Sustainable Financing and Operations to Conserve Caribbean Marine and Coastal Environments

The Caribbean Sea boasts some of the most biologically rich marine environments in the Atlantic, supporting vibrant coral reefs, fisheries, and a thriving tourism industry. In recent decades, unsustainable coastal development, climate change, overfishing, and pollution have contributed to a dramatic decline in the condition of the region’s coastal and marine ecosystems. Leaders of nine Caribbean countries have joined forces with business leaders and funders to develop the Caribbean Challenge Initiative, which seeks to conserve at least 20 percent of the marine and coastal environment—backed by fully functioning sustainable finance mechanisms—by the year 2020. Partners in the Caribbean Challenge Initiative turned to Blue Earth Consultants to develop and implement financing tools, frameworks, and trainings to support effective distribution and use of national conservation funds.

Blue Earth Consultants helped set up strong financing and operational frameworks for Caribbean national conservation funds and protected area managers in several countries, including Saint Lucia, The Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda. We researched and partnered with stakeholders to vet and prioritize viable financing sources and identify matching funding, compiled detailed budgets, calculated projections of protected area management costs and revenue, and developed sustainable financing plans. To support effective operations and use of funding, we created a conservation fund operational manual, developed country-specific grant-making frameworks, and trained conservation fund board members in effective operations.