UK’s Blue Planet Fund announces £2.2m boost to ORRAA to replicate and scale innovative ocean finance solutions in the global south.
- Six finance and insurance initiatives from impact bonds for small-scale fishers to blue carbon credits and parametric insurance were announced at the Our Ocean Conference
- Backed by the UK’s Blue Planet Fund through the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), the selected initiatives will drive investment into coastal communities and the Ocean
- ORRAA supports the development of innovative finance and insurance products that build coastal community resilience across the Global South
At the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, the UK’s Blue Planet Fund has announced a major new funding commitment to replicate and scale six innovative finance and insurance projects designed to build coastal resilience through the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA).
A combined total of £2.2 million will be split between the initiatives. Having already established proven pilots, they will use the new funds to scale up their solutions, turning risk into resilience and opportunity.
Together, these projects contribute to ORRAA’s overarching mission to activate at least $500 million of investment, through finance and insurance products, to build the resilience of 250 million climate-vulnerable coastal people in the Global South by 2030.
This takes the UK government’s total funding for ORRAA to £15.5 million, with direct grant support to 36 projects in 19 countries, already positively impacting more than 250,000 people.
Marine Minister Emma Hardy at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the UK Government said:
“Behind every statistic is a fishing community better protected from storms, a mangrove forest pulling carbon from the atmosphere, a family no longer at risk of losing their home to rising seas.
“ORRAA sits at the forefront of these efforts, and we are pleased to support this multi-sector alliance and their innovative projects, such as the development of marine biodiversity credits in Kenya.”
Karen Sack, Executive Director of ORRAA, said:
“The UK’s Blue Planet Fund has been instrumental in supporting ORRAA’s work in developing an investable finance and insurance product pipeline that supports the resilience of climate-vulnerable coastal communities in the Global South, and in building the Alliance. This latest wave of funding from DEFRA will be critical as we double down and scale up vital action for the health of the Ocean and the communities it supports.”
Among these pioneering initiatives are:
- The world’s first impact bond for small-scale fishers, led by Rare in Indonesia. Building on its pilot, Rare is scaling the impact bond to 15 additional sites across North Sulawesi, Maluku, and North Maluku.
- Weather index-based parametric insurance, developed by Rare, will design a parametric insurance product in Kenya for small-scale fishers to cover climate-related income loss. It builds on a proven model currently being implemented in the Philippines.
- A scalable blue carbon credit initiative in Tanzania, led by Action For Ocean (AFO), will bring the country’s first fully community-led mangrove blue carbon initiative to a credit-ready stage.
- Microinsurance and community-based financial tools, led by MarViva, will replicate its microinsurance model in Colombia, deploying community-based insurance solutions for small-scale fishing communities.
- Co-generated carbon and biodiversity credits, by the Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES) in Kenya, will advance the Vanga Seagrass Project, becoming the first seagrass programme certified under the Plan Vivo Nature standard.
- Blue carbon exchange in the Dominican Republic, where CI-Atabey will advance its mangrove carbon credits project toward investability.
Image: Small-scale fisheries Basurto and Gutierrez – photo by Luis Tato