Bankable Blue Portfolio

BACKGROUND

The Coral Triangle (CT) is home to the highest concentration of coral and fish species in the world. It is also the most vulnerable to climate disaster due to the fragility of the marine habitats, population pressure, and the ecology-based economies on which coastal populations depend for livelihood and food security. Marine resources in the archipelagic waters of the CT countries are under threat not just from climate, but a lack in capacity and resources to enforce robust fisheries management policies and the pressures of chronic poverty. Failure to improve management and build climate resiliency in the Coral Triangle could trigger massive national security emergencies in Asia and the Pacific. Fish is not just the main source of protein for the populations in these coastal nations, but is also a singular low cost and low footprint source of micronutrients for child-bearing women for their children to grow into healthy adults. In addition, these multi-species fisheries are production markets for global seafood trade, particularly tuna (60% of tuna comes from the Western Central Pacific), exported mainly to China, Japan, the EU and the US, with the EU and Japan being the top importers.

And yet, responsible fisheries management with a view to long-term sustainability offers significant opportunities for improved yields in seafood production without necessarily increasing fishing effort. There are opportunities to develop sustainable aquaculture, and reduce the substantial post-harvest losses, i.e. 40-50% of yellowfin tuna catch. A major barrier, however, is the lack of investments in fisheries mainly due to the high risk of the sector.

With increasing focus of global finance towards sustainable blue economies, it is crucial that fisheries are high on the investment agenda because the sector is at the nexus of ocean health, economic viability, food security, poverty and a low footprint, low cost source of nutrition for coastal nations. Small scale fishers make up the majority of fishers in the region and the majority of yellowfin tunas are caught by hand line and pole and line small scale fishers. For instance, SSFs account for about 40% of yellow fin tuna catches in the Philippines,. Investment in this sector presents socio-economic and conservation opportunities with municipal, national and regional scale impacts.

OBJECTIVES

Developing an Investment strategy for the Sulu Sulawesi Seascape

WWF’s Coral Triangle Program proposes to establish and implement an investment strategy as part of a blended finance approach to support sustainable fisheries in the region, specifically the Sulu Sulawesi seascape. The strategy development involves two phases:

The commercial development side of the project will grant fisher communities and processing companies easier access to finance with conditions to achieve predetermined sustainability goals.

Furthermore, the project will also identify the ancillary industries that are critical to the improvement of the fisheries sector. These businesses will ease pressure on overfished wild capture species, provide food security and diversify livelihoods for coastal communities. Finance for these industries could be integrated into the blended finance vehicle through an investment fund that will aim to support entities which have another risk and investment profile than the fisheries sector.

NOTES TO THE STUDY

Two other consultancies to be simultaneously engaged will be key in informing the design and delivery of this consultancy:

1st consultancy: developing an economic and ecological valuation of the fisheries sector in the target site to determine interlinkages of small scale fisheries with other sectors, as well as capacity bottlenecks contributing to local poverty incidence and potential overuse of natural capital

2nd consultancy: identifying, screening, and aggregating a pipeline of bankable projects supporting fisheries production for local markets, and subsequently, with developing appropriate financial structures to support said pipeline

It is envisioned that the consultancies will interact and create feedback loops with their co-consultancies to create synergies and optimize respective deliverables under the Project.

SCOPE OF WORK

World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines (WWF)

While WWF shall engage the organisation, it shall remain the overall in-charge of the project and undertake activities that are within its scope and expertise. Specifically, WWF is responsible in carrying out the following:

Consultant/ Consultancy Firm

(1) Select and establish the financials behind a pipeline of livelihood systems to support fisheries in the priority sites in the Philippines. The selection process should understand the role of fisheries to the local economy and impacts across sectors, and how the livelihood systems will contribute a multiplier effect with cross-sector impact into fisheries product, manufacturing, services for instance. This phase will identify bankable projects for acceleration and incubation with justifying feasibility studies.

Phase 1: Overall Portfolio, integrating Local Markets Portfolio output

• Preliminary and final portfolio (hard and soft copy)
  • Methodology in identification, screening, and selection of portfolio

• Environmental and economic profiles of projects and their proponents, including key KPIs for impact and bankability

• Final portfolio presentation report (for the roadshow workshop)

(2) With the portfolio of bankable projects developed, structure financial mechanisms for investment in the projects, and package them to take-to-market. This phase will entail scoping and holding dialogues with potential investors, and schemes such as the blue bond incubator or the ADB, local development banks, multilateral and private finance institutions.

Phase 2: Financial strategy for portfolio

• Recommendations for structures and corresponding strategies to finance portfolio at the individual and/or aggregate level
  • Individual- and portfolio-level project viability and impact
  • Value proposition of Portfolio for potential investors
• Final Financial Strategy presentation report with plans for replication and scaling (for the roadshow workshop)

• The consultancy under this TOR will facilitate coordination with other consultancies of the Program, including for CEESAM and local markets portfolio, among others, to ensure synergy of deliverable

Annex 1: Example of bankable projects/livelihood systems

DURATION

The implementation of the consultancy will be twelve (12) months.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR BID

Interested applicants can email the required documents for bid to apply@wwf.org.ph with the subject line: Overall Portfolio.