A $50-million fund to protect Egypt’s coral reef has been launched this week under the Egyptian Red Sea Initiative, a newly established programme supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UN-backed Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR).
The Egyptian Fund for Coral Reefs will leverage private and public funding to finance conservation efforts in the country’s reef ecosystem, one of the longest-living and most resilient in the world, as well as the establishment of a coral reef business incubator.
Developed in partnership with the Egyptian government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the initiative will include a waste recycling project for coastal farming, an aquaculture facility to support ecosystem restoration, and the construction of several mooring systems to avoid boat-related reef damage.
“The Egyptian Red Sea Initiative is a groundbreaking collaboration in blended finance to conserve Egypt’s coral reefs,” said Sean Jones, mission director at USAID in Egypt.
“USAID, in partnership with the government of Egypt, international and local organisations, and private and non-profit donors and investors, is committed to safeguarding the Red Sea’s vital ecosystem and the communities it supports, while promoting economic growth and sustainable development for the Egyptian people.”
NEW ROUND OF FUNDING
The GFCR will fund the programme as part of a wider $25-mln new commitment to scale up resilience efforts across coral nations ahead of increasing threats, such as the recent announcement of the fourth global coral bleaching event, in a bid to regenerate approximately 4,200 hectares of coral reefs by 2030.
It will include funding uplifts for the Mesoamerican Region (MAR), the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere stretching for around 1,000 kilometres along the coast of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. New initiatives will also be funded in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Zanzibar.
“The GFCR Coalition has established a portfolio of innovative, market-based solutions spanning 23 nations to protect critical coral reef ecosystems,” GFCR executive board member Peter Bryant said in a statement.
“The new GFCR announcements, representing an increase of more than $25 mln for resilience-based efforts, will aid the sustainable blue transition of local economies and unlock greater conservation funding flows for generations to come.”
As one of the major global coral finance instruments, the GFCR aims to increase the protection of at least 3 mln ha of coral reefs worldwide by 2030, representing approximately 12% of reefs on Earth and 25% of the Coral Reef Breakthrough target, a UN-backed global initiative to safeguard one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.
The GFCR intends to leverage up to $3 billion in blended finance for the benefit of marine ecosystems, coastal communities, and economies.
According to a study published in March, degraded coral reefs can recover at an “incredible” pace, growing at the same speed as healthy ones that have not been restored after just four years of management, although they tend to be poorer in biodiversity.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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