The International Maritime Organization (IMO), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), aims to protect marine ecosystems from the negative effects of invasive species. In December 2018, they launched the GEF/UNDP-IMO project “Building Partnerships to Assist Developing Countries Minimize the Impacts from Aquatic Biofouling (GloFouling Partnerships), which will address the transfer of harmful aquatic species through biofouling and will develop suitable tools and provide capacity building on biofouling management in twelve developing countries and Small Island Development States.

The IOC-UNESCO has joined the three agencies to provide scientific guidance and coordinate efforts to address non-ship pathways. The GloFouling Partnerships project will drive actions to implement the IMO Guidelines for the control and management of ships’ biofouling, which provide a globally consistent approach on how biofouling should be managed to minimize the transfer of invasive aquatic species through ships’ hulls. The GloFouling Partnerships project will also spur the development of best practices and standards for improved biofouling management in other ocean industries.

IMO will participate in the advisory board of the PacMAN project as one of the key stakeholders and (i) will advise in the design of the monitoring plan as well as the decision-support tool and (ii) and help raise awareness of the outcomes and support the uptake of the services at local and regional level.