The GEF LME:LEARN  marine toolkits are now available to our marine community. Five toolkits (Stakeholder Participation in Environmental Policy; Large Marine Ecosystems Strategic Approach; Large Marine Ecosystems Governance; Environmental Economics for Marine Ecosystems Management; and Marine Spatial Planning) were developed to assist GEF funded projects, and others, working in marine related focal areas to improve their capacity to effectively prepare and manage their respective projects. 

The marine toolkits are knowledge sharing and guidance products to support GEF Large Marine Ecosystems (LME) projects, as well as other Integrated Coastal Management (ICM), Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and coastal and marine climate change adaptation projects. The toolkits address emerging priorities and new requirements for GEF marine and coastal projects and promote innovative approaches captured by harvesting and codifying experiences, best practices and lessons learned from the existing GEF LME, ICM, MPA and MSP projects.

The toolkits are an attractive product not only for marine and coastal practitioners, but also for decision makers and anyone interested in adopting better practices for the science and governance of LMEs and their coasts. Being a combination of both publication and online-interactive products, they together present hundreds of tools successfully applied in actual situations in all parts of the world. 

The toolkits cover a wide range of themes that are of interest to LME and other marine managers and decision makers.

The Environmental Economics for Marine Ecosystems Management Toolkit shows how environmental economic methods can be used to produce information to support decision-making in the context of LME, MPA, ICM, MSP and climate change adaptation interventions.The Large Marine Ecosystem Strategic Approach Toolkit collates years of accumulated knowledge resulting in a strategic approach to developing future LME projects. It describes the revised strategic approach to designing an LME project by incorporating an updated 5-module ecosystem approach and the TDA/SAP process.The Large Marine Ecosystems Governance Toolkit provides descriptions, illustrative examples, tools and other helpful links for analysing and strengthening Large Marine Ecosystem governance frameworks. The Stakeholder Participation in Environmental Policy Toolkit compiles a range of ‘best practice’ tools for engaging stakeholders in environmental management that can be applied at multiple spatial scales. And finally, the Marine Spatial Planning Toolkit provides MSP practitioners with practical guidance and examples of tools and methods that are necessary for designing and carrying out the MSP process in a transboundary LME context.

Each toolkit is also a self-standing document, which covers its topic at the level of detail needed by its target audience. However, each section of the Toolkit describes a distinct method that is potentially relevant to management of LME/MPA/ICM/MSP/climate change adaptation interventions. Users can move sequentially through each toolkit or go directly to the sections that are relevant to their needs. 

Learn more about the Toolkits and how to use them by downloading our introductory brochure.