How can blue finance deliver for both coastal communities and ecosystems? At the Our Ocean Conference, Itad convened leaders from government, finance and conservation to explore this question.
This blog draws on insights from a panel featuring Firdaus Agung (Director of Marine Conservation, Indonesia), Chip Cuncliffe (Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance), Ruth Davis (UK Special Representative for Nature), Meizani Irmadhiany (Konservasi Indonesia) and Gil Yaron (UK Blue Planet Fund), moderated by Tim Ruffer (Itad).
The discussion focused on two practical challenges that came up repeatedly during the conference:
- How can blue finance work for the people who are vital for the stewardship of coastal ecosystems?
- What does it take to scale effective approaches?
Five key lessons emerged from the session:
1. Start with communities – not as beneficiaries, but as partners
Blue finance is far more likely to succeed when coastal communities are actively involved in shaping it. Conservation efforts that ignore local economic and social realities rarely last. Designing with communities leads to more durable and equitable outcomes.
Success depends on:
- Treating communities as co-designers and decision-makers, not just recipients
- Making community-led enterprises and local institutions part of the solution
- Aligning conservation goals with livelihoods, food security and resilience
In practice, this can take many forms. In Vietnam, for instance, small loans for sustainable livelihoods have been channelled through women-led credit unions, demonstrating how community ownership can reshape both conservation and financial systems.
2. Don’t just scale projects, build systems
Many effective initiatives remain small-scale because the surrounding system doesn’t support them. Scaling impact is not about replicating projects, it’s about strengthening the ecosystem they depend on.
To move beyond pilots, programmes need to invest in:
- Policy and regulatory frameworks that enable sustainable ocean use
- Market linkages and supply chains
- Strengthened local institutions
This systems approach is already emerging in some contexts. In Indonesia, for example, integrating ocean accounting into national systems is helping governments link ecosystem health directly to economic decision-making, creating incentives to invest in ocean-dependent communities.
3. Build partnerships that bridge gaps
Delivering blue finance requires collaboration between actors who don’t usually work together. The right partnerships don’t just add actors, they deliberately bridge divides – between local financial institutions, private investors, donors and communities. These partnerships play a critical role in aligning:
- Conservation and development goals
- Local initiatives and global finance
- Technical expertise and local knowledge
The objectives of these actors are often complementary, but finding common ground takes time and a bridging of perspectives.
In Fiji, one example shared was the use of a national development bank to channel blue finance raised through a blue bond into local businesses. By working through an institution with established reach, funding flowed more effectively to communities – illustrating how non-traditional partners can unlock scale.
4. Design for trade-offs, not just long-term wins
While healthy ecosystems and livelihoods are aligned in the long term, there are often short-term trade-offs. Ignoring this undermines impact. Designing for trade-offs builds trust and sustainability.
Common challenges include:
- Immediate income losses from restrictions on resource use
- Delayed benefits from ecosystem recovery
- Uneven distribution of costs and gains
These can be addressed through:
- Transitional support for affected groups
- Inclusive decision-making
- Fair benefit-sharing mechanisms
The risks of overlooking this were evident in Belize, where a major debt-for-nature swap accelerated marine protection but did not include livelihoods targets, creating unintended trade-offs for local communities and highlighting the importance of integrated design.
5. Invest early in data, measurement and learning
Without the right evidence, it’s difficult to align environmental, social and economic goals. Good data isn’t just for accountability, it helps align incentives, attract investment and improve decisions.
Tools such as the Coastal Risk Index (developed by the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance) are beginning to quantify how ecosystems reduce financial risk – for example, by showing how reefs and mangroves protect coastal assets. This kind of evidence is helping shift perceptions, positioning ecosystems as not only environmental assets but as economically valuable ones.
Key priorities include:
- Integrating social, economic and environmental indicators
- Using tools like ocean accounting to link ecosystems and economic value
- Building time-series data to track change and adapt over time
What this means in practice
Across contexts, one insight stands out: healthy oceans and resilient communities are interdependent. Blue finance has a critical role to play, but to be effective requires deliberate design that integrates finance, policy, local engagement and robust evidence.
What next?
As interest in blue finance continues to grow, there is an opportunity to move from promising pilots to approaches that deliver lasting, equitable impact at scale.
We welcome collaboration with partners across government, finance and conservation to continue learning, and applying these lessons in practice. This includes market and landscape analysis, programme and instrument design, impact measurement and management, or learning partnerships that strengthen how evidence is used.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank all of our speakers for their valuable contributions to the discussion, and for sharing practical insights and experience from across policy, finance and implementation. Their perspectives were critical in shaping these lessons.
