Protect 30%, Protect Ourselves: The Caribbean’s Fight for a Sustainable Future
The Caribbean has always been a region of resilience. For centuries, our people have withstood colonizers, weathered devastating hurricanes, and navigated economic and environmental shocks with strength, creativity, and an unbreakable spirit. That same resilience lives on today — in our fishermen, farmers, entrepreneurs, and communities who continue to rise in the face of new challenges.
The global 30×30 framework offers a roadmap for protecting what matters most to us: not just our natural beauty, but the livelihoods, culture, and security of our people. Championing regional collaboration, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) convened the Marine Conservation Forum in Grenada in May 2025 to drive progress on Caribbean biodiversity goals. Through this Forum, CBF not only updated stakeholders on collective actions under the Global Biodiversity Framework but also galvanized discussion on key implementation challenges. CBF’s leadership ensured participation from a broad coalition—including eight national Conservation Trust Funds, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, IUCN, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Caribbean Cetacean Society, Turneffe Atoll Marine Protected Area—and senior representatives from Caribbean governments.
What is the 30×30 Framework?
The 30×30 framework, part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, aims to protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. But for the Caribbean, this isn’t just an environmental target — it’s a lifeline for our people. The health of our ecosystems directly affects food security, jobs, and the cultural identity of our island communities.
As Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Caribbean nations are facing the severe impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic shocks. Rising seas, stronger hurricanes, dwindling fish stocks, and invasive sargassum blooms are already disrupting daily life and threatening livelihoods. The most vulnerable — small-scale fishers, coastal families, youth, and women — stand to lose the most if urgent action isn’t taken.
Turning Commitment into Action
That’s why the Caribbean’s commitment to “Actioning Blue — Caribbean 30×30” places people at the center. It’s not about protecting nature for its own sake, but about protecting Caribbean people’s resilience — socially, economically, and culturally. Ensuring sustainable livelihoods, safeguarding food supplies, and securing the natural heritage our communities depend on is at the heart of this effort.
At the Grenada Forum, stakeholders identified critical priorities for advancing the Global Biodiversity Framework in the Caribbean:
- To truly build a better future, we need to involve those who feel the impacts first — local communities, youth, women, and indigenous peoples — in every decision that shapes our environment and our livelihoods. It’s about turning big policies and global plans into real, on-the-ground actions that strengthen our people’s ability to bounce back from natural disasters, rising costs of living, and global crises.
- We must invest in new job opportunities and sustainable livelihoods for those who depend directly on the land and sea. Protecting our environment, as natural resources become harder to rely on, will only be possible if fishers, farmers, and coastal families have access to fair, secure ways to earn a living in a changing world.
- At the same time, we need to align our national plans with global commitments while making sure they work for our people at home. With limited resources, we can’t afford to waste time or money repeating efforts. The challenge — and opportunity — is to combine our strengths, reduce overlap, and create smart, efficient solutions together.
- Our regional scale makes us especially vulnerable to shocks—whether it’s a pandemic like COVID-19, climate-driven disasters, or geopolitical upheavals—so we must forge robust partnerships and deepen regional cooperation to strengthen our collective resilience.
No One Country Can Do This Alone: Unity is Our Greatest Strength
The Caribbean’s strength lies in collective action — pooling knowledge, resources, and cultural resilience. Our region has the necessary expertise and innovative leaders that can guide us through essential leadership and coordination, empowering the region to drive people-centered, regionally-led conservation solutions. As a regional Conservation Trust Fund, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund has taken up the role of Secretariat of the unified call “Actioning Blue — Caribbean 30×30 Vision for the Ocean” recently endorsed by Ministers of the Eastern Caribbean States in April 2025.
In this Actioning Blue declaration, the 30×30 is about more than protecting the environment. It’s about protecting homes, livelihoods, and futures. The Caribbean can be a global example of how inclusive, meaningful action for nature can uplift communities, preserve cultures, and build resilience for generations to come.
A Future Worth Fighting For
The Caribbean now faces a pivotal choice: either stick with “business as usual”—recycling decades-old debates—or embrace a people-centered path that tackles wasted effort, elevates basic human needs, and amplifies our uniquely Caribbean perspective. By placing communities at the heart of conservation, we safeguard not only our ecosystems but also our region’s resilience, dignity and hope for future generations.
