Most marine conservation efforts fail. Declaring areas of ocean permanently off-limits to fishing all too often puts conservation at loggerheads with the needs of coastal communities, disenfranchising the people who depend on fisheries for their livelihoods. For many of the 1.4 billion people who live around our tropical coasts, forgoing fishing in protected areas represents too severe an economic sacrifice and too significant an opportunity cost.

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Blue Ventures works with coastal communities to overcome this conservation commitment conundrum. We do this by introducing short-term closures of fishing grounds to boost catches, thus sparking and building enduring support for more ambitious management efforts that are led by communities, for communities. By returning meaningful economic benefits in timeframes that work for traditional fishers, our model inspires local leadership to protect marine biodiversity and improve food security.