The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. It has an exclusive economic zone covering over 660,000 km2.
In 2016 the Council of Ministers of Vanuatu approved the country’s first ocean policy, setting the framework for ecosystem-based management of ocean resources across government ministries. The policy is based on ocean-wide MSP. It seeks “…by 2020, to have in Vanuatu’s ocean, spatial zoning that identifies priority areas for development and for conservation, that separates conflicting uses and builds resilience to climate change impacts and disasters.” Its MSP work is supported by a cross-government Ocean Sub-committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
MSP work in Vanuatu is supported by the Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in Pacific Island Countries (MACBIO) project being implemented by Pacific Island countries, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and IUCN-Oceania with support from SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme). Financial support is from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
Updates will be posted on this website as MSP activities in Vanuatu develop.