Accelerating Coastal Community-led Conservation

The WWF Coastal Communities Initiative works with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, regional networks, government authorities and non-profits to accelerate and scale coastal community-led conservation.

Over the past few decades, WWF and some 700 local and international partners have supported coastal community-led conservation in 29 countries. Despite significant and wide-ranging successes, progress has been incremental. At this pace, we will not build the resilience of coastal communities and of the natural systems they depend upon. We need a global movement that can accelerate the implementation of successful coastal community-led conservation at the necessary scale.

Our Vision

Empowered and resilient coastal communities rebuilding ocean health through the acceleration and scaling of locally led solutions.

Watch: Find out more about WWF’s efforts to support coastal community-led conservation

Our Impact

By 2030, the Coastal Communities Initiative will secure at least 4 million km2 of critical coastal ecosystems vital to the food security and livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people.

Since 2020, the Coastal communities initiative impact has been far-reaching:

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Samson Goulzar, Madagascar
It is not much about the ocean, it is in the way we use the ocean that has changed.
Samson Goulzar, President of the locally-managed marine area Beheloke, Madagascar

Who is this site for?

If you are a coastal community leader, marine conservation practitioner, government official or development funder and want to help drive coastal community-led conservation, this site is for you.

What we do

Featured stories

Explore local stories and community-led solutions showing what the scaling approach of the Coastal Communities Initiative looks and feels like through the eyes of local communities.

SASI – How one community’s traditional wisdom in fisheries management sparked learning and replication in other islands

It was a sunny day — almost like any other — in the 1990s when Yustus Menarbu’s parents took him along with them to the sea. For Yustus, that day was special.

Portraits of Change | David Shoshola

Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture are key to food security, livelihoods and a sustainable oceans future.

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