Ocean Assist
The Ocean Assist reinvestment fund coming soon to the superyacht industry
Providing a return on the industry’s landmark investment in ocean conservation.
There is growing recognition that the future of yachting is threatened by the sheer scale of loss in the marine environment – but it is not only leisure boating industries that are imperilled by a degraded ocean, it is humanity itself.
Ocean Assist is Water Revolution Foundation’s investment mechanism for ocean conservation that promotes a new path to nurturing ocean – and human – vitality. We now know more than ever about the benefits and values that the ocean delivers, even as these values are increasingly at risk. The variety and scale of challenges is increasing each year, and while good progress has been made to recognise the need to protect the ocean, we must now engage new, powerful actors to adapt to nature’s needs and support core ecosystems.
By prioritising projects and adopting scientific tools that are urgently needed to protect the oceans, the superyacht community can maximise financial and non-financial resources to support nature-based solutions and aid the global effort to mitigate ecological impacts.
This collective approach, which includes coordination, shared structural commitment, and guidance by leading scientists in the field, will enable the yachting community to support conservation actions, utilise their fleet as a force for positive change, implement sustainable practices, promote innovative ocean zoning policy, and as such become true ocean stewards.
Ocean Assist Fund
Through the Ocean Assist Fund’s process, appropriate criteria will be used to select marine conservation and restoration projects to allocate funds granted by the yachting community, ensuring that support goes to the most urgent needs. An independent scientific advisory board composed of renowned ocean scientists will identify the projects to receive periodic investments that have maximum impact in preserving the oceans, track progress, and feed the results back to the yachting community via Water Revolution Foundation for accountability, adoption and implementation to align yachting with nature, and as such lead by example.
By investing in ocean conservation through this programme, the superyacht community can act as a significant force to solve ocean problems and make a positive collective impact, not only for themselves but for the planet as a whole.
Three-pronged approach
Ocean Assist will raise awareness and commitment within the yachting community, inspiring other (maritime) sectors to follow our lead in adopting sustainable practices & serious investments for ocean conservation.
Through a structured approach, we will transform financial support for ocean conservation into a business proposition & an investment in the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants.
Our program aims at spearheading a new age of regenerative development in the yachting sector. We will achieve this by harnessing blue carbon finance initiatives and the latest advancements in ocean science to not just conserve but also revive our invaluable marine ecosystems.
Why Ocean Assist?
Our shared responsibility
How to structure commitment
What’s next?
Leading industry members and esteemed ocean conservation scientists gathered this past May in Hamburg to discuss the way forward for safeguarding the health of our precious seas. The outcome: a mandate from the industry to commit to sector-wide, structural reinvestment in our oceans in addition to mitigation. We are now committed to finalising our strategy with the industry, after which the Ocean Assist Fund will be launched and specific projects selected through the aforementioned competitive bidding process.
The IMMA programme is a valuable demonstration of what will follow for future projects by Ocean Assist. As an existing initiative of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Task Force on Marine Mammal Protected Areas, IMMA identifies key areas of the ocean that are important to marine mammals and show potential to be managed for conservation. Having almost reached our target of €275,000 for the North-East Atlantic, we encourage you to make a contribution today to help us reach the remaining amount needed before moving onto the North-West Atlantic in 2024.
Eager to be kept informed as we finalise the development of Ocean Assist and begin to implement structural reinvestment for the yachting community to make a collective commitment to ocean conservation?