Investment Landscape Mapping in East Asia: Integrated Coastal Management and Sustainable Development of Coasts and Oceans (2015)

In collaboration with PEMSEA, Shujog’s research identifies regional and country-level trends in ICM funding from bilateral and multilateral donors, foundations, development finance institutions, corporations, impact investments and commercial investors across 10 related coastal and marine sectors, and offers recommendations for increasing investments in these sectors.

Summary

The coastal ecosystem across East Asia faces increasing threats that diminish the ecological health, environmental resilience and socioeconomic potential of such areas at the interface of land and sea. Available funds for ecosystem services and biodiversity remain small in comparison to the actual human cost of consuming, restoring, maintaining and managing such global commons. By some estimates, the financing gap exceeds at least US$ 300 billion per year and may reach into the US$ trillions. PEMSEA mobilizes its Country and Non-Country Partners, donors and financial institutions to invest in an emerging blue economy across the seas of East Asia, whose coastal areas attract dense human settlements of over 1.5 billion people. Essential to this marketplace, ICM (which PEMSEA pioneered in the region) helps to address the governance of human activities affecting the sustainable use of goods and services generated by coastal and marine ecosystems. The sustainable growth of a blue economy closely aligns with conservation of ocean ecosystems. New funding options call for investments that balance financial returns with positive social and environmental impact that improves the health of coastal and marine areas.