Sea
49 Kuroshio Current
50 Sea of Japan
51 Oyashio Current
52 Sea of Okhotsk
53 West Bering Sea
54 Chukchi Sea
55 Beaufort Sea
56 East Siberian Sea
57 Laptev Sea
58 Kara Sea
59 Iceland Shelf
60 Faroe Plateau
61 Antarctic
62 Black Sea
63 Hudson Bay
64 Arctic Ocean

7. SELECTED ECOSYSTEM-RELATED WSSD
TARGETS AND PROGRAM OF ACTION (POI),
Johannesburg, August 2002
• Land-based Sources of Pollution
POI – Substantially reduce by 2006
• Ecosystem-based Approach
POI – Introduce by 2010
• Marine Protected Areas
POI - Designated Network by 2012
• Restoration and Sustainability of Fisheries
POI – On an urgent basis and where
possible to MSY by 2015

8. LMEs ARE GLOBAL CENTERS
OF EFFORTS TO:
• REDUCE coastal pollution
• RESTORE damaged habitats
(Coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses)
• RECOVER depleted fishery stocks

9. Collaborating International Partners
• IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission)
• UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
• UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme)
• Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)
• Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine
Environment from Land-Based Activities (GPA)
• UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization)
• FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, Fisheries Division)
• GEF (The Global Environmental Facility)
• The World Bank
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
• IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of nature, GEF-LME
Projects
• WWF (World Wildlife Fund)

10. 121 Developing Countries
Participate in LME Assessment and
Management Projects in Africa,
Asia, Latin America and Eastern
Europe.
GEF and Country Investment in
Projects as of January 2004 = $650
million.

11. GEF International Waters
Operational Strategy
Supports
New
Paradigm
• Ecosystem-based
LME Restoration
Actions
•TDA/SAP
Priority Actions

12. 5 MODULES WITH INDICATORS

13. INDICATORS OF CHANGING
ECOSYSTEM STATES:
Productivity
Fish and Fisheries
Pollution
Socioeconomic
Governance

14. PRODUCTIVITY INDICATORS
An undulating oceanographic recorder (above), towed
behind a ship, is used to collect ecological parameters
needed to assess the state of the marine ecosystem
(left).

15. FISH AND FISHERIES
INDICATORS
• Demersal species surveys
• Pelagic species surveys
• Ichthyoplankton surveys
• Invertebrate surveys (clams, scallops,
shrimp, lobster, squid)
• Essential fish habitat
• Marine protected areas

16. FISH AND FISHERIES INDICATORS
Georges Bank Yellowtail
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Spawning Stock Biomass ('000 mt) &
Recruitment (millions, age 1)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Exploitation Rate
0.0
Spawning Stock Biomass
Recruitment
Exploitation Rate
Georges Bank Haddock
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Spawning Stock Biomass ('000 mt) &
Recruitment (millions, age 1)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Exploitation Rate
0.00
Spawning Stock Biomass
Recruitment
Exploitation Rate

17. POLLUTION AND ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
DIN Export by Rivers for World Regions
1990 and 2050 BAU Scenario
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Tg N y-1
North
America
South
America
Africa Europe NE
Asia
Eastern
Asia
INDICATORS
Southern
Asia
1990
2050
Indicators:
Water Clarity
Dissolved Oxygen
Coastal Wetland Loss
Eutrophic Condition
Sediment Contamination
Benthic Index
Fish Tissue Contaminants
Multiple Marine Ecological
Disturbances

18. SOCIOECONOMICS AND GOVERNANCE
NORTHEAST SHELF MANAGEMENT
JURISDICTIONS

19. SPECIFIC PROJECT
OBJECTIVES
Among the specific project
objectives are:
• Recovery of depleted fish
biomass and fisheries to
promote greater food security,
sustainable productivity, and
socioeconomic benefits
• Reduction in pollution and
eutrophication levels of coastal
waters
• Restoration of degraded
habitats including coral reefs,
mangroves, and wetlands

20. Guinea Current Indicators

21. Guinea Current Indicators

22. Guinea Current Indicators

23. Benguela
Current
Large
Marine
Ecosystem
Project:
Angola,
Namibia and
South Africa

24. BENGUELA CURRENT LME
MAJOR TRANSBOUNDARY PROBLEMS
Decline in commercial fish
stocks, over- harvesting
Highly variable ecosystem
status and yields
Deterioration in water quality,
chronic and catastrophic
Habitat destruction and
alteration
Threats to biotic integrity and
biodiversity
Limited resources for
monitoring and assessment
Harmful algal blooms

25. BENGUELA CURRENT LME
THE INTERIM BENGUELA
CURRENT COMMISSION
• Three representatives from each
country, each with a vote, and
equality between member states
• Non-voting representation from:
– SEAFO
– UNDP
– UNEP
– SADC
– BENEFIT
– The Secretariat
• Representation of World Bank on
the IBCC for 5 years

26. PLANNING ACTIONS
1. Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) – provides
consensus priorities from analysis and ranking of water-related
resources issues, their environmental and socioeconomic impacts,
immediate and root causes and possible remedies
2. Strategic Action Program (SAP) – provides national and
regional commitments to policy, legal and institutional reforms, and
investments to remedy root causes of priority transboundary issues
identified in TDA
IMPLEMENTATION ACTIONS
3. Ecosystem-based assessment and management strategy for
TDA and SAP
3.1 Productivity indicators and assessments
3.2 Fish and fisheries indicators and assessments
3.3 Pollution and ecosystem health indicators and assessments
3.4 Socioeconomic indicators and assessments
3.5 Governance indicators and assessments
Ecosystem-Based
Assessment and
Adaptive Management
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Years 5-10
Assessments &
Management
Actions
Assessments &
Management
Actions
Assessments &
Management
Actions
Toward Self-financing
Assessments
and adaptive
management

27. ECOSYSTEM
MANAGEMENT:
A PARADIGM SHIFT
FROM TO
Individual species Ecosystems
Small spatial scale Multiple scales
Short-term perspective Long-term perspective
Humans: independent of
ecosystems
Humans: integral part of
ecosystems
Management divorced from
research
Adaptive management
Managing commodities Sustaining production potential for
goods and services
NOTE: Some of the substantive changes between traditional
resource management and ecosystem management.

28. UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme
partners with the GEF-LME Projects
to advance participating countries
toward ecosystem-based assessment
and management of marine resources
and their environments

29. LME / GEF PROJECTS
IN SUPPORT OF
UNEP REGIONAL SEAS
PROGRAMME
• Integrate land-based sources of
pollution Project activities with LME
modular assessment strategy
• From $650 million to $1.8 billion
• + $200 million (Sub-Sahara World Bank
Fisheries Grants and Loans)
• TOTAL: $2 billion