Locations$135.6 million Blue and Green Islands Integrated Programme will transform islands by valuing Nature
December 2, 2025
Papua New Guinea.
Nature-positive solutions are at the heart of a new development programme launched in 15 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) across the Caribbean, Pacific and Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The Global Environment Facility-funded Blue and Green Islands Integrated Programme (BGI-IP) is a $135.6 million transformative programme that will catalyse nature-positive development and reduce ecosystem degradation in 15 Small Island Developing States. Inception Workshops were staged in 3 regions in November 2025 to cover the 15 countries of Belize, Cuba, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Timor Leste.
Nature is the foundation of small island economies and societies, but escalating environmental threats are aggravating insecurities. As a result, SIDS have started to lead the world in pioneering integrated development solutions that enable sustainable growth and economic diversification for food security, tourism, trade, climate resilience and development that leaves no-one behind.
The BGI Integrated Programme takes an innovative holistic approach to climate resilience and sustainable development, underpinned by elevating the value of nature and scaling nature-based solutions, particularly in the interlinked food, tourism, and urban sectors. Recognizing the challenges as interconnected anticipates bringing forward integrated solutions with ‘whole of island’ benefits for people and prosperity.
Financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), BGI is led by the UN Development Programme working closely with regional partners the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Country projects are supported by UNDP and other GEF agencies the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank and World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF).
Introducing the regional inception workshops GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez said: “I commend the 15 countries for taking a leadership role in this programme to demonstrate the transformational potential of placing nature at the centre of all that we do in our economies. Nowhere is the interconnection between nature, livelihoods and well-being more obvious than in Small Island Developing States.”
Regional organisations underpin the programme’s emphasis on catalysing action at every level from country to global. Speaking at the Caribbean inception workshop, Amrikha Singh, Programme Manager Sustainable Development from CARICOM, put the emphasis on protecting and sustainably using the region’s natural resources, both terrestrial and marine, as the foundation for sustainable development that builds climate resilience and regional food security while strengthening the tourism economy of the region.
“We now have our Caribbean Community Environment and Natural Resources Policy, which is a regional public good, and we are actively implementing this policy, and we see real synergies with the implementation of that policy with the BGI programme.”
School of fish and coral, Seychelles.
For the Atlantic and Indian Ocean states, Gina Bonne, Head of the Environment and Climate Change Department at the Indian Ocean Commission said:
“The Indian Ocean Commission is an institution that has been in place for over 40 years now, our main objective is to strengthen regional cooperation and facilitate dialogues amongst the island states. In the main thematic areas relevant to BGI we are focusing…on integrated coastal zone management, food security and fisheries, disaster risk reduction – especially flooding – in urban areas, and in tourism. Everything is interconnected.”
In the Pacific, Juney Ward, Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Adviser at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), stressed their role in the protection and sustainable development of the region's environment.
“We are primarily focused on supporting BGI in ensuring that stakeholders are engaged and connected and South-South exchange is facilitated to ensure regional and global impact. SPREP will play a role in driving knowledge management and learning across the integrated programmes. We will also take the lead in organizing regional meetings for the country project teams, as well as their national counterparts, serving as a space for co-creation and exchange amongst the projects in the region. And of course, this work will be gender responsive to involve women in all project activities, and will also consult and be sensitive to Indigenous people and local communities' use of and willingness, and most importantly, their consent to share knowledge.”
BGI focuses on three sectors – Food (including fisheries and aquaculture), Tourism, and Urban areas, along with the interlinkages between them. These focus areas were chosen for their strong potential for change due to their dependence on nature and their importance in island economies.
- Caribbean and Pacific island states import 60% of their food, with half importing more than 80%.
- Tourism is over 30% of export GDP in these islands and 98% in St. Lucia. Tourism also contributes heavily to employment, generating 27% in Caribbean islands, 24% in Africa and Indian Ocean islands and 20% in the Pacific.
- Approximately 60% of Small Island Developing States populations live in urban areas. People are living at high densities on limited available land even if population numbers are small.
By focusing efforts on these three key sectors and the linkages between them, BGI will create a multiplier effect by supporting SIDS-SIDS exchange and cooperation, sharing successes and lessons learned.
The 15 BGI countries will use the GEF funding to position nature at the heart of development, planning and fiscal policies. The islands are also committed to scaling nature-positive and nature-based solutions in the three key sectors, and all this will be magnified by collective action, knowledge management and coordination.
The 15 countries are taking the opportunity to collaborate on scaling up and out, transferring successful innovations between them and beyond and building and strengthening their voice on the global stage. The UNDP-led Global Coordination Project amplifies on-the-ground results, upscaling country innovations into regional and global applications, and providing technical assistance, knowledge management and learning.
UNDP Nature Hub Director Midori Paxton summed up the importance of the word “integrated” in the programme’s title:
“This is a first-of-its-kind integrated programme. That means it's not dedicated to one thematic or sectoral area, but aims to drive systems change, lifting key barriers, and pulling levers to change the way ecosystems are utilized and managed in our island countries. BGI focuses on facilitating nature-positive development and reducing ecosystem degradation by putting nature at the very heart of decision-making, around finance, around policy, integrated planning, of landscapes and seascapes.”
“At the same time, we scale up nature-based solutions within and across three high-impact sectors – Food, Tourism, and Urban sectors. These sectors drive economic growth in the islands, and supporting these sectors towards greener outcomes is vital for people and prosperity.”
A fisher in Atari, Timor-Leste.
About BGI
The Global Environment Facility-funded Blue Green Islands Integrated Programme (BGI IP) aims to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in achieving nature-positive development in the food, urban and tourism sectors. The programme focuses on valuing nature, scaling Nature-Positive Solutions, and mobilizing finance for sustainable development.
Learn more here.
About UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our extensive network of experts and partners in 170 countries and territories, we help nations build integrated and lasting solutions for people and the planet.
