MPAs ecosystems and Sustainable Blue Finance

Assessing the ecosystem values of MPAs from a socio-economic perspective using an ESG approach forms the basis of a series of studies, as the result of the collaboration between the Institute for Sustainable Development of the European Public Law Organization of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), and Verimpact, the specialized ESG data company that provides an ESG methodology and tool that can used for sustainable blue investments. The first study has already been concluded under the title “Assessing the ecosystem values of the Selvagens Islands in Madeira, Portugal, from a socio-economic perspective using an ESG approach” and was presented in July 2022 at the UN Ocean Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, with the support and information supplied by IFCN and Forum Oceano. The study will be used towards attracting sustainable blue finance investments and issuing green bonds. The next studies of this series will be focusing on small islands in Greece as a means to protect the marine and coastal environment and to further calibrate and modify the ESG Verimpact methodology to accommodate the specificities of assessing the socio-economic values of a nature conservation island system, and especially taking into account the cases of the Greek Islands. The idea is to further replicate this to the Mediterranean region and other sea basins around the European Union and beyond addressing both biodiversity/marine and coastal environment protection and attracting sustainable blue investments, thus engaging a bigger and more diverse audience and contributing to the financial institutions mobilization as well as the coastal communities.