Environment

Within globally important marine areas that are Walton Family Foundation priorities, we work with our grantees to create networks of effectively managed protected areas that conserve key biological features, and ensure the sustainable utilization of marine resources – especially fisheries – in order to benefit nature and people.

We have two strategies to achieve this goal.

1) Priority geographies: We want to ensure both conservation and sustainable management of important marine resources and critical habitats through a mix of protection and management strategies. Here are our goals for each of these areas:

• Bird’s Head Seascape (Indonesia)
  Establish a network of 10 ecologically connected marine protected areas with fisheries no-take zones covering 20 to 30 percent of the region’s critical marine habitats and species and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the MPA network through improved governance, management and financial sustainability.
• Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama)
  Establish a large, ecologically representative, well-managed and financed network of MPAs, and improve fisheries sustainability through the establishment of economic incentives to improve transboundary cooperation and management of threatened marine species and fisheries.
• Gulf of California
  Ensure conservation and sustainable management of important marine resources and critical habitats through a mix of marine protection and fisheries management strategies.
• Gulf of Mexico
  In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Foundation launched a major initiative to restore the natural resources of the Gulf that were damaged by the spill. We are collaborating with conservationists, economic development organizations and community leaders to craft a restoration plan that simultaneously restores habitats and wildlife populations affected by the spill while creating jobs and spurring economic growth.
  
  Overfishing has historically been a major problem in the Gulf of Mexico. We are working with conservation organizations and fishing groups to end overfishing and rebuild fish populations to create a win-win for the Gulf ecosystem and its coastal economy.

2) Creating Economic Incentives for Ocean Sustainability: Conservation initiatives are most likely to succeed when policy objectives and economic incentives are aligned. We are supporting efforts to create new incentives for conserving some of our nation’s – and the world’s – most important fish populations. Our grantees are doing this in two ways. First, they are working with some of the world’s major seafood buyers to create market pressure for sustainable fishing. Seafood industry leaders have responded positively to this initiative since it conserves seafood supplies that their businesses depend upon. Second, our grantees are working with fishermen to end the reverse incentives associated with open access fisheries by creating "catch shares." Catch shares give fishermen a long-term economic stake in the fish populations that they utilize and have been proven to create strong incentives for sustainability.

Some of our marine conservation grantees include:

• Conservation International Foundation;
• Ocean Conservancy;
• Environmental Defense Fund;
• Marine Stewardship Council; and
• World Wildlife Fund.

A full list of our marine conservation grantees can be found here: 2010 Walton Family Foundation Environment Grants

We are evaluating progress utilizing a number of ecological, social and economic indicators including population trends for critical species, fish density and fisheries success, progress in conserving key habitat types, job creation, improvements in standard of living and food security.

Our metrics for marine protected area design are based on the guidelines developed by the World Parks Congress. Under our program to establish economic incentives for marine conservation, we are similarly tracking both ecological and socioeconomic impacts. We are monitoring the market penetration of our seafood sustainability grantees, including growth trends in the volume of seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, as well as improvements in the environmental performance of fisheries resulting from these grants. In the case of our investments in the establishment of catch share programs, we are tracking both impacts on fisheries sustainability and bycatch reduction as well as effects on the economic performance of fisheries.