Berlin, Germany – The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and GRID – Arendal hosted a workshop on blue carbon pathways to sustainable development on 25-27 July 2016 in Berlin.
The main objectives of the joint meeting of the UNEP/GEF Blue Forests Project Advisory Panels on Policy and Ecosystem Services included identifying priority policy options for each of the Small Scale Interventions (SSIs), of which the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) is one of the representatives, towards sustainable development of blue forests as well as identifying technical support to be provided by the Advisory Panels on Policy and Ecosystem Services over the remaining course of the project.
These advisory panels give recommendations to the SSIs on blue carbon science, ecosystem services and policy to support the effective implementation of the SSIs activities. Specifically on climate and marine and costal management, AGEDI helped facilitate the sharing of experiences, success and challenges of the SSIs to find ways of overcoming them as well as identify new opportunities for intervention.
Finally the participants, who included world renowned experts from international organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), governments, academia, the private sector and research organisations, drafted a National Policy Assessment Framework, to ensure uptake and up scaling in other countries.