Blue Planet Fund stakeholder info event

Recognising the importance of ocean health to sustainable development, the Government has committed to establishing a £500 million Blue Planet Fund that will support developing countries to protect the marine environment and reduce poverty. Financed from the UK Official Development Assistance Budget, the Blue Planet Fund will help developing countries reduce poverty, protect and sustainably manage their marine resources and address human-generated threats across four key themes: marine biodiversity, climate change, marine pollution, and sustainable seafood. The Fund will be managed by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and will be launched in 2021. We are hosting an information session for interested parties on Thursday 29th April 2021. You are invited to join one of the two web conferences – one at 10:00-11:00 GMT, and one at 15:30-16:30 GMT. This is to take into account the different time zones of any interested parties who are not UK-based. We would welcome participation from governments, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and research organisations, amongst others. The purpose of the event is to share information about the Blue Planet Fund and answer questions from interested stakeholders. The event is not part of a procurement or tendering process, although there may be such opportunities in future years. We will outline the Fund’s rationale and likely aims, objectives and priority regions.