Blue Ventures

Description

Blue Ventures is a marine conservation charity that supports coastal communities to restore oceans and fisheries.

It was co-founded in 2003 by Alasdair Harris, Matthew Linnecar, Robert Conway and Tom Savage, and its work began in Madagascar that same year. It consists of two entities, Blue Ventures Expeditions and Blue Ventures Conservation, the latter a registered charity in England and Wales. Its approach is to link communities and local partner organisations with the funding, knowledge and legal rights they need to manage their own marine resources.

Its main tools are community-led fisheries management, locally managed marine areas, community-owned data systems, and advocacy for the rights of small-scale fishers. It pioneered the locally managed marine area concept in Madagascar in 2006 and convenes the Transform Bottom Trawling Coalition, a global movement against destructive industrial fishing. It also supports community health programmes in remote coastal areas where government health services are limited.

Blue Ventures works with communities and partner organisations across the coastal tropics, including in Madagascar, Belize, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Tanzania, Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia, and several West African countries such as Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde. It is headquartered in London, with additional offices and field programmes in the countries where it works.