Safeguarding Marine  Terrestrial Biodiversity in Fiji (SAMBIO) To establish new marine and terrestrial protected areas within priority areas of biodiversity and strengthen Fijiâ€™s protected area network, improve the management of key biodiversity areas in forests and coastal ecosystems to protect Fijiâ€™s most threatened biodiversity, and strengthen policy and financing pathways to secure ecosystem services and other benefits to island communities into the future. Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. This project will deliver direct and indirect benefits to communities and individuals across Fiji, specifically to communities on Viti Levu and Vanua Levu as well as maritime island communities within Kadavu and Lau Provinces, as well as the Ringgold Islands. The project will work with communities to maintain ecosystem services provisioning and address a range of compounding issues to improve human well-being and socio-economic considerations in Fiji. Critically, the project will specifically invest in livelihoods development in a gender responsive manner to address increased unemployment cause by the pandemic, largely due to the halting of global and national tourism.   First, the SAMBIO project will aim to improve income-generation, sustainability and diversification of local livelihoods within target communities in high biodiversity areas under outcomes 1.1, 1.2, and 2.2. The project will include resource owners, women’s groups and resource users. In terms of livelihoods improvement, SAMBIO activities will aim to identify the most promising and sustainable approaches to be pursued for each site,informed by the natural capital – livelihoods nexus in a conservation enterprises approach context, which will identify key entry points for generating sustainable income while reducing or stopping environmentally harmful activities, together withmarket and supply chain analysis, and consultations with community and private sector stakeholders.   The project will then provide targeted training and capacity building for communities, women’s groups and entrepreneurs in business management and planning, financial management, operations and bookkeeping, and compliance requirements for small businesses in alignment with Fiji law and taxes taking into account gender relations and vulnerable groups. The project will further provide technical assistance and training to communities and entrepreneurs for product development, value-addition and processing, packaging and branding, and finally, private sector partnerships. The project will also identify and build supply chain and marketing partnerships with private sector operators in Fiji, to better connect local producers to the domestic market. Through these activities, the project will aim to ensure sustainability of GEF investments and improvements in income generation within each site.   Project livelihoods activities will specifically ensure and target inclusion of women and women’s groups, by focusing at least partially on sale of products developed by women, or income-generating activities in which women play a leading role,in a conservation enterprises approach context. In this regard, the project will deliver an economic empowerment strategy to address existing gender inequities, which might affect project outcomes and their post-project continuation, while also ensuring active gender inclusion across all resource management and planning activities.  The project will measure socio-economic benefits in each relevant site (according to outcomes) through community surveys conducted before and after project interventions, in a gender disaggregated fashion. These surveys will also assess additional community benefits, including improved resilience and reduced vulnerability of island communities to climate change impacts resulting from the maintenance and improvement in ecosystem service provisioning from habitat protection and management.The transition of income generation from environmentally harmful to environmentally neutral or positive activities will also be assessed.Adaptation benefits will be a critical contribution of the project to all targeted communities, and will be measured using a robust suite of adaptation monitoring tools developed by CI in tandem with other globally adapted tools and gender markers.  Additional benefits will include improved food security resulting from better management of coastal areas and traditional fishing grounds to climate change and anthropogenic threats, as well as improved sustainability of agricultural production within multiple terrestrial sites. Finally, by strengthening community-based resources management plans and skills within each site through targeted training and community facilitation, the project will secure continuation of a multitude of ecosystem services benefits, including: freshwater provisioning, recreation, cultural and spiritual services provided by nature, soil and land stability, and a range of other benefits, which have direct and indirect beneficial effects on the socio-economic functions of the target communities and the country as a whole.