Background The UNOPS Water, Environment and Climate (WEC) Portfolio supports the design and management of multi-stakeholder initiatives by providing services in financial and grant management, procurement, human resources, and project management. The Portfolio has supported projects in the areas of marine and freshwater resources management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and transparency, energy access and distribution, and environmental conservation. UNOPS is the executing agency for the UNDP/GEF Procaribe+ Project.  UNDP/GEF Procaribe+ Project The UNDP Project “Protecting and Restoring the Ocean’s natural Capital, building Resilience and supporting region-wide Investments for sustainable Blue socio-Economic development” (PROCARIBE+) is a 5-year project (co-)funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF-ID 10800, May 2023 - April 2028) that aims to protect, restore and harness the natural coastal and marine capital of the CLME+ region, to catalyze investments in a climate-resilient, sustainable Blue Economy, through strengthened regional coordination and collaboration and wide-ranging partnerships. It will seek to achieve this by enabling and supporting the development of sustainable and resilient ocean-based (blue) economies, through, for example, the upscaling of actions on Marine Spatial Planning, marine conservation (MPA’s, OECM’s), Blue Carbon, sustainable fisheries, community grants, and through enhanced regional ocean governance (including capacity building efforts and enhanced marine data, information and knowledge management, strategic planning and environmental and socio-economic reporting). In doing so, the project will take into account cross-cutting issues such as climate change, gender and post-covid recovery.  The Project will build on the results from the preceding UNDP/GEF CLME (2009-2014) and CLME+ (2015-2021) Projects, and catalyze the next iteration of key regional processes such as the development of updated Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses/State of the Marine Environment & Economies Reports (TDA/SOMEE) and a new 10-year Strategic Action Programme (SAP) on the Marine Environment and the Blue Economy.  In support of the aforementioned, the project will play a global pioneering role as it will  operationalize a region-wide “Coordination Mechanism to Support Integrated Ocean Governance in the Caribbean and North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystems” (the “Ocean Coordination Mechanism”, or “OCM”). This “OCM” will seek to enhance cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination among the region’s many countries, and the numerous Intergovernmental Organizations (IGO’s) with an oceans-relevant mandate.  Background and objectives of the grant/funding Creation of Fishery Replenishment/No Take Zones in the Meso-American Reef Region (MAR) While 70+ marine and coastal protected areas have been established in the MAR, only a few areas are fully protected from fishing, compromising the ability to replenish fish stocks and ensuring the long-term sustainability of commercial fisheries. The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People’s “Call to Action” under the 2022 Mesoamerican Reef Report Card states that an increase in reef protection is urgently needed and that fish populations are now critically low in all countries integrating the MAR region, except Mexico. In addition, most of the 17 subregions evaluated for the Report Card are in “poor condition”. “Fish Replenishment Zones” (FRZ), also called “No-take” areas, have been shown to allow fisheries species to grow larger and produce more offspring, enhancing fisheries in adjacent areas and helping increase reef health and resilience overall. The establishment of FRZ is considered to be part of the solution to restoring fisheries and biodiversity in the MAR.  All four countries of the MAR region (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) have procedures in place through their institutional frameworks that allow for the establishment of FRZs and have already taken steps towards increasing the protection of the reef and its adjacent areas through either MPAs or FRZ. While governments generally have authority over the formal establishment of FRZs, bottom-up approaches in which local fisherfolk organizations/cooperatives are actively involved in the designation of FRZ have shown better outcomes and tend to be more sustainable in the long term.  Based on existing success stories in the MAR and beyond, a growing interest can be observed among fisherfolk in the MAR region in creating new FRZs, as there is an increased awareness and understanding of their benefits for the sustainability of local fish stocks and thus to their livelihoods.  Under this grant agreement, the PROCARIBE+ Project is seeking to support the creation of new FRZ in the MAR region through the provision of financial and technical support to local fisherfolk associations/groups, marine protected area practitioners and/or other interested groups operating in the MAR.  Through this Grant, the PROCARIBE+ project seeks to support the effective implementation of FRZ for an area covering at least 100km2 of marine space in the MAR region by project end.  The funding to be allocated under this Grant Package should therefore support the achievement of Output 3.3.2 of the PROCARIBE+ Project that focuses on enhancing area-based ocean conservation (MPA/OECM), targeting at least 4,000,000 ha of coastal/marine space (in the Wider Caribbean Region), through: expansion of, or newly created MPA’s, and/or MPA’s with increased protection levels/demonstrated enhanced management effectiveness, and/or equivalent amounts of marine space under Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs).