Sustainable management of tuna fisheries and biodiversity conservation in the areas beyond national jurisdiction. To achieve responsible, efficient and sustainable tuna harvests and biodiversity conservation in the ABNJ in face of a changing environment Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. The thrust of the Project is to ensure that the tuna industry continues to shift to more sustainable fishing practices and safeguards against the occurrence of any major disruptions in the sector and thus continue to provide employment opportunities and related socio-economic benefits. Direct socio-economic benefits and contributions to supporting full and productive employment opportunities at the national and local levels within the scope of a global project where much of the effort is directed to and promoting of policy formulation and adoption, institutional strengthening and capacity development, developing and testing new technologies and information generation and dissemination will be relative few within the 5 year Tuna II project timeframe.   However over the medium to long-term if progress towards project outcomes proves sustainable the benefits are likely to be significant. As noted in section 1.a. above, the tuna industry is a multi-billion industry that provides sources of income and employment to a large, global community of workers. Moreover, given the size of the industry and continued and growing demand for sustainably harvested tuna there would be significant socio-economic benefits particularly in the harvesting and processing sub-sectors of the main commercial tuna species that provide both direct and indirect benefits to a large number of people and their families, provided that human rights and labour abuses, lack of equitable return to small island and large coastal developing states, gender inequality, and lack of attention to small scale tuna fishing and value chain activities are given due attention as part of the sustainable management of the overall industry. A number of studies are increasing demonstrating the importance of the industry as a source of employment although globally, estimates have yet to be calculated.  In addition to the above, the Project will support a number of pilot activities in t-RFMO MS at the national/local level designed to develop and promote more sustainable fishing practices (e.g., improved use of cold chain technology, fish handling and traceability technology and the introduction of more sustainable fish harvesting practices that can result in higher product value) that will likely bring direct benefits to participating fishers. The countries and project sites have yet to be finalized constraining socio-economic cost-benefit analysis. However, one of products of these pilot projects will be the development of business case studies to quantify benefits. These case studies, supported by the Project, will be used to leverage additional investments within the life of the project designed to scale up the results in additional number of beneficiaries and benefits.  Providing secure employment to existing workers in the sector that will also benefit from the added value of sustainably harvested tuna species will contribute to the Project’s GEBs primarily by increasing support at the local and national levels for promoting sustainable harvesting and processing practices pursued by their respective companies. Where these benefits are actually achieved on the ground they may provide evidence to motivate other employees and firms to follow suit and support: (i) the adopting lessons learned and applying it to other regions through south-south and north-south cooperation strategies, (ii) harnessing the power of industry groups / associations and civil society organizations and the (iii) 724,000 metric tons of globally over-exploited marine fisheries moved to more sustainable levels (GEF indicator 8).