Great Blue Wall Fellowship 2025–26: Empowering Coastal Champions to Lead, Advocate, and Tell Africa’s Ocean Story

The Western Indian Ocean is one of the world’s richest marine regions, home to seagrass meadows, coral reefs, mangroves, and productive fisheries that sustain over 60 million people. Yet these ecosystems face growing threats from climate change, overexploitation, and habitat loss.

Across Africa, communities, scientists, entrepreneurs, and young leaders are already driving solutions: restoring seagrass beds, reviving coral reefs, protecting mangroves, developing sustainable blue economy ventures, and advancing inclusive governance models such as Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs). However, these achievements often remain under-recognised and under-resourced in regional and global decision-making spaces.

The Fellowship was created to bridge this gap, ensuring that the innovation, knowledge, and custodianship thriving in Africa’s coastal communities are heard, supported, and elevated in decision-making spaces. Through a strong emphasis on storytelling, advocacy, and leadership development, the programme aims to help fellows shape narratives, influence policy, and mobilise action for a regenerative future for people and nature.

The Fellowship will support changemakers from five Great Blue Wall seascapes — Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania — to expand the impact of their conservation, advocacy, innovation, and science initiatives. Over 12 months, Fellows will join monthly virtual learning sessions, receive tailored mentorship, sharpen their storytelling and advocacy skills, engage in policy dialogues, and deliver a final project amplifying community-led ocean and seagrass solutions.

This pilot Fellowship is supported by the Western Indian Ocean Coastal and Ocean Resilience (WIOCOR) project, funded by the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM). WIOCOR recognises seagrass as a cornerstone of socio-ecological resilience and works with local communities, scientists, and policymakers to map, protect, and restore these ecosystems across five countries. Seagrass is the starting point for this inaugural Fellowship because it is the ocean’s “unsung hero” — covering just 0.1% of the seabed yet storing up to 18% of the ocean’s carbon, feeding millions through productive fisheries, shielding coastlines from erosion, and providing habitat for threatened species such as dugongs and green turtles.

Applications close 30 August 2025 (23:59 EAT) and are open in English, French, and Portuguese. The non-residential programme complements Fellows’ existing commitments and is open to individuals actively engaged in supporting place-based actions in ocean conservation, the regenerative blue economy, or nature-based solutions.
 

Read more about the fellowship here.

Apply here: English | French | Portuguese