2025
Community-powered change
Dear Friends
A year ago, I wrote to you about listening and learning. Today, I write about what I've heard – and what we must do together.
The ocean connects all life. From the reefs where fish spawn, to the mangroves that shelter coastlines. From the fisheries that feed communities, to the families whose futures depend on them.
These connections sustain every life on Earth.
Right now, they're breaking. Climate change is unravelling the delicate web we all depend on. The biodiversity and climate crises aren't distant threats – they're daily realities for the coastal communities I've visited across the Western Indian Ocean, West Africa and Asia.
But communities are uniting to restore the oceans that sustain us all. Small-scale fishers – the hundred million who feed a billion – are monitoring fish populations, negotiating with governments and adapting to climate threats. Their knowledge is rooted in place, alive with generations of experience.
With the right support, their efforts can rebuild fisheries, restore ocean life, and secure sustainable livelihoods for generations to come. This is what we call "community-powered change". Led by those with the most at stake.
Urgent. Connected. Unstoppable.
Our work is grounded in a simple but potent belief: that the power to restore our oceans lives in coastal communities – and we are catalysing a global network of local action.
By 2030, we want to see more communities enabled to lead fisheries management and marine conservation. We want to see increased food security and economic resilience, and a greater breadth of coastal seas brought under effective local stewardship – with civil society organisations bolstered by funding, training and advocacy.
This year, we've continued strengthening our foundations to better serve them.
We've sharpened our focus, investing in the people, systems, and strategies that will allow us to deliver our ambitious 2030 Strategy. We've built resilience – in the communities we serve and in BV itself – because lasting impact requires both boldness and sustainability.
I'm immensely proud of what we have achieved so far, and I look ahead with determination. Delivering our vision will require courage in our decision-making and renewed commitment to impact, scale, and excellence.
We can only succeed with you. Thank you to our dedicated partners, funders, colleagues, and the coastal fishing communities we serve, for your unwavering trust and belief in our mission.
I look forward to the journey ahead, and all that we will accomplish together.
Ebrima Saidy
CEO
SECURING COMMUNITY RIGHTS IN TANZANIA THROUGH STRENGTHENED NETWORKS
JANUARY 2025
The Kilwa Beach Management Unit (BMU) Network – over 4,000 fishers – coordinated awareness campaigns, community patrols, elections, and institutional strengthening across 29 BMUs, directly engaging 784 people, 60% of them women. Joint patrols with fisheries officers and police have reduced illegal fishing and encouraged hundreds of fishers to register or renew licenses.
VELONDRIAKE RECOGNISED IN UN GLOBAL REPORT ON OCEAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS
FEBRUARY 2025
Velondriake represents one of the most extensive community-led marine-conservation networks in the Western Indian Ocean – as reported this year by the UN. The success of Velondriake’s community-led data collection and fisheries management has inspired hundreds of similar initiatives across Madagascar, collectively covering a fifth of the country's inshore seabed – far exceeding government-protected areas.
FINANCING THE FRONTLINE: BV’s FIRST REGIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL SETS SAIL IN INDONESIA
MARCH 2025
This year, we took a significant leap towards our 2030 vision with the launch of Blue Ventures’ first Regional Advisory Council in Indonesia. Rooted in community-driven, grassroots decision making for coastal marine management, this initiative strengthens our commitment to impactful community-led conservation efforts globally – a model for safeguarding our oceans, and securing a sustainable future.
EARTHNA PRIZE: REBUILDING TROPICAL FISHERIES WITH COASTAL COMMUNITIES
APRIL 2025
This year, we were honoured to be named as Earthna Prize Winners – in recognition of the profound value that traditional knowledge holds in achieving sustainability. The nomination acknowledges our commitment to small-scale fishers and coastal communities across the tropics, and our pioneering LMMA work.
REVIVING EAST AFRICA'S FISHERIES WITH COMMUNITY-LED ACTION
Along Kenya and Tanzania's coastlines, community patrols ensure sustainable fishing practices. In Kisiju, the BMU is gaining recognition for its efforts to combat illegal fishing and restore mangroves, replanting over 1,500 seedlings to protect the ecosystems that sustain local livelihoods.
NO OCEAN JUSTICE WITHOUT COASTAL COMMUNITIES
MAY 2025
This year, Blue Ventures brought a delegation of small-scale fishers from across the coastal tropics to the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Our advocacy work highlighted the urgent need for governments to uphold commitments to small-scale fisheries, protecting coastal life in and out of the water.
GHANA COMMITS TO EXCLUDE DESTRUCTIVE INDUSTRIAL FISHING FROM COASTAL WATERS
JUNE 2025
In a major victory for small-scale fishers and coastal communities, Ghana's Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture announced at UNOC3 the country's commitment to extend its inshore exclusion zone from six to 12 nautical miles – a victory galvanised by the Transform Bottom Trawling Coalition.
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INDONESIA AND MADAGASCAR LEAD THE CHARGE FOR MANGROVES
JULY 2025
Despite their importance, global mangrove loss rates are 3-5 times greater than other forests. Not so in Madagascar’s Bay of Assassins, where community-led restoration has driven remarkable changes in fortune. Through the Tahiry Honko project, mangrove cover is now increasing 1.08% annually where it was previously declining by 4.14% each year.
SEE ALSO:
SECURING COASTAL FOOD SYSTEMS IN TIMOR-LESTE, ONE BITE AT A TIME
AUGUST 2025
In Ilimano, a group of women has transformed local catches into handmade fish balls – reviving their food supply, nourishing their community, and strengthening the local economy. Supported by Blue Ventures' Financial Inclusion Programme, women-led groups showcased their innovation at Ocean Fair 2025 in Dili, where their rare locally-made fish balls captured national attention from the Prime Minister.
CLIMATE FINANCE MUST REACH FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES: AFRICA CLIMATE SUMMIT
SEPTEMBER 2025
Despite billions pledged for climate action annually, less than 1% reaches the Indigenous Peoples and local communities protecting much of our planet's biodiversity. At the second Africa Climate Summit, the message across the Pavilion was clear: frontline communities already know what works. What they need now is trust, recognition, and direct, flexible, and long-term funding.
DATA SOVEREIGNTY TRANSFORMS COASTAL FISHERIES IN MADAGASCAR
OCTOBER 2025
This year, 19 villages north of Toliara marked the reopening of their temporary octopus reserves with celebrations – over three days, more than 15,800 fishers harvested 17,253 kg of octopus, with prices doubling from the previous year. Behind this success lies a growing data infrastructure designed with and for communities: 48 trained data collectors now operate autonomously in the southwest, using mobile tools that feed into secure dashboards in local languages, providing near real-time insights.
SEE ALSO:
MARINE CONSERVATION MUST BEGIN ON LAND
NOVEMBER 2025
Without secure land tenure, the "community" in community-based management ceases to exist – so writes Dr Daniel Aguirre, our Global Head of Secure Rights. This year, Blue Ventures has supported communities to engage with governments to recognise their customary land rights and embedding tenure safeguards into policies – ensuring communities maintain their rights to manage their own coastal resources.
A CALL TO GOVERNMENTS: PROTECT MARINE ENVIRONMENTS BY SUPPORTING SMALL-SCALE FISHING
The key to protecting our oceans lies in empowering those who have long stewarded them. Small-scale fisheries remain among the most energy-efficient food production systems, supporting one in every 12 globally. Alongside the Transform Bottom Trawling Coalition, this year we have continued to champion IEZs and LMMAs as powerful examples of what’s possible when governments listen to, and learn from, coastal communities.
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF FOOD SECURITY IN BELIZE
DECEMBER 2025
This year in Belize, Blue Ventures launched the Food Security Forum, placing seafood at the center of national dialogue. The discussions highlighted seafood’s vital role in food systems, underscoring both its nutritional promise, but also the urgent need for supportive policies that ensure communities can fully benefit from its value.
BLUE FORESTS: IMPROVING THE LIVELIHOODS AND HEALTH OF COASTAL COMMUNITIES IN MADAGASCAR AND INDONESIA
The 8-year Blue Forests programme (2017–2024), with Blue Ventures supported by the UK DEFRA, contributed to the protection and restoration of vital mangrove ecosystems in Madagascar and Indonesia. This work led to the removal or avoidance of over five million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and over 78,500 hectares of mangrove forest under local management – a seismic achievement, and one which shows firmly in action the continued success of our ‘Community First’ approach.
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