Last year, Conservation International and the Blue Nature Alliance worked with the Government of Niue and our local partners, Tofia Niue and the NOW Trust to design a new financing mechanism that ensures an inclusive, equitable, and scalable approach to protecting and sustainably managing 100% of the island of Niue’s ocean territory.  

We are now thrilled to share that the resulting Niue's Ocean Conservation Commitments (OCCs) have won the Nature category in the prestigious Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards!

The OCC’s are a revolutionary way to engage mass market in sponsoring ocean conservation as anyone – from individuals to organisations - can sponsor the protection of 1 square kilometer of Niue’s ocean for the next 20 years through the purchase of a credit. 

Each sponsorship is US$148 (NZD $250), with 127,000 OCCs available and stewarded by a local nonprofit called Niue Ocean Wide. When fully funded, the initiative would raise approximately $19.2 million, which Niue can use to build teams and operations, enforce policies, engage the community, and conduct marine research.

Solutions like these are vital. While critical for both climate and biodiversity, ocean conservation can be expensive. And for a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) like Niue, where the square kilometers of ocean outnumber the human population by almost 75-to-1, supporting the ongoing management and protection of so much marine territory is a significant financial challenge. The OCC sponsorship structure ensures an equitable and scalable approach to protecting and managing 100% of a nation’s ocean territory for the next two decades.