Abstract

The Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) concept, developed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), defines a meaningful geospatial unit for the implementation of an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach. Since 1995, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has provided financial support to cover the initial incremental costs of enhancing the transboundary collaboration required to adopt this approach in the Caribbean and North Brazil Shelf LMEs. Scientific and technical fact-finding through the Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses conducted under the GEF/UNDP “CLME Project” pointed to weaknesses in governance arrangements as the over-arching root cause for priority problems such as pollution, habitat degradation and unsustainable fisheries. A 10-year Strategic Action Programme for sustainable shared living marine resources management, the “CLME+ SAP”, was consequently developed in 2013 and politically endorsed at the regional level. The SAP has been shaped on a proposal for a multi-level, nested Regional Governance Framework. Renewed financial support from the GEF will see the implementation of the SAP becoming catalyzed through the follow-up “CLME+ Project” (2015 - 2019). The comprehensive Governance Effectiveness Assessment Framework ties governance processes to expected ecological and social outcomes, and has been adopted as a reference framework for the design of four demonstration sub-projects that will foster the implementation of the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) and ecosystem-based management (EBM) in the region.

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