GFCR Regional Webinar Series

The GFCR Regional Webinar Series will showcase results, lessons learned, and emerging opportunities from the Global Fund for Coral Reefs portfolio across the Western Indian Ocean, Americas, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Through regional presentations and partner panel discussions, the series will highlight practical insights on reef-positive finance, coral reef resilience, and benefits for coastal communities.

Register for the sessions:

Latin America and the Caribbean Session — Addressing overfishing through blended finance

10 June 2026, 11:00 EDT

Asia and Pacific Islands Session — Financing reef-positive businesses

24 June 2026, 14:00 KST / 23 June 2026, 22:00 PDT

Past Sessions:

Indian Ocean Session — Finance mechanisms for MPA management

3 June 2026, 11:00 EAT

🎥 Recording

Additional Q&A Responses

How do you explain reef-positive to investors or donors? we've got feedback that the term is not familiar for them

Nicolas: You need to approach the investors with a classic information memorandum presenting the business model, the team, the risks, the financials.. . the impact / reef-positive aspect shall be only 10% of it, in an impact chapter.

One challenge we are encountering in Sri Lanka is that many reef-positive businesses and community enterprises require relatively modest amounts of capital, while many blue finance instruments such as blue bonds tend to operate at much larger ticket sizes. Have you found successful mechanisms for bridging this financing gap and supporting smaller community-led enterprises? Are there any models or lessons learned you would recommend?

Nicolas: One solution is to aggregate several businesses in a facility. This simplifies the investment process, lowers transaction costs, and creates efficiency and economies of scale. Further, it reduces the investment risk through diversification across revenue models and MPA projects, improves the quality of project design and execution, and helps investors to transparently monitor their impacts.

Hee Sung: The Blue Bond in Fiji is a great example of this. In Fiji, when the Government launched its sovereign blue bond in 2023, it sized the issuance to match a pipeline of identified projects. The bond was ultimately oversubscribed by domestic institutional investors.

At the same time, the Government recognised that many blue economy enterprises were too small or lacked sufficient collateral to access conventional lending. One of the projects initially considered for financing through the blue bond was a dedicated facility with the Fiji Development Bank that would provide concessional finance or grant support to help address the collateral and equity gap faced by smaller enterprises. While this component was ultimately deferred to a potential second bond issuance.

To Nicolas’s point, the Fiji experience shows that these blue finance instruments often need an intermediary layer - such as the development bank in Fiji’s case or Blue Alliance’s financing arm - to aggregate demand and reach smaller enterprises.

The Seychelles Blue Bond also established the Blue Grants Fund, managed by SeyCCAT.

Summary

The first session of the GFCR regional webinar series focused on the Indian Ocean and Red Sea region, exploring how different financing mechanisms can support marine protected area management, reef-positive enterprise development, and long-term conservation outcomes. The discussion highlighted experiences from Sri Lanka, Egypt, Tanzania/Pemba, and Seychelles, with a focus on conservation trust funds, blended finance platforms, blue enterprise models, debt-for-nature mechanisms, and private sector engagement.

Andrew Rylance opened the session by framing the webinar series as an opportunity to examine what is working across the GFCR portfolio, then Gabriel Grimsditch then provided an overview of GFCR’s global and regional implementation progress, highlighting emerging progress across several programmes.

Panel Discussion

Shamen Vidanage — IUCN Sri Lanka

• Shamen explained that Sri Lanka’s approach under the GFCR-supported Sri Lanka Coral Reef Initiative is shifting from a narrow protected area focus toward larger seascape-level management. This allows government agencies, NGOs, local communities, and other stakeholders to collaborate around marine protected areas and address broader pressures affecting reef ecosystems.
• He noted that Sri Lanka does not yet have precise figures for MPA financing needs, but based on national biodiversity finance gap estimates, the marine financing gap may be around US$30 million. For the GFCR focus areas, which cover around 20% of this marine area, the estimated financing gap is approximately US$1.5 million per year.
• A major milestone is the establishment of the Coral Conservation for Lives and Livelihoods Conservation Trust Fund, created as a charitable trust under Sri Lankan law. The fund is designed to provide an independent, transparent, accountable, and flexible financing mechanism for marine protected areas. GFCR is providing US$321,000 in seed capital, with the intention that future funding will come from local and international partners, reef-positive businesses, and innovative financing mechanisms.
• Shamen emphasized that the fund will help bridge financing gaps by supporting interventions identified through seascape management plans. Although the process took time because Sri Lanka had not previously had this type of mechanism, he described it as a strong and credible platform for coordinated marine conservation finance.

Yomna Mohamed — UNDP Egypt / Egyptian Red Sea Initiative

• Yomna described Egypt’s reef and MPA financing gap as multi-layered. The first layer is the recurrent cost of effective protected area management, including ecological monitoring, ranger capacity, enforcement support, and operational budgets. These are essential for reef protection but are not usually commercially attractive.
• The second layer is the cost of transition toward reef-positive development, especially in the tourism sector. Many operators may be willing to shift practices but lack the capacity, financing, or incentive to invest alone, particularly where collective action is needed.
• The third layer is the investment pipeline. While there is growing interest in the blue economy and nature-based solutions, many businesses are not yet investment-ready or do not have access to the right financing instruments.
• Yomna explained that the Egyptian Fund for Coral Reefs is being designed not as a single pot of money, but as a blended finance platform able to respond to different needs: grant-like support for conservation priorities, and more commercial finance for bankable reef-positive solutions. She stressed that the fund is not only about mobilizing money; it is also about solving a coordination challenge by connecting public sector stewardship, protected area priorities, donor finance, and investable opportunities.
• On private sector engagement, Yomna emphasized that businesses should be seen both as co-investors in conservation and as actors whose long-term commercial strategies depend on healthy coral reefs. She also noted that Egypt’s Red Sea tourism landscape is diverse, so incentives and cooperation models need to be customized depending on whether areas are already overcrowded, at risk of future degradation, or linked to specific “house reefs” and shared reef assets.

Nicolas Pascal — Blue Alliance

• Nicolas presented the Blue Alliance model, which combines two distinct but connected arms: a non-profit arm that manages large MPAs through long-term government mandates, and a business arm that develops reef-positive enterprises around or within those MPAs. He explained that Blue Alliance created this separation because conservation management and enterprise development require different skills, mindsets, teams, and operating models.
• Blue Alliance’s model focuses on developing blue economy businesses in sectors such as aquaculture, fisheries, tourism, and potentially blue carbon. These are intended to be “missing middle” enterprises, not small livelihood projects or large corporations, but businesses capable of generating US$2–4 million in annual revenue, creating jobs, and eventually contributing profits back into MPA management.
• In Pemba, Blue Alliance is developing a portfolio of reef-positive businesses, including sea cucumber aquaculture, underwater tourism, eco-cruise opportunities, octopus fisheries, and blue carbon opportunities. Nicolas noted that Blue Alliance has already mobilized debt financing, refundable grants, and grants through a blended finance structure of around US$6 million, with an ambition to grow this to US$12 million.
• He pointed to Belize as a proof point, where an ecotourism business helped generate around 60% of the annual budget for an MPA after several years. He also stressed the importance of independently verified impacts on nature, people, and climate to build credibility with investors and donors.
• On enabling conditions, Nicolas said Blue Alliance uses a detailed selection process for MPAs, considering ecological criteria, threats that can realistically be addressed, governance conditions, the possibility of long-term public-private partnership agreements, local NGO and community support, and business potential in sectors such as aquaculture, tourism, and fisheries.
• When asked about attracting private investors, Nicolas emphasized that investors require financial returns, even if they are impact-first. To attract private capital, projects need bankable business models, credible teams, a track record, and the ability to speak the language of investors.

Helena Sims — Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust

• Helena described the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust as a globally recognized model because it combines innovative finance, strong governance, national ownership, and alignment with policy priorities. She emphasized that SeyCCAT is not just a funding mechanism, but a system linking debt restructuring, conservation commitments, and local implementation.
• SeyCCAT was capitalized through the world’s first debt restructuring for marine conservation in 2016, which converted part of Seychelles’ debt into long-term financing for marine conservation. This created predictable, multi-year funding that is not dependent solely on short-term donor cycles. The mechanism was linked to national policy commitments, including Seychelles’ 30% marine protection goal and marine spatial planning process.
• Helena also highlighted SeyCCAT’s role in managing the grant component of the Seychelles sovereign blue bond, issued in 2018. She explained that SeyCCAT’s effectiveness comes from its independent trust structure, standalone legislation, national anchoring, Seychellois-led board, and multi-stakeholder governance. This balance provides credibility with donors while maintaining national legitimacy and ownership.
• SeyCCAT uses both strategic grants aligned with national policy commitments and competitive grants accessible to local communities, NGOs, individuals, and government entities. This has helped build local conservation capacity and support implementation on the ground.
• Looking ahead, Helena said Seychelles is moving from pioneering individual instruments, such as the debt swap and blue bond, toward a broader blue finance architecture. Future priorities may include layering parametric insurance, carbon and biodiversity markets, blended finance, and endowment growth around national priorities, including the marine spatial plan, 30% protection goal, and NDCs.
• During the Q&A, Helena also emphasized that any external business, NGO, or research organization seeking to work in Seychelles must understand the national context and partner with strong local entities. In Seychelles, international actors are generally expected to work through or with local NGOs, especially for implementation, research, and MPA-related activities.

The webinar highlighted several shared lessons across the region. First, sustainable MPA finance requires more than a funding mechanism; it depends on governance, legal structures, national ownership, institutional credibility, and alignment with conservation priorities. Second, reef-positive businesses can contribute to MPA sustainability, but only where business models are genuinely viable and linked intentionally to conservation finance. Third, private investors require bankable opportunities, clear returns, and credible teams, while many conservation needs still require grant or concessional support. Finally, locally grounded partnerships are essential: finance mechanisms and enterprise models must be adapted to national contexts, community needs, and policy frameworks.