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The Global Seagrass Challenge: Making seagrass visible

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Challenge 1: Achieving societal recognition of seagrass importance

Why this matters

Seagrass meadows are among the most valuable ecosystems on the planet. They provide critical nursery habitat for fishery species, stabilise coastlines, build coastal climate resilience, and support biodiversity, including that which underpins coastal livelihoods, and contributes to human well-being. Despite their importance, seagrasses remain largely invisible in public discourse, policy priorities, and funding decision-making.

A lack of societal recognition directly contributes to continued loss and degradation of seagrass ecosystems. When the value of seagrass ecosystems, or the consequences of their loss are not understood, these habitats are overlooked, underrepresented, and excluded from conservation and coastal development planning, climate strategies, and conservation investments.

Achieving meaningful, long-term seagrass conservation, therefore, depends not only on scientific evidence, protection or restoration activity, but on building awareness, understanding, and stewardship across society. Education, early engagement, and locally relevant knowledge are essential foundations for behaviour change, policy support, decision-making, and sustained investment in seagrass ecosystems and their conservation.

Our journey

We have made societal recognition a cornerstone of our seagrass conservation approach, working in close partnership with educators, scientists, local organisations, and communities to embed seagrass knowledge where it can have lasting impact.

Flagship examples of this work are through our partnerships in Indonesia and the Philippines, where we’ve co-developed and supported the delivery of a locally grounded education curriculums focused on seagrass ecosystems. In Indonesia, we co-designed a programme specifically for local schools, ensuring that learning was age-appropriate, engaging, and directly relevant to students’ coastal environments.

Our partnerships seek to strengthen students’ connection to their local seagrass meadows and marine environment by combining classroom learning with interactive and experiential elements. By embedding seagrass education within formal curriculums, this work helps normalise seagrass as a vital and valued ecosystem, rather than an abstract or distant ecosystem and conservation issue.

Through our ongoing partnerships, we have:

  • reached young people at a formative stage, supporting long-term environmental stewardship,
  • strengthened local capacity for marine education, and
  • created scalable models for integrating seagrass awareness into local education systems.

 

Our work demonstrates that, through trusted local partnerships, the translation of scientific understanding into accessible, impactful learning, is possible and is a hopeful step for the delivery of conservation outcomes.

Why this moment matters

Societal recognition is not a peripheral activity for conservation, but instead is a prerequisite for each of the challenges facing seagrass conservation. By investing in the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund, your investment contributes to education and awareness, enabling:

  • stronger community support for protection and restoration,
  • a future of generations equipped to value and defend seagrass ecosystems, and
  • improved policy alignment and political will.

 

Facing Challenge 1 provides the foundation upon which all other conservation outcomes depend.

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.

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.
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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.
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4. Balancing the needs of people and planet
Your contribution helps ensure equitable seagrass conservation approaches that support livelihoods, food security, and cultural connections alongside ecosystem health, recognising people as integral to conservation success.
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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.
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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