On Lembata Island in Indonesia, young people are learning to fish the way their ancestors did—and in doing so, they're saving their coastlines from collapse. They're reviving Muro, a centuries-old sacred zoning system that governs how communities use marine space, a practice that had faded as older knowledge passed unshared across generations. Today, with support from the Global EbA Fund, these youth are becoming guardians of ecosystems that sustain their families and their futures.
This quiet revolution unfolding across Southeast Asia points to something essential: when communities lead, nature heals. The Global EbA Fund—which champions ecosystem-based adaptation initiatives—is demonstrating that the most effective solutions to climate change often lie not in distant laboratories but in the hands of local people, working with their own waters and traditions.
In the Philippines, the results are striking. The Blue Alliance, supported by the Global EbA Fund, has strengthened 350,000 hectares of Marine Protected Areas across the biodiverse coral reef ecosystems of Mindoro and Palawan islands. These regions face mounting pressures from overfishing, pollution, and climate impacts—warming seas, fiercer storms, rising water levels. The alliance's approach combines hard science with community stewardship: science-based monitoring of biodiversity and climate impacts informs targeted regulations that reduce reef damage while protecting endangered species.
But protection alone isn't enough if communities remain impoverished. The model weaves economic resilience into ecological recovery. By creating social enterprises in blue economy sectors—community-based aquaculture, ecotourism, sustainable fisheries, and blue carbon initiatives—the project generates long-term income for both conservation management and local livelihoods. It's a feedback loop: healthier ecosystems support thriving communities, and invested communities protect their oceans. Over 34,000 people have been supported through improved food security and climate resilience as a direct result.
On Lembata, the revival of Muro shows what youth engagement can accomplish. A 483-hectare coastal conservation zone has been temporarily closed for six months to allow ecosystem recovery. The Global EbA Fund project engaged 107 Muro Committee Members—many of them young—in a Champions of Change Workshop to design conservation actions rooted in local traditions. Simultaneously, 3,000 mangroves have been planted, buffering the island against storm surge and sea-level rise while creating habitat for fish and other marine life.
What makes these efforts remarkable is that they're not imposed from outside. They emerge from communities' own knowledge systems, strengthened by modern monitoring tools and sustained financing. The youth of Lembata aren't abandoning their heritage; they're reclaiming it as a survival strategy in an era of rapid climate change. The fishers of the Philippines aren't being told what to do; they're being equipped to manage their own waters sustainably while earning dignified livelihoods.
As World Oceans Day 2026 calls for a reimagined relationship with our seas, these initiatives offer a concrete vision: oceans are not abstractions but integral parts of human culture, prosperity, and identity. The communities of Southeast Asia are proving that when we trust local stewardship, protect marine ecosystems, and build resilient livelihoods together, we don't just adapt to climate change—we thrive.