The Global Seagrass Challenge: Understanding local threats to target action
Challenge 3: Identifying threatening activities at local scales to better target management action
Why this matters
Seagrass loss and degradation are driven by a complex mix of local, regional, and global pressures, but the most immediate and manageable threats often occur at local scales. Activities such as land-based runoff, sedimentation, unsustainable fishing practices, and poorly planned coastal development can rapidly degrade seagrass meadows if left unaddressed. Yet these pressures vary significantly from place to place, even between neighbouring meadows.
Without a clear understanding of locally specific threats, management actions risk being poorly targeted or ineffective. Generic solutions rarely succeed in complex social–ecological systems, where conservation outcomes depend on combinations of, for example, local behaviours, governance structures, and environmental conditions. Identifying threatening activities at a local level is, therefore, essential for designing management interventions that are realistic, locally supported, and capable of delivering long-term measurable impact.
Addressing Challenge 3 is central to moving from a broad conservation ambition to practical, actualised, on-the-ground action that addresses the local drivers of seagrass decline.
Our journey
Supporting locally led threat identification processes that place community knowledge and partner expertise at the centre of conservation planning are central to the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund and our emerging conservation strategy.
Through collaboration with a local Indonesian team, we supported participatory stakeholder focus groups to identify the primary threats to local seagrass meadows, including sedimentation linked to land-use change. These participatory processes informed the co-design of conservation action plans that were both ecologically robust and socially and culturally appropriate. A key outcome of this work was the identification of riparian vegetation restoration as a priority intervention to enhance seagrass ecosystem resilience and support recovery, while also supporting local landowners with new income streams from planted fruit trees.
More broadly, we regularly convene or facilitate partner-led, multi-stakeholder workshops across the regions we work. These regional gatherings, including a dedicated workshop in Indonesia in 2017 with partners from across Southeast Asia, bring together practitioners, researchers, natural resource managers, Indigenous peoples and local organisations to identify seagrass-specific threats and co-create context appropriate conservation plans and solutions. These workshops provide structured spaces for shared learning and collective problem-solving, strengthening regional understanding of threat pathways and management needs for seagrass ecosystems.
Recently, a regional workshop we hosted in 2025 focused on identifying key threats and conservation priorities for organisations working on-the-ground across Southeast Asia. This event functioned as a knowledge exchange hub, enabling partners to share experiences, align approaches, and build a common understanding of regional challenges while recognising local variation.
Through this work, these partnerships have:
- enabled locally specific threat identification to inform targeted management,
- supported co-designed conservation planning rooted in community and partner knowledge, and
- strengthened regional collaboration and shared learning among practitioners.
Why this moment matters
By investing in understanding local threats and their drivers, your funding of the Global Seagrass Challenge Fund supports:
- management actions that are locally relevant (and more likely to succeed!),
- stronger partner capacity to diagnose problems and design solutions, and
- more efficient and effective use of conservation resources.
Through identification of local threats, conservation interventions can be grounded in reality, increasing their durability and impact across diverse social and ecological contexts.
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.
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.