Best Practices- Positive Impact

The GFCR supports interventions that seek to achieve measurable positive impacts in resilient coral reef ecosystems towards one or more of the four GFCR outcomes, which also contribute to measurable impacts on additional SDG targets. 

The four Fund outcomes include: 

• Protect - a) Strategic coral reefs are protected, and ecosystem resilience is increased in the face of climate change; b) Drivers of coral reef ecosystem degradation are mitigated or eliminated.
• Transform - Coastal societies transition away from dependency on coral reefs and activities that degrade coral reefs towards sustainable resilient livelihood and economic activities.
• Restore - Coral reef restoration and adaptation technologies are made scalable, cost-efficient, and applicable to a variety of regional contexts, with proven outcomes for ecological and social resilience.
• Recover - Reef-associated community livelihoods are more resilient to shocks, avoiding a resurgence of drivers of degradation for coral reef ecosystems. MPA management and enforcement operations are equipped to continue functioning during periods of crisis. 

These four outcomes are described in greater detail in the GFCR Theory of Change and Terms of Reference. Each intervention should also consider how it impacts other SDG targets and should include measures to enhance and measure those impacts where possible.

The first outcome – protection of priority coral reef sites and climate change refugia – requires a combination of spatial protection or conservation measures combined with decreasing the local drivers of reef degradation – both within the target conservation areas and more remote drivers - in the protected or conserved areas’ “zone of influence”. The zone of influence is defined as the geographic area containing socio-economic systems and activities that generate most of the direct impact (positive and negative) on target GFCR coral reefs.

Marine Protected and Conserved Areas (MPCAs) including locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) and “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs) have been shown to increase fish biomass and coral reef health. However, most MPCAs are severely underfunded and have inadequate capacity to effectively implement their management plans - where those plans are even available. Innovative solutions for public-private partnerships such as those being developed by Blue finance show great promise for combining MPCA management and sustainable finance with impact investing. Other sources of local revenue for MPCAs such as user fees, concessions, biodiversity offsets, and other charges can be enhanced by strategic blended investments in ecotourism, blue coastal infrastructure, and sustainable fisheries. Outside drivers of degradation that could be addressed by blended finance are numerous and described below.

There are a wide range of drivers of degradation that the GFCR seeks to address, and each site should assess specific priority drivers. A global assessment of drivers of degradation on coral reefs indicated that although a handful of drivers are extremely common, there are a wide range of drivers that should be considered. Building on a range of reports and studies exploring drivers of degradation, including the drivers listed in the GFCR’s Terms of Reference, Vibrant Ocean’s Reef Report Cards⁶, the results of the GFCR’s Request for Information and other research, including the current taxonomy of the Conservation Standards, the GFCR has established a comprehensive list of drivers of reef degradation:

1. Coastal development
2. Aquaculture
3. Agriculture, silviculture, and livestock
4. Energy production and mining
5. Shipping
6. Logging and wood harvesting
7. Harmful fishing
8. Harmful tourism
9. War, civil unrest, and military exercises
10. Dams and water management use
11. Other ecosystem modifications
12. Invasive species
13. Wastewater
14. Industrial and military pollution
15. Garbage and solid waste
16. Noise and light pollution
17. Habitat shifting and alteration
18. Rising oceanic temperature
19. Storms and flooding
20. Disease

In most cases, it will be much more cost-effective to address the drivers of reef degradation directly in combination with site-based protection and conservation activities. The reduction of degradation drivers is also easier to link to return-based investments, and thus forms a principal focus for the GFCR’s initiatives.

The second outcome – transforming the livelihoods of coral reef-dependent communities – seeks to improve the sustainability, profitability, stability, and resilience of local livelihoods for these communities. In order to support resilient and sustainable livelihoods for communities reliant on coral reefs, it will be essential to facilitate access to capital as well as to build and retain the institutional capacity and local knowledge on business opportunities compatible with coral reef conservation. Often communities are faced with 1) pricing power differentials between local reef users and the market chains to which they sell products, 2) lack of access to capital, savings, and insurance upstream in the value chains (often leading to abusive market or lending arrangements), 3) poor chain of custody information, 4) other information differentials (price, quality needs, etc.), and other challenges. Actions that could address some of these market conditions would decrease risk and price volatility and assure that investments down the supply chain do not have adverse impacts on coral reefs and their dependent communities.

The third outcome – developing and scaling effective coral reef restoration technology – will require a combination of support to technology companies working on increasing effectiveness and decreasing costs for coral restoration and business models that build demand. These business models may require increasing awareness and knowledge of the positive value of coral restoration for beach protection, coastal infrastructure protection, reducing damage from infrastructure development (i.e. ports, offshore wind, mitigation, and offsets), and potential revenues associated with tourism.

The fourth outcome – recovery to major shocks – is quite specific and reflects opportunities such as parametric insurance (i.e. Quintana Roo), and establishment of disaster funds, and can be strongly supported by making reefs and their dependent communities more resilient economically and ecologically.

You can access more GFCR Investment Principles' best practices here
The full document covering all the best practice series can be downloaded from here: GFCR Best Practice General Principles 2022.pdf

References

6 Bloomberg Philanthropy supported work from WCS that includes threat assessments for each of the 50 Reefs bioclimatic units (BCUs). 
For more information on each of these threats and related sources, please see this Reference Guide.