The baseline activities with respect to the implementation of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) and specifically the development and implementation of fisheries management plans at national levels in the BOBLME have institutionalized EAFM. However, without an extension of investment to include plans for sub-regional areas and transboundary species the social, economic and environmental benefits within the LME will be undermined. Similarly, the lack of coordinated efforts to combat Illegal, Unreported and. Unregulated Fishing (IUU Fishing) in the sub-regional and region also undermines efforts to manage fisheries and ensure social, economic, and environmental benefits derived from the fisheries are sustained. Improving regional networks to more easily and rapidly share information on suspected IUU fishing activities will increase the capacity for apprehension of IUU fishers and close loopholes that encourage transboundary transgression. At a community level access to improved technology and training will increase community-based surveillance and reporting of IUU fishing activity and remove obstacles to non- reporting of catch.

The proposed GEF project will help national, provincial and local government resource managers, private sectors partners, non-governmental organizations, and local resources users to reorient their practices by adopting participatory ecosystem approaches to fisheries management that will conserve marine and coastal ecosystem services (including climate change resilience) and support the sustainable use of resources to enable livelihoods, strengthen food security, and promote gender mainstreaming. The project will also work with partners to strengthen capacities for transboundary cooperation for the monitoring, control and surveillance of IUU fishing, building on baseline activities that currently are individual to each country.