Through research and innovation, we are creating advanced digital infrastructure to increase transparency in ocean activities such as ecosystem services, fishing, recreational use and illegal infractions. We engage in large-scale collaborations and partnerships that include local stakeholders and scientists to identify these challenges and develop freely available tools designed to improve the management of marine protected areas.
From seafood traceability to Blue Carbon, existing Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems to certify ocean action are costly, fragmented and slow. The lack of transparency and streamlining in MRV cause too many ocean-based sustainability solutions to operate without an adequate knowledge base of marine ecosystems.
We have yet to leverage the full potential of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data and IoT, to scale ocean conservation. The rise and maturity of these emerging technologies provide opportunities for existing and new platforms to finance and scale ocean conservation.
Ocean conservation must happen on multiple scales. From regional Marine Protected Areas to the High Seas, all stakeholders should have access to free open source tools for effective ecosystem-based management.
We partner with marine park rangers to combat illegal fishing within Marine Protected Areas. Enforcement automation helps reduce the cost and the carbon footprint to mitigate infractions.
We develop methodologies and standards for issuing and verifying marine ecosystem credits that center around scientific integrity, equity and scalability. We partner with the Regen Network to register these ecological digital assets on open, transparent and decentralized ledgers.
Builds models for the outcome-based conservation finance of Marine Protected Areas
Uses digital technologies to automate infractions of illegal activity in Marine Protected Areas
The OceanDrop raised funds to launch our Ocean Program. 70% of the funds are directed to the core research and open source digital product development. 30% of the funds support operations for the Cocos Island National Park pilot project, including supporting the local non-governmental organisations and Park Ranger operations.
Our Ocean Program has launched our first whitepaper on Marine Ecosystem Credits. In the paper we expand on how credits can be used as a financial instrument tailored for marine protected areas to increase efforts for conservation. Click below to download the paper.
Like all of our programs, all our Oceans research and work is open source. We’re looking for passionate developers and marine ecologists to collaborate with code and knowledge to help create a global mechanism to scale ocean conservation.