Pacific Islands Regional Oceanscape Program - Solomon Islands

The objective of the Pacific Island Regional Ocean Program is to sustainably increase the economic benefits captured by Pacific Island Countries from the ecosystem services provided by the Western Pacific Ocean. This abundant oceanscape, and the ecosystem services it provides, is a shared natural capital asset for the entire region. It provides valuable services such as the provision of fish for food products, and key biodiversity and habitats that support tourism, as well as carbon storage.The project's objective will be achieved by financing the countries to collaborate to improve the governance of the use of this shared natural capital asset, establishing an enabling institutional framework for sustainable private investment in industries dependent on ocean ecosystem services, notably tourism.Three broad investment components are proposed:i) Development of economic opportunities in tuna fisheries through improvements in governance and through investment in value addition (where explicit economic benefits are identified);ii) Development of collective management systems to improve coastal and reef fisheries management; iii) Development of regulatory frameworks and market systems to manage human impacts and promote investment in wider ecosystem services.A horizontal Adaptable Program Loan (APL) will be pursued, whereby the overall investment program is prepared and agreed, with the first group of several countries ready to launch as APL 1, and then additional countries join when ready in subsequent phases of the APL, until all eligible countries have joined. With the approval of the overall program and first APL, the Executive Board of Directors would delegate the authority for approval of subsequent phases of the APL to the Regional Vice President, to enhance efficiency.In order to implement the shared objective and approach of the proposed program, each phase of the APL would finance activities that would be implemented at the regional level (through an established regional organization), as well as activities that would be implemented nationally in each participating country. More specifically:Component 1 Economic Development of Pacific Island tuna fisheries: The majority of financing and implementation of this component would be at the regional level via GEF and IDA funds, and would include all of the eligible countries participating (via implementation by a regional organization).Component 2 Coastal Fisheries Management: Implementation of this component would be undertaken at the national level with regional coordination (and learning exchange), largely via parallel financing from partners.Component 3 Environmental Regulation and Supporting Markets: Implementation of this component 3 would be developed largely at the regional level, via parallel financing from partners.While component 1 would be implemented almost entirely at the regional level, all three components have high spillover effects given the shared nature of the countries' transboundary living ocean resources. This investment framework would provide a common platform for support by a wide range of partners participating in the Global Partnership for Oceans (via parallel financing), linked to equity investments where feasible by the IFC.