The project will improve climate change resilience, food security and livelihood opportunities through community led NBS in coastal communities in Vanuatu. The expected impact is improved and resilient biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshore aquatic resources and livelihoods for the local population.

Primarily, the project will benefit the governments of Vanuatu, and will directly improve the lives of 22,500 beneficiaries/5,000 households equally distributed across Vanuatu. Women and youth will be prioritized, but because the project aims to improve biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshores and aquatic resources, it will benefit the entire populations of Vanuatu.

The project starts with a participatory approach with stakeholder engagement activities for the identification of NBS and the identification and development of women and youth lead entrepreneurship. Through these approaches, participatory conservation and restoration efforts will be truly led by women and youth groups, in partnership with local authorities, through entrepreneurial activities linked to sustainable tourism and learning, as well as community-fisheries that will ensure the empowerment of women, girls and boys and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project. When planning support to strengthen community resilience, the point of departure is to recognize the ever evolving and dynamic nature of communities and the underlying vulnerabilities that challenge them. Being resilient includes being flexible in the face of changing risks, which are especially accentuated in the Pacific given their exposure to climate variability, and increasingly influencing risk patterns along the steps of a change management process for sustainable development. To enable communities to strengthen resilience through NBS, the below elements will be included in the first phase of the project: (i) a broad understanding of the climate induced risks from inaction and its consequences; (ii) a holistic approach to community resilience, as these are multidimensional systems within wider systems, meaning that coordination should be across sectors and should be operationalized across levels; (iii) responding to communities’ own understanding of the risks of inaction and the benefits of sustainable NBS which promote income generation; (iv) people centred, or listening and understanding people’s perspectives; (v) being inclusive, without discrimination.

The main objective of this project is to “improve climate change resilience, food security and livelihood opportunities through community led NBS in coastal communities in Vanuatu.”

There are 3 components:

1. Develop and implement gender sensitive national policies to support nature-based solutions and ecosystem valuation
2. Restore and protect coastal biodiversity, lands, nearshore and aquatic resources through community-led NBS and entrepreneurship, in locations with high dependence on biodiversity and ecosystem services (for resilience and livelihoods).
3. Facilitate knowledge sharing, awareness and collaborative engagement for ecosystem management between communities, islands, countries and territories.

Phase I (January to December 2024): This phase will be marked by a strong focus on achieving Outcome 1 and the activities.

Outcome I: NBS for women and youth Identified

The following activities will be technically designed and led by FAO in close collaboration with UNOPS, local and

national authorities and other relevant partners.

• Activity 1.1: Develop community profiles of the loss of biodiversity, coastal lands nearshore and aquatic resources through participatory consultations and mapping in 11 communities in Vanuatu.
• Activity 1.2: Identify the scope of biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshore and aquatic resources restoration and protection by consulting 11 communities in Vanuatu.
• Activity 1.3: Identify and prioritise traditional practices related to NBS by consulting 11 communities in Vanuatu.
• Activity 1.4: Identify at least 5,000 households from Vanuatu on the basis of their ongoing relevant activities and endorsement by local and national authorities to implement NBS entrepreneurship activities.

Phase II (January to December 2025): This phase will be marked by a strong focus on achieving result 2 and the associated activities.

Outcome II: Women and youth led NBS entrepreneurship established for about 5,000 households.           

• Activity 2.1: Select at least one demonstration site for using NBS and entrepreneurship to restore and protect biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshore and aquatic resources in consultation with local and national authorities in each of the targeted communities in Vanuatu.
• Activity 2.2: Train about 5,000 households in NBS approaches to the restoration and protection of biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshore and aquatic resources in Vanuatu. Organise two separate workshops on restoration and protection.
• Activity 2.3: Propagate, replant and regenerate about 200,000 coastal trees and shrubs in Vanuatu, including through direct seeding. This will include distribution of kits to about 5,000 households, each kit containing at least 15 tree seedlings/propagules (mainly food and culturally important trees), information and tools.
• Activity 2.4: Train about 5,000 households in NBS entrepreneurship. This will cover small business skills, agritourism, value addition, post-harvest handling of crops and fish, marketing and digitalization.

Phase III (January to December xxxxx): This phase will be marked by a strong focus on achieving Outcome 3 and 4, and the associated activities.

Outcome III: A gender sensitive policy to adequately manage coastal ecosystems is developed and implemented 

• Activity 3.1: Enhancing and strengthening of the gender sensitive National Policies for ecosystem management with practical and precise action plans, informed by the project experience of scalable solutions in Vanuatu.
• Activity 3.2: Implement the gender sensitive National Policies developed with practical and precise action plans, informed by the project experience of scalable solutions in Vanuatu

Outcome IV: Public communication campaign promoting NBS developed and implemented via knowledge sharing. 

• Activity 4.1: Drawing on the FAO SIDS Solutions Platform, which facilitates knowledge sharing, identify and develop electronic and video profiles of at least 6 scalable solutions from Vanuatu (5) for learning and learning between Project sites targeted by this project.
• Activity 4.1: Organize and facilitate at least three virtual knowledge sharing and learning workshops that draw on, and promote scalable solutions from the project experience between the targeted Project sites