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56 | THE BLUE ECONOMY AND FINANCE

FINANCE
A change of paradigm

When the global challenges of blue and sustainable finance
reflect the challenges of the blue and green economy in Africa.
A change of paradigm

Considered the world’s 7 largest economy, the ocean INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT
th
is the focal point of all the current ecological crisis. The
financial sector has a crucial role to play in the climate An innovative management lease, tangible income
race against time. Without involving civil society and models, mixed funding which makes local commu-
the private sector, it will be difficult to raise new funds nities accountable - these are the pillars of MPA ma-
to allocate based on targets to save our planet and its nagement put in place by the social enterprise Blue
ecosystems. Experts have compared their perspec- Finance. Its director and co-founder, Nicolas Pascal,
tives, with a closer look at the development of the blue explained this approach which has been applied in the
and green economy in Africa. Dominican Republic and the Philippines, where MPAs
cover 16,000 households and protect 800,000 hec-
Towards blue and tares of coral reefs. By 2022, five new MPAs in deve-
loping countries could benefit from this support, and
responsible finance? around twenty by 2030.

Following an introduction by Damian Payiatakis, Head Lacking transparency and with a short-term vision, car-
of Sustainable & Impact Investing at Barclays Private bon credits and carbon offsetting markets seem poor-
Bank, the environmental economist Nathalie Hilmi, ly equipped to deal with the challenges of the current
from the Monaco Scientific Centre, led the first part of ecological crisis. An innovative financing mechanism
the webinar dedicated to blue and sustainable finance. proposes using blockchain , artificial intelligence and
6
the internet of things to help key species, like African
GIVING NATURE forest elephants. “By aligning next generation techno-
logies with key species”, explained Walid Al Saqqaf,
A FINANCIAL VALUE
co-founder and CEO of the Rebalance Earth move-
Ralph Chami, Assistant Director at the International ment, “we are able to transfer carbon offsetting funds
Monetary Fund’s Institute for Capacity Development, to pay park wardens and make micro-investments in
argued in favour of a new economic paradigm: “to local communities.”
switch from an extractive view of nature to a regenera-
tive view, we must start to translate the financial value
of nature for humanity into more meaningful terms for 6. Developed in 2008, blockchain is an information storage and
society as a whole, from consumers to policy-makers”. transmission technology which allows users to transparently share
We need to value ecosystem services in monetary data without an intermediary.
terms to organise markets around the protection and
regeneration of nature. “By showing that a living and
thriving nature is profitable, we will be able to change
our behaviour”, the expert put forward in view of sus-
tainable and inclusive prosperity for all, as well as the
protection and regeneration of the natural world.