CEFAS24-71 Contract for provision of services to collect data from seagrass habitats in Sri Lanka, under the Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP)

The Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) was announced in 2021 as a key bilateral aid programme under the £500m Blue Planet Fund. The UK is working with partner countries to deliver marine science technical assistance across the 3 core themes of marine pollution, biodiversity loss and supporting sustainable seafood. Between 2021-25, Cefas will lead delivery of the Marine Pollution and Sustainable Seafood themes of OCPP, working in partnership with experts from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The OCPP Marine Pollution strand will build on work in countries where Cefas and UK marine partnerships are already active, as well as forge new relationships in priority regions. The Supplier will collect data from seagrass habitats around the coast of Sri Lanka. The data will be used as ground truthing data in support of habitat mapping work being undertaken by the OCPP and partners in Sri Lanka, including to validate and improve the accuracy of the Sri Lanka's first national scale seagrass habitat map developed using open access satellite data. The finalised work package will be provided to the Sri Lankan government and the people of Sri Lanka to inform their decision making regarding the protection of seagrass habitats of Sri Lanka. The data may also be used to inform the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) work happening under the OCPP in Sri Lanka.