IUCN has launched a C$30 million ($22.2 mln) initiative focused on protecting marine ecosystems while supporting women, in collaboration with the government of Madagascar.
The Regenerative Seascapes for People, Climate, and Nature (ReSea) project aims to enhance the climate change resilience of 275,000 people in coastal communities in Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, and Comoros, with a focus on women, IUCN said.
Madagascan gender NGO Capacity-building for Communities (C-for-C), Canadian charity Mission Inclusion, and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will execute ReSea, financed by the Canadian government.
“ReSea brings together agents of change committed to promoting gender equality, women’s rights, and social justice while sustainably managing marine and coastal ecosystems,” IUCN said in a press release.
The initiative has three priorities:
- Participatory coastal and marine management
- Creating blue economy opportunities for local communities
- Protection of mangroves, corals, and seagrasses, while addressing pollution
Haingo Elisette Fomendraza, Madagascan minister of population and solidarity, said women would be the “main beneficiaries” of ReSea. C-for-C said the project should help positively impact the lives of women.
Genevieve Morency, ReSea project director at Mission Inclusion, said: “We are committed to bridging gaps and breaking social norms and barriers, ensuring that women and youth in [Antsiranana] have equitable access to blue business opportunities.”
In Madagascar, the project aims to benefit over 63,000 people in the coastal communities of Antsiranana I and II.
ReSea is aligned with the African-led Great Blue Wall initiative, a project launched at COP26 in 2021 to create interconnected protected marine areas in the Western Indian Ocean while unlocking the blue economy.
At COP28, the UN Fund for Population Activities released a report showing how the 14 countries most at-risk from climate impacts were also those where women and girls were most likely to die in childbirth and experience gender-based violence.
Madagascar’s 5,600 km of coastline has some of the richest biodiversity in the Indian Ocean, including seagrass beds, estuaries, and coastal marshes, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, the impact of climate change on biodiversity has become more apparent in recent years in these marine environments, CBD said.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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