We Listened to Ocean Leaders Protecting their Coastlines. Here are Three Things They Told Us.

In 2022, something extraordinary happened.

For the first time in human history, over 190 countries came together around a single, shared goal: to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030. Known as 30×30, this landmark commitment—adopted under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—offered a roadmap to restore the natural systems that sustain all life on Earth.

It was a moment of exhilarating and wise global alignment. A recognition that without nature, there is no prosperity. No economy. No us.

But behind that optimism was a sobering reality.

At the time of the agreement, only around 3% of the ocean was fully protected. While the science is clear, and effective marine protection works, the path to scaling remained uncertain.

The question wasn’t whether we could revive the ocean.

It was how we could do it—fast enough, and effectively, at scale.

Making the Business Case for Nature: Dynamic Planet

The story of Revive Our Ocean began long before we launched last April 2025.

In 2012, Kristin Rechberger founded Dynamic Planet with a simple question but grand challenge to traditional markets: could we build economies that restore nature, rather than deplete it? At the time, this idea was often met with skepticism. Could conservation and economic growth truly go hand in hand?

Over the next decade, Dynamic Planet worked across landscapes and seascapes, partnering with governments, financial institutions, NGOs, and local communities to put this question to practice in effort to develop ‘conservation economies.’

Time and again, when intentionally designed and applied effectively, the answer was yes.

From protected landscapes in Africa to marine reserves around the world, a pattern began to emerge. When nature is restored, it creates value: ecological, social, and economic.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the ocean.

Through a long-standing collaboration with Revive Our Ocean’s co-founder, National Geographic’s Pristine Seas, Kristin Rechberger—CEO of Dynamic Planet and Founder of Revive Our Ocean—helped build one of the most ambitious marine conservation efforts in history. Since its founding in 2008, Pristine Seas has conducted 50 expeditions to date and helped establish 33 of the world’s largest marine protected areas (MPAs)—from Chile to Palau to the Arctic.

Pristine Seas was invited by governments and worked with communities to support their 30% ocean protection commitment: Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Azores (Portugal), UK Overseas Territories, Seychelles, Palau, and Niue. They demonstrated that large-scale protection is possible and that marine life rebounds quickly, replenishing the areas inside reserves and beyond with a triple win for tourism, fishing, and climate mitigation. And Dynamic Planet’s job was to help explore, align and secure sustainable financing for some of these places until, ideally, they might be abundant and well-managed enough to pay for themselves. 

But they also revealed something else.

Coastal waters, where most people live and depend on the ocean for food and livelihoods, and where the majority of ocean biodiversity lives, remained largely fragmented, small, and unprotected.

If 30×30 was to be achieved, it would also depend on a great number of effective coastal reserves and those communities who rely on the sea to help create and implement them.

Engaging Those Who Know Best

A single question kept emerging: if marine protection is so effective—if it restores fish populations, strengthens ecosystems, and improves livelihoods, why hasn’t it scaled?

The team at Dynamic Planet behind Revive Our Ocean was eager to find out if we could combine our experience of what worked for MPA creation and implementation closer to shore—and contacted those known for creating the most successful coastal MPAs. We discussed their origin stories, current needs, and how they would scale to 30×30 in their countries. It was interesting to hear that each MPA had originated by a passionate and dedicated community organizer—a fisher, environmentalist, local administrator—some community champion who knew marine life was worth far more alive in the long run than dead in the short term and wanted to fight for the long run.

Over the course of 2023, Dynamic Planet conducted interviews with more than 30 leaders managing successful coastal MPAs across 10 countries; steadfast and solution-focused practitioners who had already proven that marine protection works to replenish marine life—boosting tourism inside reserves and fishing around reserves—succeeding often against great odds.

Despite vastly different geographies and cultures, their answers converged and informed the mandate for Revive Our Ocean.

What Coastal Leaders Told Us

Three clear barriers emerged, repeated across regions, contexts, and cultures:

1. Awareness is still too low

Many communities and decision-makers simply don’t know the benefits that effective MPAs deliver. They don’t see them as tools for abundance and coastal prosperity, only as restrictions and limitations.

2. Policy doesn’t enable local leadership

Even when communities want to act, governance frameworks often prevent them from creating and managing their own MPAs.

3. The business model is broken

Most MPAs are not designed to sustain themselves financially. Yet the evidence shows they can generate significant economic returns, through tourism, fisheries recovery, and more.

These weren’t abstract challenges. They were practical, solvable barriers.

They pointed to a deeper insight: scaling marine protection isn’t just about conservation. It’s about designing systems that work for local people and economies, where local beneficiaries can reinvest back into the ecological system that directly supports their business.

A New Model Emerges

From these insights, a new approach took shape.

Revive Our Ocean was born not as a single organization, but as a shared initiative, a model designed to bring together the best of what already works and help it spread.

At its core is a simple principle that has been proven again and again—from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.

When coastal waters are protected, marine life returns. When marine life returns, local communities benefit. And when communities benefit, they’ll be incentivized to protect it and steward it in the long run—especially if there is localized economic gain. 

Our vision is for every coastal town to have its own MPA, bringing marine life back, directly supporting tourism and fishing, and the local people who depend on it. 

Our mission is to help coastal communities create or improve marine protected areas as local regenerative businesses.

The opportunity is clear. The challenge is scaling it. And fast. Dynamic Planet published a study where we found that we need almost 190,000 coastal MPAs to achieve 30×30. With only five years to 2030, the world demands a new model for coastal prosperity, and our strategy is two-fold: create new, effective coastal MPAs that benefit marine life, people, the economy, and our climate; improve existing MPAs by ending destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling within their boundaries.

Inspire. Enable. Equip.

To address the barriers identified, Revive Our Ocean is built around three pillars:

Inspire

As co-producers of Ocean with David Attenborough and other films promoting the benefits of effective marine protection for businesses including fishing and tourism, we are committed to creating media that inspires action.