The Moore Charitable Foundation and founder Louis Bacon are focused on the integrity of local marine ecosystems, threatened marine species, and global ocean health. As a founding member of Oceans 5, an innovative funders’ collaborative that now includes ten participants with decades of experience in marine and related philanthropy, we share intelligence and resources in developing projects to combat overfishing and establish sustainable marine reserves. To date, this collaborative group has supported more than 25 results-oriented projects in all of the world’s oceans.
An Oceans 5 project is underway in the Bahamas, where we are supporting The Nature Conservancy, The Bahamas National Trust, and The Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation to ensure an effective marine protected area (MPA) network to conserve at least twenty percent of nearshore and deep ocean habitats by the year 2020. To date The Bahamas protects ten percent of its coastal and marine territory. Through our funding a national stakeholder process is underway to determine the priority areas across the 700-plus islands to add to The Bahamas National Protected Area System, and to develop further networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). This project will result in the required policy, regulations and management plans for successful national parks and long-term, sustainable financing for these protected reserves.