Marine conservation now starts on land with new partners

From the newsletter

Conservation has found a new ally in what used to be called recycling but has become more formalised and is now called the “circular economy”. Marine pollution in particular lends itself to collaboration between conservationist and innovative parts of the waste management sector.  Together they are prioritising upstream prevention over clean-ups. This approach has inspired 15 Africa-focused funding commitments worth $42.5 million. 

• With land-based sources accounting for 60–80% of the world’s marine pollution, Africa’s coastal systems are shaped by waste flows originating inland, hence a need for upstream interventions.

• Coastal clean-up approaches have remained predominantly reactive, limiting their ability to address upstream drivers of waste entering marine ecosystems and reducing long-term effectiveness in preventing repeated leakage.

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