At the conference, Boogaard will advocate for more blended finance mechanisms that allow the public sector, private investors and philanthropies to pool resources and share risks. She will also outline the potential of carbon trade practises to raise financial resources as part of projects protecting coastal ecosystems, by planting mangroves, and also cultivating seaweed to act as a carbon sink.
Boogaard will also outline IFAD’s experience in aligning public-private partnerships. to help build efficient value chains using green technologies such as solar-powered fish dryers and cold storage containers, to reduce post-harvest fish loss. This helps to reduce waste, protect fish stocks, and add value to fish harvests. With aquatic products degrading quickly, small-scale fishers lose up to a third of their catch.
In addition, Boogaard will highlight the power of blue bonds and explain how IFAD is bringing global finance to vulnerable coastal communities through its sustainable development bonds, with its first issuance in 2022.
IFAD will also call for the end of harmful subsidies and the redirection of the subsidies to sustainable eco-systems conservation practices and fishing. IFAD is a technical partner to the WTO Fisheries Funding mechanism established to support the implementation of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which sets new rules to curb harmful subsidies and protect global fish stocks in a manner that also recognizes the needs of fishers in developing and least-developed countries (LDCs).
An annual investment of US$175 billion is needed to conserve and sustainably use the oceans and marine resources for development. Yet, between 2015 and 2019, less than US$10 billion was invested.
Small-scale fisheries are central to fish catch and production, with 90 percent of global fisheries and aquaculture production is by small-scale producers. Globally, 492 million people, nearly half of them women, depend at least partly on small-scale fisheries.
In the last 15 years since 2010, IFAD has supported about 130 projects with activities touching on fisheries, aquaculture and coastal livelihoods, with about US$1.4 billion directly invested in these sectors targeting about 80 million beneficiaries, including small-scale fishermen, artisanal fish traders and processors, including women, the youth and indigenous people.