Blue Alliance – Marine Protected Areas

Summary

Founded in 2015, Blue Alliance is a not-for-profit that supports marine conservation by developing sustainable financing solutions for large Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Blue Alliance has developed a model that enables MPAs to become financially self-sustaining via dividends from blue economy social enterprises. Through long term delegated management agreements, Blue Alliance partners with governments to strengthen the management of MPAs. In parallel, it develops and owns social enterprises in eco-tourism, community-based aquaculture, and sustainable fisheries. These enterprises are designed to alleviate poverty for local communities, support marine conservation within MPAs but also generate enough dividends to help cover MPA management costs, which include monitoring, enforcement, and community engagement. The social enterprises are financed with impact debt, through an impact loan facility established by Blue Alliance and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs with initial investment from BNP Paribas.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play a crucial role in conserving marine biodiversity, particularly in coral reef ecosystems. MPAs are an area of ocean designated by governments where specific human activities are restricted, to support particular marine conservation objectives. As of 2025, there are over 16,000 MPAs, covering 9% of the ocean surface. [1] They present a significant opportunity for marine conservation, with over half of all marine species, and 72% of threatened species reported within these designated zones.[2] MPAs require continuous funding for establishment and day-today operations such as compliance, staffing, and equipment. However, 70% of all MPAs fail to meet these  management standards and manage them effectively due to piecemeal, insufficient, and short-term funding, largely from public and philanthropic sources. On average, it is estimated that each large MPA (hundreds of thousands of hectares) requires approximately USD 500,000 annually to function effectively.[3] In addition to financing constraints, many MPAs face significant barriers to effective management and enforcement. Commonly referred to as ‘paper parks’, these protected areas are legally designated for protection but lack sufficient resources to implement meaningful conservation measures. These MPAs typically have no patrol or enforcement mechanisms in place, allowing for activities such as illegal fish bombing and dumping to take place. Furthermore, it is estimated that over a third of MPAs still allow prohibited industrial activities, including large-scale commercial fishing and bottom trawling, undermining their conservation objectives.

New solution – developing the model

With these challenges in mind, Blue Alliance, a not-for-profit founded in 2015, has developed a model to support MPAs through public-private partnerships and to finance MPA management costs through social enterprises anchored in the blue economy. Blue Alliance identifies existing large MPAs which are currently functioning as “paper parks” and works to establish long-term delegated management agreements with the relevant national, regional, or local government authorities. Agreements are typically signed for 10 years, are renewable and can be extended up to 50+ years. The agreements are central to this model as government support and involvement are critical to ensuring that MPAs are effectively managed and that Blue Alliance’s support is aligned with government policy. The agreements clearly set out roles and responsibilities for each party and establish shared priorities for implementation, monitoring, and governance of the protected area:

• Blue Alliance and local communities are responsible for the day-to-day management of MPAs, including surveillance and co-patrolling with local authorities to reduce illegal fishing, monitoring of fish stocks and community engagement. Other activities include community engagement (such as governance set-up, capacity building in fishery management, leadership, enforcement), biodiversity conservation (such as reduction of threats on turtle nesting, reduction of by-catch on endangered species), ecosystem monitoring (such as fish biomass, coral cover, biodiversity, fish productivity, bleaching, etc) and community development (such as livelihood programmes and job creation for aquaculture farming, sustainable fishing and ecotourism).
• Governments take more of an oversight role, approving annual objectives while also maintaining core activities such as setting and enforcing regulation and compliance.
• Blue Alliance commits to develop blue economy social enterprises around the MPAs that reduce specific drivers of coral reef ecosystem degradation, alleviate poverty and generate long-term income for the MPAs.

Alongside co-management agreements, Blue Alliance creates, owns and manages a portfolio of social enterprises known as reef-positive businesses (RPB) that operate within the blue economy in and around the large MPA. These enterprises directly alleviate poverty of local communities and support marine conservation through activities such as sustainable fishing, aquaculture, and ecotourism. Dividends generated from these businesses is reinvested to help finance the long-term management of the MPA. As of 2025, Blue Alliance operates seven RPBs focused on community-based aquaculture, fisheries and ecotourism. It operates across three locations in Indonesia, the Philippines and Tanzania supporting four large MPAs. In total, these efforts cover 1.7 million ha of MPAs under management.

Creating social enterprises and revenue generation for MPAs and local communities

Blue Alliance acts as a project developer (and business owner), and is responsible for overseeing the development and establishment of each RPB. This includes conducting feasibility studies, producing business plans and developing each social enterprise . Blue Alliance also works on building local capacity to ensure that each enterprise becomes operational and financially sustainable within its first few years. Each RPB is owned by Blue Alliance group (see Figure 1). This ownership structure is important as it mitigates ownership risk and enables Blue Alliance to have full control of financial flows over the long-term – ensuring that dividends are directed to marine conservation and MPA management rather than kept within the RPBs.

Figure 1:

Source: Blue Alliance (2025)

Each RPB is designed to address specific drivers of coral reef degradation while supporting local communities by providing new income-generating activities as viable alternatives to harmful or illegal activities such as poaching. Business models have been developed in the following sectors and are delivered through a network of businesses operating under the same name across all three countries:

• Community-based Aquaculture: focuses on sustainable aquaculture and prevents the over-exploitation of wild stocks, generating income for coastal households, and regenerating mangroves and seagrass meadows. This is delivered through the Aquahub group of companies across all three countries.
• Fisheries Supply Chain: The Samaki Bluu company which is based in Tanzania specialises in high-quality fish products, implements sustainable fishing practices around MPAs, and increases revenues for coastal fishers.
• Responsible Ecotourism: offers small-scale, eco-friendly experiences such as coral safari day tours and facilities for guests. This is delivered through the Bluewild Eco ventures group of companies across all three countries.

Each RPB is a scalable businesses capable of generating USD 2-3 million in annual revenue, with the goal of eventually covering the full  costs of MPA management through dividends. As of 2025, three of the RPBs are generating annual revenues above USD 300,000.[4]  Revenue streams vary by enterprise, but the following include:

• Revenue from selling sea cucumbers and mangrove crabs to both national and international markets;
• Sales of premium fish products from Samaki Bluu sustainable seafood company, available in national and global markets;
• Booking fees from visitors at Blue Wild Eco Ventures ecotourism companies, including an underwater room, eco-cruise liveaboards and coral reef safaris.
• Blue Alliance is also developing mangrove restoration projects which will generate blue carbon credits.

The enterprises are expected to begin contributing to MPA costs by year 7.  Approximately 70% of the profits is allocated to marine conservation while the rest is directed to loan repayment (happening between year 7 and year 10) and reinvestment in the business.

Financing the social enterprise: investment structure

To fund the RPBs, Blue Alliance with the support of BNP Paribas and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs developed the Blue Finance MPA vehicle – a USD 62 million blended finance vehicle which combines impact debt, grants and recoverable grants (Figure 2). Capital is provided by a range of private investors including commercial banks, impact investors and family offices, while donors provide recoverable and non-recoverable grants. Capital is then aggregated into a single, blended vehicle which provides capital to the reef-positive businesses and the MPAs.

Figure 2:

Source: Blue Alliance (2025)

• Impact loans are used to cover CAPEX and OPEX costs of the enterprises. While the loans are commercial, they offer concessional terms with a 10-year maturity and repayments starting in year seven. Investor returns are a single-digit and are linked to specific environmental and socials outcomes (see KPIs further below). The greater the positive impact, the lower the interest rate (see below for KPIs). Anchor investors include BNP Paribas which provided an initial investment of USD 2.4 million and UBS Optimus Foundation. [5]
• Recoverable grants are provided by venture philanthropists and are used for the start-up phases of the social enterprises. Repayment of the grant is triggered by the financial performance of the RPB.
• Non-recoverable grants are initially used to fund the management and conservation activities of the MPAs until its supplemented with the dividends from the RPBs once they become profitable. Anchor donors include the GFCR which provided an initial USD 5.2 million grant, in addition to Trafigura foundation, Builders vision, Swiss re foundation and Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.

A parametric insurance product designed by AXA climate and financed through Howden Broking Group also sits alongside the facility. The insurance product is designed to protect MPAs and RPBs in the event that there is a damaging cyclone.  The insurance is triggered within a few days of a cyclone passing within a 50-km radius, allowing Blue Alliance to immediately restore the impacted marine environment.

Monitoring and evaluation

To ensure that the MPAs are effective in protecting the ecosystem, Blue Alliance has developed six KPIs which are used to monitor ecosystem and social impacts across all MPAs. All impacts are monitored and reported through 6 KPIs on fish biodiversity regeneration, effective management of coral reef MPAs, food security and livelihood enhancement for local communities and carbon avoided emissions.  They are certified annually by an independent institution.

Blue Alliance has utilised expert knowledge and analysed international standards including: The Positive Impacts Management System for Blue Natural Capital projects (BNC+ Management System), which is aligned with IUCN’s mandate to provide comprehensive and cohesive KPIs; the International Coral Reef Initiative’s (ICRI) indicators for coral health; the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance’s (ORRAA) Indicator Guidance, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) which is seeking to standardize coral reef monitoring and the Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA’s) definition inputs. The KPIs methodology has been validated twice by external independent scientific experts. The first time was in 2023 with UBS Optimus foundation external experts, and the second time was by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in 2025. All KPIs undergo annual verification and certification. The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is responsible for verifying and certifying the KPIs.

• For KPI 1 (fish biomass), and KPI 3 (fishery productivity), their review includes assessing the data collection methods, input accuracy, statistical analysis to ensure the coherence of the outcomes before certifying the results.
• For KPI 2 (MEAT Score): information is gathered through interviews with the MPA manager and key local stakeholders. They then calculate the MEAT score at both the individual MPA and consolidated levels.
• For KPIs 4 (Number of Jobs) and KPI 5 (People supported), verification involves reviewing the MPA personnel registry, RPB records, field reports, and training documentation to confirm and certify the reported results.
• If blue carbon credits are issued, KPI 6 will be verified by independent external experts.

The RPBs will also enhance climate resilience through carbon sequestration in 1,000 hectares of regenerated seagrass and mangrove habitats.

Supporting local communities

The portfolio of RPBs is expected to generate the following aggregated direct positive impacts on people.

• Job creation: Direct positions and sustainable revenues will be created for 120 people, with a focus on empowering women and marginalized groups.
• Livelihood Enhancement: Sustainable income opportunities for 1,500 coastal household members, contributing to poverty alleviation and long-term economic stability in remote communities.
• Community Empowerment: Comprehensive training programs for local producer groups, ensuring long-term sustainability, entrepreneurial capacity, and inclusive participation in the Blue Economy.

In addition, the large MPAs will have the following impacts on people:

• Reducing poverty (SDG 1) by increasing sustainable fisheries production and provision of protein and incomes in traditional and non-traditional areas;
• Achieving gender equality (SDG 5) via the promotion of jobs and training with a specific focus on women and girls;
• Benefits of local job creation in MPAs as part of the teams in management, compliance, community development, resource management and science (SDG 8).

Scaling and replicating the model

The Blue Alliance model demonstrates that marine conservation and economic development can work in parallel. The model is scalable and Blue Alliance has identified a pipeline of large MPAs with blue economy potential. Work is in progress to expand to 9,000,000 hectares MPAs in the 3 countries with a second cohort of RPBs by 2030. Blue Alliance is developing a partnership strategy to upscale the model to an ambitious target of 70,000,000 hectares by 2050, providing a long-term solution for 25% of world’s coral reef and directly benefitting more than 3 million people in local communities. Its success hinges on the appropriate delegation of management and the establishment of strong partnerships with governments – which is also this model’s greatest challenge. To manage MPAs effectively, Blue Alliance must secure co-management agreements with the government. However, this process is often complex and time-consuming, due to variations in regional governance structures, required legal frameworks, limited trust and the risk of political change. As a result, Blue Alliance has decided to focus its efforts on a small number of countries where it has existing relationships and management agreements in place, rather than expanding into new geographies. Securing the right mix of donors and investors is also essential for establishing and scaling the model. Securing a donor like the GFCR was foundational for the model’s success. This donor funding mitigated risk to the impact investors while also providing critical funding for MPA management costs during the early years, before the RPBs became sufficiently profitable. While the model currently focuses on marine ecosystems, there is potential for it to be replicated in terrestrial protected areas or intact forests. Terrestrial protected areas, similar to MPAs, are legally designated to protect and conserve biodiversity, rely on and require clear management plans and enforcement mechanisms.

Key lessons learned

• The success of this model is underpinned by government support and developing the right public-private partnership. To ensure they are fit-for-purpose, the agreements must be co-designed, long-term and have clear roles and responsibilities outlined from the beginning to ensure accountability and effective co-management. Building trust and aligning with government policy enables a better working relationship between public and private sector.
• The finance facility offered a relatively streamlined investment process, as investors only provide one loan to the facility, rather than small individual loans to separate businesses. Aggregating finance into one facility sufficiently de-risks the project.
• Having a central organisation such as Blue Alliance that owns the RPBs is essential for the models success as it reduces shareholder risks and ensures that the dividends they generate flow towards marine conservation.

Updated as of August 2025

Interview with Nicolas Pascal, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Blue Alliance

[1] Protected Planet (2025). Marine Protected Areas

[2] Appeltans W et al (2024) State of the Ocean Report 2024

[3] Global Funds for Coral Reefs (2025)  Bridging the Marine Protected Areas funding gap in the Philippines, Tanzania, and Indonesia: blue finance blended vehicle

[4] Blue Alliance (2024) Annual Report 2024

[5] Global Fund for Coral Reefs (2025) Bridging the Marine Protected Areas funding gap in the Philippines, Tanzania, and Indonesia: blue finance blended vehicle