More than a drop in the ocean
Philanthropy can be a strategic catalyst that drives institutional investment in ocean protection and economic development.
The vastness of the ocean is a never-ending source of wonder, so too the sheer diversity of life within it. The scale of the challenges to ocean sustainability are similarly hard to grasp, as indeed is the level of investment needed to protect and support its inhabitants and dependents.
As pollution, over-exploitation and acidification from climate change threaten ocean health and marine biodiversity, greater conservation efforts are urgently required. Just US$1.2 billion per year is being channeled into ocean protection at present, well below the US$15.8 billion needed annually to meet the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target to conserve 30% of land and sea area by 2030 (30x30).
Further, the World Economic Forum has estimated that US$175 billion is needed to meet the objectives of UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below Water – every year to 2030, a step change from the US$10 billion invested between 2015 and 2019. The funds needed to create a fully sustainable ocean economy are reckoned by some to top US$550 billion annually.
Amongst such spiraling sums, one might wonder whether philanthropy can play a meaningful role in the protection of marine environments, let alone the development of sustainable coastal economies. Especially when grants to ocean conservation totalled just 1% of philanthropic funding worldwide in 2022, despite doubling over the past decade.
But that’s not how many philanthropists see it. “Philanthropy can play a vital role by helping to identify, establish and monitor critical biodiversity areas through inclusive approaches,” says Kathlyn Tan, director of the Singapore-based Rumah Foundation.
Nor the experts seeking to sow the seeds of long-term equitable growth for ocean economies, while curbing the practices doing damage to marine environments and coastal communities. “Sustainable ocean plans can create the policy coherence needed to de-risk investments sufficiently to attract private capital,” says Cynthia Barzuna, deputy director of the World Resources Institute’s ocean programme.
“Philanthropy can play a huge role in providing technical support for these plans, including working with local stakeholders.” Some philanthropists are beginning doing so, in Asia and elsewhere.
Indeed, a further eight countries committed to have sustainable ocean plans in place by 2030 at the recent International Conference on the Blue Economy in the Gulf of Guinea.
Valuable experience
Ocean-related funding might be new to some, but philanthropy has a strong track record and deep expertise in the establishment and monitoring of marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). This experience will become more valuable as protection efforts expand and accelerate in line with 30x30 targets.
At the recent UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, signatories renewed hope that the High Seas Treaty (HST) would enter force before the end of the year. The HST will have the power to create MPAs beyond national jurisdictions, but will also support existing conservation measures within national territorial waters, through governance, finance and technical support for more rigorous enforcement.
Creating an MPA can be a labour of love. It’s also a multi-year and multi-stage test of scientific endeavour, resourcefulness and collaboration. Little wonder less than 3% of the ocean is currently fully protected. The world’s largest MPA, announced by French Polynesia at UNOC3, was over a decade in the making.
“It takes a lot of policy work to make your way through the morass of interests to understand where are the best places to protect and how those places are networked together,” says Karen Sack, executive director at the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA).
“That ecosystem is key in creating protected areas that work for nature, defining where that 30% should be, understanding what that means in terms of livelihoods and traditional rights, and having those written into a policy and regulatory environment.”
It all starts with the data collection to understand the biodiversity profile of an area, including the movement patterns of fish and other sub-aquatic species. Once the scientific case for protection has been made, consultations, approvals and certifications from local, national and international bodies are needed, followed by monitoring and management challenges, which depend on local resources and incentives.
“Philanthropy is absolutely critical to the establishment and the management of MPAs,” says Barbara Jackson, director at the Asia Community Foundation (ACF). “The goal is, over time, that they would be managed by communities and integrated with economic opportunities, meaning philanthropic capital won’t be needed over the longer term.”
Tools and motivation
This goal can be pursued actively by philanthropists. The underpinnings of MPAs - data collection, scientific expertise, application of technology, stakeholder engagement and policy navigation - are also integral to national plans or blueprints for sustainable ocean economies (SOEs). As such, philanthropists already have the tools and motivation to support the development of SOE plans, and to bind marine protection measures to them. Incorporating MPAs and other common goods into these blueprints highlights their enabling role in revenue-generating activity, scaling up and de-risking investment.
The case for philanthropy’s greater role is enhanced by the fact it can and does already support other SOE building blocks, says Sack, arguing it can bridge the gap from beachfront to boardroom.
“Philanthropy can provide the small investments needed by local communities to bolster resilience, as well as investing into innovative ideas that can spur the entrepreneurial sector in a regenerative and sustainable blue economy,” she says.
“Guarantee facilities can de-risk investments and help to ‘crowd-in’ private sector finance - that is something that philanthropy can get in on the ground floor right now.”
These two strands of traditional philanthropic activity – conservation and community support – can come together to catalyse sustainable growth of ocean economies, Sack asserts.
Holistic approaches
The decision-making architecture being introduced by the HST – including an ocean ‘COP’ and an ocean-focused scientific body to inform policy decisions – is likely to bolster a growing awareness of the need to increase ocean-related capital flows by linking conservation more closely to comprehensive economic development plans of the most vulnerable countries.
UN Trade and Development outlined the need for a more joined-up approach to ocean finance in 2023. While private finance can be attracted to sustainable revenue-generating activities such as tourism and aquaculture, these depend on non-revenue generating common goods such as pollution control, wastewater management, ecosystem conservation, and investment in research and development – which often require long-term finance at scale from philanthropy or concessional loans from the public sector.
A paper published by 20 governments ahead of UNOC3 also called for greater coordination, describing current finance flows to the sustainable ocean economy as too little and too fragmented, resulting in a “mismatch” between supply and demand. In particular, it highlighted an urgent need to support small island states and the least developed countries “in financing their SOEs and helping to build a policy, regulatory and broader enabling environment that stimulates investment and sustainable use of the ocean”.
While individual pots of finance – across impact, philanthropy, private and public finance – are growing, they are insufficiently targeted on the most complex challenges, according to Torsten Thiele, lead author of the paper and honorary fellow, Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK.
Thiele calls for more coordination and focus at the policy and finance level, to tackle multiple challenges – rising sea levels, ocean acidification, falling fish stocks, pollution - in parallel.
“Philanthropy and governments have delivered on more MPAs. But the bigger challenge is in creating long-term investment opportunities based on building sustainable economies around marine protection,” he says.
According to the report, philanthropic and public sources of finance can provide “risk-tolerant funding to support local and Indigenous communities”. Further support for capacity-building and policy reform can enable the conservation and sustainable use and management of marine ecosystems while recognising the rights of communities “and the interconnectedness of their well-being with the ocean”.
Two lenses
Thiele cites seaweed as an example of how greater policy and funding coordination could deliver broader and longer-lasting impacts across conservation and economic development without necessarily needing more funding.
Seaweed production has doubled over the past decade, with much of that growth generated in China and across south-east Asia. Known as a cheap and nutritious food source, seaweed is increasingly being used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and aquaculture, which adds growing revenues to its many environmental benefits, which include coastal resilience, increased biodiversity, water filtration and carbon sequestration.
As a still relatively nascent industry, seaweed is funded largely by impact investment vehicles seeking to generate sustainable incomes for local communities, but this is typically not coordinated with government efforts to develop MPAs. With a foot in both the conservation and development camps and a focus on improving community outcomes, philanthropists have an opportunity to ensure the overall benefit is greater than the sum of its parts, Thiele argues.
“You can combine different perspectives to create better outcomes. Philanthropists can be catalytic in the sense that grant funding can kickstart the process, but they can also be more holistic through having these two lenses inside their own institution, combining philanthropic outcomes with impact investment outcomes,” he says.
In short, seaweed production is likely to be both more economically and environmentally beneficial to the local community if developed within context of a more integrated and science-led policy framework.
A coordinated and consultative approach should build from an understanding the foundations of ecosystem resilience to identify which areas need to be protected fully in order to provide spawning grounds, bolstering fish volumes and outcomes for small-scale fishers.
“If you just figure out how to improve the fishery, but you don't improve the biology, governance and financing, the long-term benefits will be harder to achieve,” says Thiele.
One example of evolving approaches is the 30x30 Southeast Asia Ocean Fund, which was launched by a number of philanthropic organisations earlier this year, led by the Rumah Foundation and Oceankind. The fund, which is administered by ACF, unveiled its first three grants in April.
Meaningful impact for communities
According to Rumah’s Tan, south-east Asian philanthropy is already favouring community-based initiatives when seeking to have positive impact on local ecosystems and species. “By working directly to support local communities at the frontlines, philanthropies have significant potential not only to invest in long-term, sustainable solutions for high-biodiversity environments, but also to deliver meaningful impact for communities,” she says.
This approach is reflected across the 30x-30 fund’s initial grantees, which feature science-led, community-based approaches to the establishment and development of MPAs, with education, capacity-building and financial self-sufficiency integral to their missions.
Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara, for example, has developed a number of self-sufficient and self-funded MPAs in collaboration with government agencies and local communities in Indonesia, combining coastal resilience and ocean protection with community-led management of traditional fishing grounds.
Noting the role of philanthropy in ensuring local consultation and representation in the development and management of MPAs, Rumah’s Tan says governments need to recognise that protection of ecosystems must also provide benefits to their populations.
While philanthropy can invest in capacity building, local ecosystem development, alternative livelihoods, and strengthening local governance and community leadership, it is up to governments to provide the incentives and mechanisms to attract finance flows that sustain conservation efforts beyond the grant period.
“Philanthropy’s role may increasingly become that of a strategic catalyst – helping to mobilise larger-scale public and private investments; promoting rigour, transparency and accountability in monitoring; and fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration to ensure long-term, equitable management of MPAs and OECMs,” Tan adds.
On the horizon
For some philanthropists, this strategic role is well embedded. At last year’s COP16, a group including Bloomberg Philanthropies made a US$51.7 million pledge toward the development of MPAs in the high seas, with some of the funding reserved for “building international consensus on the governance processes necessary to ensure the rapid adoption”.
According to Melissa Wright, who leads the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative, the organisation is highly focused on the tools and resources needed for effective implementation of MPAs, which an eye fixed firmly on the horizon.
“With 2030 fast approaching, support must centre on the tools, data, and capacity required to deliver real results. Governments, communities, and civil society all have a role to play in turning promises into lasting protection for the ocean,” she says.
Wright emphasises the need for “new commitments and stronger policies” from governments, an effort which Bloomberg Philanthropies is facilitating in several ways, providing data and analysis to policymakers and supporting Coastal 500, a global network of mayors and local political leaders collaborating to build sustainable and resilient coastal communities.
While philanthropy can and will get the ball rolling - investing in proof-of-concept projects, supporting sound science, and building local capacity for long-term impact – Wright is clear that the role of catalyst is finite. “We need governments and the private sector to step up – to scale investment, back community-led action, and support innovative financing tools,” she says.
Philanthropy can help to bring about the necessary enabling environment for sustainable ocean economies by supporting the development of effective policy and regulation, either holistically or by making the case for shifts in fiscal incentives or the introduction of disclosures which ensure ocean-related financial risks are accounted for in decision-making.
Opening up new markets
But the potential to make meaningful cross-cutting contributions is incredibly diverse. Conservation projects are rapidly plugging gaps in scientific knowledge, according to Gareth Cunningham, director of conservation and policy at the Marine Conservation Society. Efforts to understand how protection of seagrass can boost oyster populations also provides valuable data that helps quantify water quality and carbon sequestration impacts.
At a time when corporates and financial institutions are seeking to put a price tag on their value at risk from declining ocean ecosystems, even small-scale projects can support investment flows, potentially supporting new markets for nature-based solutions.
“Philanthropists can fund the research that provides the certainty that a certain market can be opened up,” he explains.
They could also support the development of matchmaking platforms, several of which have been developed or planned, with the aim of bringing together the supply and demand sides of ocean finance. These include two backed by ORRAA: the Octopus Platform, which connects investors to opportunities, partners and data; and 1000 Ocean Startups, a global innovation and impact investing ecosystem.
“We've got to move from pilots to scaling,” says Sack. “Philanthropic dollars can accelerate the type of investment action that’s needed. We have estimated that around 60% of global investments into a regenerative and sustainable blue economy need to be in the Asia Pacific region. Philanthropy in Asia has an opportunity to really kind of move the needle.”
This article was originally written for Philanthropy Asia and can also be read here at https://philanthropyasia.org/
.