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Season 3, Episode 4: Unlocking Capital for a Regenerative Blue Economy with Melissa Walsh

How do we fix a broken system — and unlock the investment needed to save our oceans?

Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, ocean conservation remains dramatically underfunded. In this episode, we explore how to change that by building a true capital market for the ocean.

Our guest, Dr. Melissa Walsh — a global leader in blue finance and Director of Blue Finance & Scaling at ORRAA — explains why blue finance has lagged behind green finance, what’s holding investors back, and how we can redesign the system so money flows to ocean solutions at scale.

We break down:

• 🌊 Why oceans are still “invisible” in global finance
• ⚓ The risks and barriers that stop investment — and how to remove them
• 💡 How ORRAA is acting as the connective tissue between finance, insurance, governments & communities
• 🔄 Tools that de-risk ocean projects, like SCIFF and the Nautilus Blue Guarantee
• 📊 Why the world needs shared “ocean-positive” metrics to prevent bluewashing
• 🤝 The future of blue equity — ensuring coastal communities benefit from a thriving ocean economy

This episode offers a clear, hopeful roadmap for shifting from extraction to regeneration, and finally giving the ocean the investment it deserves.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Melissa Walsh is the Director of Blue Finance and Scaling at the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA). A leading global expert in ocean finance and the blue economy, she transitioned from a 24-year career in coral reef biogeochemistry and science management to tackle the primary roadblock she saw in conservation: a lack of capital. Today, she works to build the systems, partnerships, and financial products needed to drive investment toward a sustainable and resilient ocean.

Learn More From Our Guest / Episode Resources:

Learn more about the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA): https://oceanriskalliance.org/

Explore ORRAA's SeaChange Impact Finance Facility (SCIFF): https://oceanriskalliance.org/blue-finance/

Discover the BackBlue Initiative: https://oceanriskalliance.org/project/back-blue-ocean-finance-commitment/

Read about the Nautilus Blue Guarantee Company: https://www.guarantee.blue/

What are your thoughts on building a blue economy? Do you believe these financial tools can create the systemic change we need? Let us know in the comments below! Don't forget to like this video and subscribe for more conversations with the people on the front lines of protecting our planet.

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How do we move beyond small, isolated conservation projects to protect nature at scale?

This special episode of 4Nature, made for the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025, explores what transformational leadership looks like in practice. Host David Meyers speaks with two trailblazing leaders—Kathleen Fitzgerald, Project Director for Enduring Earth, and Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy, Regional Ocean Governance Manager for IUCN—who are reimagining how conservation can empower communities and achieve durable, system-wide impact.

Kathleen shares how the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model brings together governments, funders, and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities around long-term conservation goals. She highlights how Indigenous-led PFPs in Canada are setting a new global standard for inclusive, lasting protection.

From the ocean’s edge, Vatosoa recounts her journey leading Madagascar’s Mihari Network and building a Western Indian Ocean alliance for Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs). She emphasizes that the traditional knowledge of small-scale fishers—“a PhD in the ocean”—must guide conservation, supported by tools like LMMA trust funds that channel resources directly to communities.

Together, their stories reveal how humility, persistence, and local leadership can transform conservation from short-term projects into resilient systems that work for both people and nature.

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Every breath you take is free - but in an economic system that only values what's priced, could this be nature's greatest vulnerability? In this rare podcast-meets-podcast exchange, David Meyers and Juan Pablo Romero Rodríguez (host of Poder Ambiental) flip between interviewer and interviewee to dissect this dangerous paradox. Their conversation transcends typical environmental gloom, revealing how innovative financial mechanisms are already transforming our relationship with nature - from biodiversity credits empowering Global South economies to debt-for-nature swaps creating billion-dollar conservation opportunities. As the two environmental specialists analyze not just what we say about nature but how we say it, they unveil why reframing our relationship with the natural world might be less about saving the planet and more about saving ourselves.

Links:

uan Pablo Romero Rodríguez 's Podcast website