The Great Blue Wall (GBW) is a major Africa-led effort toward creating a nature-positive world—one that enhances the resilience of the planet and societies to halt and reverse nature loss—by 2030. GBW proponents aim to create interconnected protected and conserved marine areas (“seascapes”) to counteract the effects of climate change and global warming in the WIO region while unlocking the potential of the blue economy to become a driver of nature conservation and sustainable development outcomes.
These seascapes will form a regional network of inclusive, fair, and productive large-scale marine-conserved areas that will deliver both socioeconomic and conservation outcomes by promoting regenerative practices and sustainable use of natural resources that benefit local livelihoods. Local stakeholders, first of which are indigenous people and local communities, will play a central role in the effective management of the connected network and will be supported in their efforts to sustainably use and benefit from natural resources. In term of figures, the GBW’s ambition is to protect 2 million km2 of marine areas, restore 2 million hectares of critical coastal and marine ecosystems, and thus help sequester 100 million tons of CO2 and create 1 million blue jobs by 2030.
The overall goal is to accelerate and upscale ocean conservation actions while building socio-ecological resilience and supporting local livelihoods. This regional ecological corridor, formed by conserved and restored critical blue ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass beds, and corals, is intended to serve as a bulwark against the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as shelter coastal communities and create the conditions and mechanisms necessary to accelerate the development of regenerative ocean projects.