Rare Conservation

Rare is a US‑headquartered conservation NGO founded in the 1970’s. They are global leaders in designing and integrating community-led solutions particularly focused on sustainable natural resource management, to benefit nature and people.

Across many coastal regions, small-scale fisheries are vital for livelihoods, food security and local economies, but face growing pressure from overfishing, habitat loss, climate change and weak governance. As catches decline and ecosystems degrade, coastal communities become more vulnerable. Strengthening locally led stewardship and effective marine management is therefore essential for both biodiversity conservation and community resilience.

The ERF grant is supporting the scaling of Rare’s Fish Forever programme across Indonesia, the Philippines, Guatemala, Mozambique and The Bahamas. This programme strengthens community-led fisheries management, managed access areas, no-take marine protections and habitat restoration, including mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems. It addresses challenges including overfishing, weak governance and biodiversity loss, while strengthening food security and climate resilience in some of the most vulnerable regions. The grant will also support the rollout of Rare’s monitoring and evaluation framework and strengthen in-country technical and policy capacity.