The Blue Nature Alliance is a collaboration founded and led by Conservation International, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Global Environment Facility, Minderoo Foundation, and the Rob Walton Foundation. It is staffed by a joint team of professionals from Conservation International and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Our partners include governments, local communities and Indigenous peoples, scientists, NGOs, philanthropists, and others that share our goal and can bring thought-leadership, technical expertise, co-financing, and/or direct project implementation. A list of our partner organizations is available here.
The Blue Nature Alliance works to advance Ocean Conservation Areas. The Alliance considers an ocean conservation area to be a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the durable conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Included in the Alliance’s ocean conservation area definition are:
The Alliance is committed to catalyzing effective ocean protections. As articulated in ‘The MPA Guide’, there are two critical dimensions that impact the effectiveness of ocean conservation areas: 1) level of protection and 2) stage of establishment.
Logically it is very clear, that the higher the level of protection (i.e. the more human threats are reduced), the more ecological benefits a protected area will generate, with highly and fully protected areas having the most significant ecological impact. The Blue Nature Alliance works with partners to maximize the total area under higher levels of protection, including working to upgrade or enhance protection levels within previously designated ocean conservation areas (e.g. increase the area zoned as fully protected/no-extraction through zoning/regulation or other legal means; obtain an international protection via a UN mechanism, which substantially increases protections or increases regulatory options; or in the case of areas beyond national jurisdiction, a site layers additional protections via sectoral management).
The other dimension is the stage of establishment or implementation. Without effective management, ocean conservation areas are merely lines on a map. A key study on MPA effectiveness showed that by far the most important factor for MPAs to generate ecological benefits is to have sufficient staffing and budget. i.e. to have enough capacity to be actively managed.
The Blue Nature Alliance works with partners to improve the effectiveness of ocean protections by standing up equitable governance and management systems, building management capacity, and securing long-term financing. The Alliance considers an existing ocean conservation area to be under improved management when one or more of the foundational systems for durable and effective conservation is put in place, including:
Significance – one of the Alliance’s criteria for engaging – is broadly defined as large areas that include coastal ecosystems and/or open ocean that are vital to people and nature. We do not have a minimum area threshold because large scale ocean conservation is context specific. Large scale in Southeast Asia is very different from large scale for Pacific Island countries. But the Alliance does have a very ambitious target of catalyzing 18 million km2 of effective ocean conservation, the size of an area does factor into our decision to engage.
While sustainable fisheries management can be a highly effective tool for biodiversity conservation, the Blue Nature Alliance is focused on area-based ocean conservation. We may invest in improved fisheries management measures where such activities will both strengthen support for and adherence to regulations of adjacent ocean conservation areas as well as convey significant reduction of threats to biodiversity within the fisheries management area.
The Alliance seeks expressions of interest to partner with us in securing the creation of new marine protected areas of at least 100,000 km2 in size or protect at least 30% of a country’s exclusive economic zone anywhere in the world by 2027. Expressions of interest will be considered for potential financial and/or technical support on a 6-month cycle from January 2025 - June 2026. The Alliance team will conduct independent due diligence on selected submissions and may invite a full proposal for grant funding. Visit this page to learn more about our selection criteria and steps to partnership.
The Blue Nature Alliance is the only dedicated NGO and funder collaboration focused exclusively on accelerating global ocean protection, and we work every day to prove the hypothesis that global goals can only be achieved if we collaborate and align with others. Staffed by two large international NGOs with deep technical experience on large-scale ocean protection, the Blue Nature Alliance is uniquely able to take a holistic approach to partnership, providing both flexible financial resources and technical assistance on MPA governance, protected area design, management, planning and implementation, and innovative financing design.
The Blue Nature Alliance developed a Code of Conduct to guide and facilitate the integration of human dimensions into our activities in order to advance and promote collaborative and equitable conservation, enhance ecological and social outcomes, and ensure the durability of ocean conservation. The Blue Nature Alliance team regularly evaluates our application of the Code of Conduct in designing and implementing site engagements to reflect, learn, and identify any principles or subprinciples that require greater focus moving forwards. Additionally, we invite partners to submit feedback via our grievance mechanism should they believe we are not living up to our Code of Conduct.
The Blue Nature Alliance does not have a minimum co-finance requirement for projects. However, Alliance funds alone will not be sufficient for realizing truly durable, sustainable, and effective ocean conservation areas. Thus, we work closely with our partners, governments, and other donors to leverage additional resources and, in many cases, we work with the government to ensure a transition of core MPA functions from Alliance funding to government budgets.
Yes. Field programs from the Alliance’s executing Core Partners (Conservation International and The Pew Charitable Trusts) are eligible to be considered for funding. However, they do not receive preferential access. All potential grantees, including those from Core Partner organizations, must go through the same rigorous site scoping and partner selection process based on objective criteria. To ensure impartiality, any decision-making involving a Core Partner’s field program includes a formal recusal of that organization’s leadership from the process. To date, 20% of total grant funding has been awarded to programs affiliated with the Alliance’s executing Core Partners.
Since advancing biodiversity conservation and social equity are both central aims of the Blue Nature Alliance, there are several activities and actions that are incompatible with our goals. The Blue Nature Alliance will: