Increasing Blue Investment

What is Blue Investment?

Blue Investment is an approach that brings together new and existing forms of public, private and blended finance to support the long-term health, resilience and sustainable use of Wales’ marine and coastal environment. 

The aim of this work is to strengthen investment to deliver key national objectives, including the restoration of Marine Protected Areas and the transformation of wider socio-economic systems in ways that support nature recovery and community wellbeing. 

Unlocking new sources of funding for nature is essential to bridge the gap between the public funding available and the work needed to protect, maintain, and enhance marine and coastal ecosystems and resilience.

The work of the Blue Investment Working Group

The purpose of the Working Group is to identify sources of existing and new funding and develop further long-term funding streams for marine and coastal resilience.

Its objectives are to: 

• Identify available funding streams to support marine resilience.
• Identify a pipeline of fundable projects.
• Support the development of monitoring and standards and disseminate knowledge to build capacity in Wales around sustainable blue investment.
• Establish a long-term Welsh marine enhancement fund.

The key area of work for this Group has been to develop the MARINE Fund Cymru.

Projects

MARINE Fund Cymru is a dedicated fund, managed by WCVA and developed through the Wales Coasts and Seas Partnership. The fund brings together voluntary contributions to support projects that enable, maintain and enhance the resilience of Wales’ marine and coastal ecosystems.