A group led by Conservation International, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Global Environment Facility, Minderoo Foundation, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation today announced the launch of the Blue Nature Alliance, a new global initiative to protect and conserve 7 million square miles of the ocean over the next five years.
The announcement noted that the Alliance is working with governments and others to protect 1.9 million square miles in Fiji’s Lau Seascape, the Southern Ocean, and Tristan de Cunha, with efforts soon to launch to protect 734,000 square miles in Canada, Palau, the Seychelles, and the Western Indian Ocean. The Alliance has identified eighteen additional projects for North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region, with the next round of specific locations to be announced this summer.
In the announcement, the Alliance notes its support for the global initiative to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, calling the goal “widely agreed upon as the threshold needed to maintain a resilient and functioning ocean that supports the health of people and nature.”
Other groups involved with the Alliance include Big Ocean, the Global Island Partnership, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Murphy Family Foundation, Nekton, Oceana, Ocean Unite, Tiffany & Co. Foundation, and SkyLight Surveillance and Enforcement Technology.
