In early December 2025, partners from around the world gathered in Panama City to advance a shared goal: reducing pollution from land that harms ocean and coastal ecosystems. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CAF – Developmen...

The publication aims to strengthen understanding of source-to-sea management and the linkages between lands, rivers, lakes, aquifers, coasts, and the ocean. It promotes an integrated approach to natural resource management and supports the health and resilience of transboundary ecosystems.

Accelerated by land-based nutrient runoff, Marine Hypoxia is creating dead zones in the oceans, which have grown by 4.5 million km² in the last 50 years, threatening fish stocks, coastal livelihoods, and diets. The FAO-led GEF-8 Clean and Healthy Oceans Integrated Program (CHOIP) is tackling this phenomenon by curbing nutrient pollution at its source to benefit 10 major large marine ecosystems.

In February, the GEF-8 Clean and Healthy Ocean Integrated Program (CHO-IP) convened the “Project Preparation Grant Design Workshop” at FAO Headquarters in Rome, bringing together key stakeholders from FAO, the GEF, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and UNESCO/IOC to agree on a unified approach to combating coastal pollution and hypoxia stemming from various sources, including agriculture, industry, and municipalities.

 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), along with four partner agencies, has been tasked with leading the Clean and Healthy Oceans Integrated Program, a source-to-sea initiative that will direct up to $115 million in grants to help countries curb land-based pollu...