At The Nature Conservancy, we are committed to ensuring that conservation remains an indispensable partner in ocean development—in the spirit of protecting people and nature. The ocean represents an estimated $1.5 trillion in global value added, yearly. Economies globally depend on a healthy ocean—from large-scale fisheries to subsistence fishermen; from international luxury hotel chains to the 3 billion people dependent on seafood as their primary source of protein. Beyond these critical economic contributions, there is deep value in the cultural, spiritual, and scientific benefits of the ocean—a crucial, intrinsic value which we cannot quantify.

With this incredible potential in mind, we are contributing our scientific and financial know-how to enabling informed, data-driven and measurable decision making across our regional projects, our partnerships, and our policy work worldwide. We all depend on the ocean, and are collectively responsible for its well-being — understanding its value, and thus the cost of inaction, is crucial to ensure we treat the ocean like any other asset we depend on.

Please visit the Global Oceans website to learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s work in the oceans:

Global Fisheries
Coasts and Communities
Understanding Ocean Benefits
Coral Reefs

Partners and Collaborators

Partnerships and collaborations are extremely important to The Nature Conservancy. Marine spatial planning requires coordination and cooperation across government agencies, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, stakeholders, local communities and experts.  We build lasting relationships to ensure that together we can all make the right decisions for nature and people. The organizations on this page reflect marine spatial planning colleagues within our community of practice. The partners and funders for specific TNC projects can be found on individual project pages.