Financial Tools for Small Scale Fishers in Melanesia
“ This initiative in Fiji and Papua New Guinea will provide an excellent model for how even remote communities can make insurance products more accessible”
Chizuru Aoki
Lead Environmental Specialist at the GEF and Manager of the SCCF
Melanesia includes some of the world’s smallest countries surrounded by Exclusive Economic Zones many times larger than their land surface area. The region is heavily dependent upon oceanic and coastal fisheries for food security, livelihoods, revenue, employment and development. Climate change is already affecting the Melanesian region disproportionately through rising temperatures, sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion, an increase in extreme weather events. For low-lying atolls across PNG and Fiji, and many coastal communities on the main islands, even a small rise in sea level will have huge consequences in terms of lost land area and other impacts such as saltwater intrusion.
Fiji and PNG were selected for this project as they are exceptionally vulnerable to climate risk impacts and have good potential for impact and scaling, with relatively large populations of small-scale fishers. The project will utilize financial tools for small scale fishers in Melanesia to improve resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change, including major shock events, in vulnerable coastal small-scale fisher communities in Fiji and PNG.
Country: Fiji, Papua New Guinea
GEF ID: 10437
Focal Area: Climate Change
Project Status: Implementation
Program: GEF Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation
Executing agencies: Willis Towers Watson
GEF Project Grant: US $1,055,046
GEF Agency Fee: US $94,454
Co-financing: US $7,330,578
Website:
www.wtwco.com/financial-tools-in-melanesia
PIF Stage Documents:
CEO Endorsement Documents
Environmental and Social Safeguards Documents
See the News Article from the GEF HERE
See the Blog post from WWF HERE