Turning the Tide on Conservation after Our Ocean 2023

At Panama’s 2023 Our Ocean Conference, high-level government officials and senior leaders from conservation NGOs, philanthropic grantmakers and businesses finalized historic commitments to supporting ocean conservation and protection. The Moore Charitable Foundation (MCF) and its Panama affiliate, the Islas Secas Foundation, were proud to join the movement to protect the world’s oceans.

Among the commitments was the Connect to Protect Eastern Tropical Pacific Coalition, which pledged to distribute $118.5 million in private and public funds to assist ocean conservation efforts in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, including nearly $75 million towards supporting new and existing marine protected areas (MPAs).

The Shark Conservation Fund (SCF), a funder’s collaborative of which MCF is a member, announced government endorsements from Panama and Ecuador for its Shark Biodiversity Initiative and a ten-year, $100 million plan to protect ocean biodiversity through shark conservation. The plan will prioritize shark management within MPAs, including focusing efforts on protecting sharks from key threats, reducing overall mortality rates, and protecting habitats.

Led by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, the U.S. government announced $6 billion towards ocean health — doubling last year’s pledge. The funding will provide $610 million for sustainable fisheries, more than $64 million for sustainable blue economies, nearly $8 million towards MPAs, and more than $18 million for maritime security.

The Moore Charitable Foundation and the Islas Secas Foundation supported the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in ensuring a robust scientific component to the conference agenda, Global Fishing Watch’s promotion of technology and innovation to increase transparency and combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities in the world’s oceans, and Oceans 5 for its incredible support of myriad critical ocean conservation issues at Our Ocean 2023.

Our global ocean deserves ambitious commitments, which are possible when public and private sectors work together. We look forward to seeing the results of these pledges in the years to come.