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The Global Seagrass Challenge: Balancing the needs of people and planet

Join the Global Seagrass Challenge

Challenge 4: Balancing the needs of people and planet management action

Why this matters

Seagrass conservation does not occur in isolation from human needs. In coastal regions globally, seagrass meadows underpin food security, livelihoods, and cultural practices, particularly for small-scale and artisanal fishing communities. Sustainable development initiatives and conservation actions that fail to account for these dependencies risk unintended consequences, loss of local support, or inequitable outcomes.


Balancing the needs of people and planet requires a deep understanding of how communities interact with and value seagrass ecosystems, including patterns of resource use, cultural significance, economic drivers, and vulnerability to environmental change. We believe that integrating social, cultural, and economic data into conservation planning is essential for designing interventions that support both ecosystem health and human well-being.


Addressing this challenge is critical, and by doing so ensures that seagrass conservation is not only environmentally effective, but socially just, equitable, and resilient.

Our journey

Working in partnership with institutions, local organisations and networks across the three continents, we’ve sought to support our partners to better understand the social and economic dimensions of seagrass-dependent systems. This has included assessing drivers of food security and poverty, as well as conducting livelihoods, catch and landing, and market surveys linked to seagrass-associated fisheries and resources.

A core element of this work is capacity building, with partner organisations often requesting and welcoming training in the design and delivery of socio-economic and ecological assessment techniques. Training that enables them to implement these techniques independently. In doing so, our ongoing partnerships have sought to strengthen local ownership of data and ensure that findings can be integrated into ongoing management and advocacy efforts.

In parallel, we’ve formed partnerships which support stakeholder engagement, by working with recreational fishing guides to better understand how seagrass and fisheries are changing over time. Through this process, we’ve explored award winning novel methods to help the tracking and interpretation changes in data-limited and data-poor fisheries, fostering shared understanding and building trust between resource managers, conservation practitioners and resource users.

Working with partners to build their capacity in seagrass social-ecological systems assessments, we consistently contribute to:

  • integrated social and ecological data to inform conservation decision-making,
  • strengthened partner capacity to assess livelihoods and food security impacts, and
  • built constructive engagement and monitoring with stakeholders whose livelihoods depend on healthy seagrass ecosystems.

Why this moment matters

Our decades of experience show that conservation outcomes are strongest when human needs are also explicitly considered and addressed. By funding the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, you help enable:

  • conservation strategies that are socially inclusive and locally supported,
  • reduced conflict between conservation goals and human wellbeing, and
  • more durable outcomes that align ecosystem recovery with human well-being.

 

Seagrass conservation that delivers benefits for both people and nature also contributes to supporting the long-term local stewardship of seagrass meadows.

Thank you

If you would like to join the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, or to learn more about becoming part of this collective, we would love to hear from you.

To start a conversation, please contact us by email at globalchallenge@projectseagrass.org.

There is still time to meet the challenges facing seagrass conservation — and to be part of a small, committed group helping shape a more just and resilient future for coastal ecosystems. Through the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, we are working alongside communities and partners worldwide to support conservation that is equitable, evidence-informed, and grounded in place.

We look forward to hearing from you and exploring how, together, we can help secure a future for seagrass meadows and the people who depend on them.

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The other challenges we tackle together

As part of the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, you stand alongside a committed collective meeting the most pressing challenges facing seagrass conservation worldwide.

1. Making seagrass visible
You can help bring seagrass into the spotlight by building awareness and understanding of these vital coastal ecosystems that support fisheries, protect shorelines, strengthen climate resilience, and sustain coastal communities
More on this challenge
2. Mapping and monitoring seagrass
Your support helps close critical knowledge gaps by strengthening access to reliable, locally relevant information on seagrass extent and condition, turning data into evidence-led, locally grounded conservation action.
More on this challenge
3. Understanding local threats to target action
With your help, local, specific pressures on seagrass can be identified and addressed by partners, enabling community-led action, diagnosis of threats and the shaping of realistic, on-the-ground conservation responses.
More on this challenge
5. Building the evidence to support action
With your support, robust scientific evidence to guide conservation decisions can be generated, turning research into credible, practical action.
More on this challenge
6. Conserving seagrass in a changing climate
Your contribution supports climate-informed conservation that is resilient to uncertainty, enabling protection and restoration that is grounded in evidence and adaptive environmental conditions.
More on this challenge