BRIGHTER FUTURE Marine life will benefit from the Blue Bond system ADOBE STOCK 66 NetJets
Out on the water, this means balancing the requirements of fishing communities and tourism businesses with the urgent need to conserve mangrove forests and reefs. Money that would have disappeared in interest payments can now be put to work finding ways to protect a mini-paradise like the remote, jewel-like atoll Glover’s Reef, home to a tapestry of some 800 coral gardens. At present there are just six Fisheries Department staff here doing their best to tackle unlawful fishing in a marine reserve that stretches for 32km. “Anyone caught is fined and has their boat and nets confiscated,” says manager Raphael Martinez, but his resources are extremely limited. On the more accessible and larger Turneffe Atoll radar is now being used to monitor its pristine waters, a measure that will hopefully be implemented here too. Support from larger, wealthier nations is clearly essential, and the Blue Bond offers some hope for our beleaguered oceans and their far-flung settlements. The first such debt swap was launched in the Seychelles in 2015 when the Indian Ocean archipelago refinanced m of borrowing in exchange for protecting 30% of its waters, a measure fulfilled in 2020. The initiative has since spread to the Caribbean where in September 2022 Barbados completed a 0m Blue Bond debt conversion that will provide m of funding and see its marine protected areas expand from virtually zero to approximately 30%. In May, Ecuador signed the largest “debt for nature” swap on record, worth 6m, that will see at least m a year channelled into conservation including help to protect the exceptional wildlife and landscapes of the Galápagos. The Nature Conservancy has identified 20 countries that could benefit from the Blue Bond initiative and has a declared goal of seeing more than 10% of the world’s oceans under protection by 2030. While government debt negotiations are kept secret until confirmed, islands in the South Pacific could well be next in line. Fiji’s Blue Accelerator Grant Scheme, which is backed by the United Nations Development Programme, is already funding projects that support its blue economy such as the introduction of electrically powered boats, sustainable prawn farms and the country’s first mangrove eco-walk. Others in Fiji have not waited for governments, institutional investors and philanthropists to rescue our imperiled seas by juggling financial figures. On Vanua Levu, veteran French oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau has been involved for many years with an eponymous eco-resort that is a shining model of sustainability. Here education is seen as a vital way forward that is manifest in a kids’ club featuring a School Under the Sea where children are taught about the importance of sharks, go night snorkelling, and plant mangrove seedlings. Its resident marine biologist, Johnny Singh, sums up the situation bluntly: “We’re a small country and if we lose all this we’re gone.” As the 85-year-old Cousteau puts it: “Protect the ocean and you protect yourself.” nature.org OUR WORLD REDUCING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT In 2015, NetJets launched Blue Skies By NetJets ® to offer our Owners a more environmentally friendly way to fly. Participating Owners can purchase an equivalent number of carbon offsets to the carbon footprint of their annual flight hours – calculated by multiplying the carbon offset hourly rate for their aircraft type by total share size. Because of our partnership with Climate Impact Partners, Blue Skies ® contributions go directly toward supporting global projects that protect forests, capture and destroy landfill gas, and scale up renewable energy distribution, to name a few benefits. NetJets 67
