Global | PANORAMA

Building block 3 – Embracing local expertise, governance, and ownership of projects

While following the direction and guidance of the IOC, NOCs are best placed to design and implement projects complying with the IOC’s global standards at local level. This means that the IOC can support and promote environmental projects, while benefiting from expertise that the NOCs can provide in the local context through. This implementation method not only promotes local solutions to global problems, but also increases local ownership, empowers local communities, and promotes cooperation between sports, local environmental groups and indigenous peoples.

In Brazil, for example, the “Brazil Olympic Committee Olympic Forest” project aims to restore a damaged part of the Tefé National Forest in the Amazon and is executed together with the Mamirauá Institute of Sustainable Development. Besides restoration, the project’s objective is to reinforce the sustainable use of the forest by the local community through planting key species such as Brazilian chestnut and açaí or providing training to the local community.

Training and upskilling of local communities (on mangrove planting/rehabilitation) is one of the main objectives also of the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee’s “Love Your Coast Project” where they aim to train “Love Your Coast Champions”, who are to lead small conservation projects in their communities

As leader of the Olympic Movement, the IOC is responsible for coordinating relations and actions of all members of the Olympic Movement, including the National Olympic Committees. This ensures that projects and actions can be designed and implemented according to consistent regulations or guidelines, enabling continuity and best practice across the Olympic Movement’s environmental activities.

While it was important to set up general criteria that all projects would need to comply with to ensure consistency and high quality, providing NOCs with the flexibility to reflect local context and its particular risks and opportunities in how they approach the criteria proved to be equally vital.

Building block 2 – Establishing principles for admitting National Olympic Committees’ projects to the Olympic Forest network

The IOC’s Executive Board approved several principles that NOCs would have to meet to join the Olympic Forest Network.

To have their project included in the Network, an NOC is required to submit details for the IOC’s review and approval, based on these specific criteria/principles. The review process is coordinated together with environmental experts who provide their feedback to the NOC and have the possibility to carry out field visit whenever relevant.

Projects are required to:

Contribute to enhancing climate and nature protection and resilience;
Support and be delivered in partnership with local communities;
Be developed and implemented in collaboration with the relevant experts and authorities; and
Have a long-term maintenance plan in place.

These principles help guide NOCs in the creation of their projects and ensure that all projects that are part of the Network are contribution to climate action and nature protection. The principles also ensure that projects possess certain characteristics and collaborative structures that are to ensure local impact and projects’ long-term viability.

Knowledge and understanding of factors that are important for designing and implementing successful nature restoration projects.
IOC’s practical experience with the implementation of the Olympic Forest project.
Collaboration between sport and nature conservation experts.

Having principles “on paper” does not automatically mean that they will be perfectly implemented and adhered to by the NOCs from the very beginning.

The application process to this initiative is a learning and improvement path where NOCs, under the guidance of the IOC and of environmental experts, can be guided to ultimately comply with all the requirements of the initiative and to create and implement high quality projects with tangible added value and shared benefits for the ecosystems and the local communities.

Building block 1 – Using an existing initiative (the Olympic Forest) as a blueprint for National Olympic Commit-tees to initiate their own nature restoration projects.

The IOC’s Olympic Forest project – a reforestation initiative launched in Mali and Senegal – generated interest from National Olympic Committees, who expressed their wishes to take action against climate change and to implement similar projects in their own countries.

Following this interest, the IOC launched the Olympic Forest Network, where NOCs could build on the original Olympic Forest project by designing and implementing their own initiatives to restore existing forests, wildlife corridors, coastal watersheds, and ecosystems, as well as implement regenerative agriculture projects.

The Network builds on, and expands, the IOC’s Olympic Forest initiative, helping to profile Olympic Movement’s work that contributes to fighting climate change and conserving nature. It recognises local projects delivered by NOCs according to best practices and within the IOC’s framework. The IOC provides support to NOCs (guidance, technical advice for the application to the network, workshops, webinars and in some cases funding), receives their projects and assesses them using specific criteria. Thanks to its offices located worldwide, IUCN helps the IOC in providing technical feedback about the projects, carrying out field visits and reviewing the technical documentation provided by the NOCs.

The IOC’s initial design and implementation of a reforestation project
National Olympic Committees’ interest in environmental work
The original implementing organisation’s (i.e. IOC) desire to expand its original project and support the organisations driving these secondary projects
The collaborative spirit encouraged by the Olympic Movement and facilitated by the IOC’s organisational structure (NOCs as constituents of the Olympic Movement under the leadership of the IOC)
Good communication between the IOC and NOCs

The establishment of clear guidelines and criteria for this type of initiative is essential to avoid the multiplication of low-quality projects with low added value and benefits for nature conservation and local communities. Leading by example in this field helps to drive the Olympic Movement into proper planning and proper allocation.

Political will and a mandate for developing a multi-stakeholder initiative to strengthen Inclusive Sustainable Blue Economy in the WIO region

Our Blue Future (OBF) Officially Launched During WIOMSA 2022 Symposium

Our Blue Future initiative

Proceedings of the WIOMSA 2022 Symposium

Our Blue Future initiative

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region is recognized globally as a biodiversity hotspot with high ecological and socio-economic value. However, with increased global demand for natural resources, pollution, climate change, and a diversity of unsustainable economic activities, the region’s fragile coastal and marine ecosystems are under threat. In response to this, efforts and innovative solutions are urgently required as a business-as-usual scenario will likely result in the depletion of coastal and marine resources and associated socio-economic benefits. Starting in 2020, to bolster collective leadership between state, private sector, and civil society actors, GIZ’s Western Indian Ocean Governance Initiative (WIOGI) and partners supported discussions to develop a regional multi-stakeholder initiative for an Inclusive Sustainable Blue Economy in the Western Indian Ocean region. This proposal was presented and endorsed during the tenth Nairobi Convention Conference of Parties (Decision CP.10/12) in November 2021.

Having an official mandate is an essential success factor for such a participatory, multi-stakeholder, and multi-sectoral process. It helps create ownership for the process and continuous collaboration within the Our Blue Future alliance.

It is important to have a clear role for governments in a multi-stakeholder initiative. Without an appropriate role for government actors, their willingness to join the initiative becomes challenging.
Multi-stakeholder and collective leadership approaches are essential to engaging in high-quality dialogue among key actors, an essential basis for forming action-oriented partnerships across the region.

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Multi-national

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REPORT OF THE TENTH CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE NAIROBI CONVENTION

What is Our Blue Future?