NADI, Fiji — Regional partners used the Global Environment Facility’s Expanded Constituency Week in Nadi on 26 March 2026 to move the Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity (UBPP) initiative into a formal project preparation phase, advancing a Pacific-led plan to mobilise large-scale finance for ocean management, conservation and blue economy development across the region.
The Pacific Community (SPC), the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC) and Conservation International (CI) convened Pacific Island countries, regional organisations, development partners and donors at the meeting to advance an Ocean Flagship proposal valued at USD20 million. The concept for the Ocean Flagship was approved by the GEF Council in 2025; the Nadi gathering marks the start of a year-long process to design a major regional investment programme to implement that concept at scale.
Since UBPP was launched in 2023, the initiative has attracted significant international support. SPC’s Director of Partnerships, Integration and Resource Mobilisation, Lemalu Karena Lyons, said UBPP has raised USD130 million from philanthropic partners — including the Bezos Earth Fund and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation — and the multilateral GEF. Lyons confirmed that USD37.5 million had been disbursed across 12 Pacific countries by the end of 2025, underscoring what she called the region’s readiness to act when partners align behind Pacific priorities.
UBPP aims to mobilise a further USD500 million in new and diversified funding into the Blue Pacific Continent. Under a continent-wide framework endorsed by Pacific leaders, the initiative sets ambitious indicative impact targets: improved management of 840 million hectares of marine habitat, moving 2,900 tonnes of fisheries toward sustainable levels, and establishment or strengthening of cooperative management for two shared water ecosystems. Organisers say the programme, delivered through the Ocean Flagship, is expected to directly benefit more than three million people, including nearly 1.5 million women.
“The Pacific Ocean is central to the region’s livelihoods, cultures, and future,” Pacific Ocean Commissioner Dr Filimon Manoni told delegates, framing the push for finance and partnership as a matter of regional security and prosperity. SPC Deputy Director-General Maria Fuata described the Ocean Flagship as evidence of a maturing approach to partnerships: governments, regional bodies, donors and philanthropies are aligning efforts under a single shared framework to deliver coordinated, long-term impact for ocean governance and blue food systems.
GEF Head of Programming Dr Fred Boltz praised the Pacific-led design, saying the shift reflects a broader change in mindset from viewing the ocean as a development barrier to recognising it as a source of prosperity, identity and resilience for Pacific large ocean states. Delegates also reviewed mechanisms for scaling finance and sustaining investments, consistent with a central ambition of UBPP to move beyond fragmented project financing toward long-term, sustainable investment models.
Further engagement on project design and financing was held earlier in March during Pacific Oceans Finance Week at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, where ocean and finance professionals examined sustainable financing mechanisms and practical steps for implementation. With the year-long project preparation now under way, organisers say the next phase will flesh out the Ocean Flagship’s delivery arrangements, financing instruments and country-level pipeline to translate the region’s targets into funded action.
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