A woman working on a mangrove as part of the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) ZSL Northern Mozambique Project. Credit: Nuno Vasco Rodrigues
I’m Hannah Boyne. It has been my great pleasure to lead the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) Grants Programme, part of the Blue Planet Fund, for the last three years.
To date we have funded 34 programmes across 21 countries, delivering lasting change for both conservation and communities. Those projects have restored marine habitats and helped combat poverty by empowering communities.
Below are just a few examples of this innovative and transformative work.
Making waves from Myanmar to Mozambique: examples of OCEAN projects
Our work takes place in partnership with local communities, often in very difficult political and economic circumstances.
One such project is WAVES. This is OCEAN's flagship Myanmar partnership grant, working in a climate of intense political instability. The project aims to restore 5,000 hectares of mangroves and improve the livelihoods and climate resilience of around 40,000 people in the Ayeyarwady Delta.
Working with local communities to devise conservation plans, WAVES will promote sustainable farming and forest conservation, while helping to improve climate resilience, economic development, and conflict resolution processes.
A project in Mozambique is working alongside local partners and communities to establish a socio-ecological corridor of 20 locally-managed marine areas along Nampula province's 450km coastline, providing ecosystem services, sustaining biodiversity and supporting recovery of sites vulnerable to coral bleaching, all in an area of outstanding natural biodiversity.
Another example is The Blue Hispaniola project. It’s based on the premise that marine degradation and poverty are closely linked. Overfishing, mangrove loss, declining coral reefs, weak fisher organisations, limited market access, and gender inequality are driving both environmental decline and economic vulnerability.
The project therefore combines conservation and livelihood interventions rather than treating them separately. The work spans across Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the creation of a Blue Ocean Corridor, to ensure better conservation coordination across borders.
Aiming to directly benefit 8,000 people while restoring 92,250 hectares of marine ecosystems, it also seeks to empower women through business and leadership training, and the establishment of women-led enterprises.
A project in Tanzania is working with 500 octopus farming households and benefitting another 1,000 through ecotourism opportunities. The project seeks to improve co-management of marine resources to optimise octopus yields while mitigating illegal fishing practices and foster ecosystem recovery.
We’ve also funded smaller projects, that nonetheless could be lifechanging for those involved. One such project was for funding requested by the wives of a small cooperative of Indonesian fishermen.
Their plan was to purchase equipment that allowed them to process fish waste into protein products, developing their own branding to sell on the local market. It’s an innovative, profit-making solution to waste that would otherwise be dumped back into the environment.
The Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) programme supports the Matumbawe Hai project in TanzaniaWe’re building on our progress with another round of funding
After two successful open funding rounds, we are taking a more focused approach for OCEAN’s next round.
‘OCEAN Uplift’ will invest in existing grantees, whose projects are already showing potential to create lasting benefits for marine environments and the communities that depend on them.
We’re taking this approach because existing projects have already developed community relationships, delivery systems, partnerships and evidence.
Investing in those foundations gives us an opportunity to support additional impact more quickly, while learning more about what helps locally led marine conservation endure and grow.
We’ll be assessing projects based on their sustainability (how likely it is that the project’s impact will continue beyond its funding period) and scaling (its potential for greater impact).
The application window will run from 2 November 2026 to 11 January 2027, and only lead organisations of existing OCEAN grantees will be eligible to apply. They will be contacted directly.
What this means for future funding
We will not launch a new open call for applications this year. At this stage, we do not have further information to share about future funding rounds. We will publish updates on the OCEAN website and social media channels when more information becomes available.
Although I recognise that this will be disappointing for organisations hoping to apply to a new open round, it does not signal reduced ambition for OCEAN. Instead, this funding should unlock benefits for nature and communities more quickly than ever.
Staying true to OCEAN’s approach
From the outset, OCEAN has been about more than providing grants. We work closely with grantees throughout delivery, offering tailored support to help them respond to challenges, strengthen their capabilities and make the most of their funding.
Those relationships also help us understand the practical realities projects face. OCEAN Uplift builds on that knowledge by giving strong projects the chance to put their learning into action and work towards greater scale and sustainability.
I’m excited to see how grantees use this opportunity to strengthen what is already working and create benefits that last for people and the ocean.
seen at 14:32, 9 October in Environment.