Blue Action Fund Project

“Strengthening conservation in Galapagos and Cocos Island Protected Areas by expanding the protected area, implementing improved management strategies, and supporting local economies”

Project Sites: Galapagos and Cocos Island
Project Start Date: February 1, 2021
Project End Date: January 31, 2025
Project Costs: € 7,597,386

Blue Action Fund Contribution: € 3,121,912
Match Funding: € 4,475,473

Consortium Partners: Island Conservation (IC), WildAid (WA), Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), Fundación Jocotoco (JT)

Project Implementation Partners: Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)

Project Summary

This project will reduce the dramatic loss of marine biodiversity and enhance livelihood conditions in one of the Eastern Pacific Ocean’s most biodiverse and productive regions by:

• creating a new marine protected area (MPA) around the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), increasing the area protected by 50 – 514%
• creating an endowment fund for GMR management
• improving management of 149,629 km² of existing MPAs
• strengthening capacities for control and surveillance
• improving biosecurity; 6) strengthening alternatives to marine sources of food and income
• reducing bycatch and securing certification for artisanal fishers.

Together these actions will generate spill-over and spill-in benefits, increased household incomes, and food security in coastal communities dependent on MPAs. The project site is Galapagos, Ecuador and Cocos Islands, Costa Rica and their protected areas (i.e. GMR, Cocos Island National Park, and the Marine Seamounts Management Area).

To address one of the main threats—illegal fishing—improvements in management plans, equipment and ranger capacity will result in more effective control and surveillance systems. To minimize risks of invasive marine species arriving, biosecurity measures will be initiated in Cocos and improved in Galapagos. Livelihoods of affected households will benefit from five initiatives to improve food security and value of fisheries products. Within these initiatives we use existing livelihood activity gender biases to direct benefits towards and empower women.
Finally, we will quantify improvements in: a. the density and biomass of critically endangered hammerhead sharks and yellowfin tuna; b. living conditions of affected households, documenting the project’s benefits in enhancing food security, household incomes and creating value added initiatives for fisheries products; and c. changes in affected households’ attitudes towards the protection of marine biodiversity.
Blue Action Fund: https://www.blueactionfund.org/