GEF-7 Project

GEF-7 Palau Sustainable Aquaculture Project Website

Project ID: 10907 “Facilitating biodiversity conservation by enhancing aquaculture policy, planning, management and production”.

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Environment (MAFE) is the executing agency for the Sustainable Aquaculture Project. Through the Project, MAFE will support States and local farmers to develop create an enabling policy environment for a sustainable aquaculture in Palau, as well as to develop national capacity with an Ecological Approach to Aquaculture Management.

Component 1: Enabling a supporting policy environment for the development of Sustainable Aquaculture in Palau

Outcome 1: Strengthened legal and institutional frameworks for Sustainable Aquaculture.

Component 2: Developing national capacity for an Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture Management (EAAM)

Outcome 2: Strengthened national capacity for Sustainable Aquaculture that contributes to conservation of marine biodiversity

Component 3: Knowledge management, gender mainstreaming, and monitoring & evaluation

Outcome 3: Lessons learned by the project are applied nationally and internationally for promotion of Sustainable Aquaculture

Strengthening local aquaculture sector with key project outputs

Permitting, Site Selection, and Environmental Monitoring Framework

Permitting: This project will develop a permitting system to streamline market access and ease data management for both farmers and Bureau of Fisheries.

Site Selection: The project will partner with a consultant in Palau to develop a farmer dashboard using GIS to maximize viability of the aquaculture sector and support aquaculture farmers.

Environmental Monitoring Framework: The project will develop this framework to track water quality and ecological impacts of aquaculture activities on the surrounding coastal waters.

Capacity building

EAAM Farming Standard: This project will facilitate and support institutional and farmer capacity by developing the EAAM Farming Standard.

EAAM Training: increase capacity for government employees and aquaculture farmers to increase institutional capacity.

Two pilot community farms: Two community farms will demonstrate the EAAM standard as a viable economic venture.

Aquaculture laboratory: To support farmers and the public with streamlining aquaculture governance such site selection, spatial planning, and environmental monitoring.

Mainstreaming Biodiversity

The project aims to strengthen and promote the Aichi Targets of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) which calls for the protection of biological resources, sustainable resource management and equitable benefit sharing. Specifically, the project focuses on protecting the habitats of giant clams, finfish, and invertebrates such as sea cucumbers inhabiting nearshore areas throughout Palau.

Such habitats are highly productive yet under immense fishing pressure and stress from global warming. The projects aims to promote biodiversity conservation of marine species within the aquaculture sector.

Monitoring & Evaluation

The Sustainable Aquaculture Project will monitor various aquaculture farms throughout Palau with the implementation of the Ecological Approach to Aquaculture Management Farming Standard. The PMU and project partners will observe the effectiveness of farm management, obtain relevant data, and meet project milestones and indicators.

Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework (ESSF) will also be part of the M&E to provide safeguards against environmental and social risks.

Knowledge Management

The project aims to collect, store, and disseminate knowledge produced, for, and about the project. The project website will support this by providing resources, information, and other external partners’ links to facilitate biodiversity conservation.

The project will also be developing and publishing best management practices, brochures, posters, operation manuals, among other knowledge products that will support farmers in unlocking their economic livelihoods and strengthening community awareness.

The project will also disseminate lessons learning formulations among aquaculture farmers, stakeholders, government agencies, local NGO’s locally and internationally.

Gender Mainstreaming

Currently, men dominate the decision-making with regards to managing marine resources ranging from policy-making to aquaculture farming. In addition, workers in the commercial sector are majority foreign laborers. As a result, this project will implement a fully-participatory approach, capturing a diverse pool of stakeholders.

From aquaculture farmers, technical partners, government employees, resource managers, community-based organizations, Association of State Governors, as well as national and traditional leaders. Women and other underrepresented groups’ participation will also contribute to the project through community meetings, workshops, and focus groups to capture diverse representation.