Re-centering stewardship: Why Indigenous knowledge must anchor the next wave of ocean finance

This is part of a 6-article series. You’re reading Part 1. Here, you can find Part 2.

The ocean is no longer only a site of ecological concern — it has become the next frontier of global economic imagination. From blue-carbon markets to offshore renewables, from sustainable fisheries to outcomes-based plastic reduction, policymakers and investors increasingly speak of a “blue economy” that can deliver prosperity while stabilizing the planet.

But an unresolved tension sits at the heart of this agenda: Whose ocean economy are we building — and on what knowledge systems is it based? And what happens if the future is constructed atop the same extractive logic that destabilized the past?

Too many blue-economy strategies continue to follow a frontier mindset: maximize yield, scale quickly, attract capital, and treat the ocean as a vast economic opportunity. This approach risks repeating the same patterns that reshaped terrestrial ecosystems for decades — and perpetuating long histories of exclusion, especially for Indigenous and coastal communities.

A blue economy worthy of the name requires a different starting point: that the ocean is not an empty frontier, but a living system with its own stewards, histories, and governance traditions. The knowledge systems of those stewards — Indigenous, local, and traditional — must move from the margins into the center of ocean planning and ocean finance. This is not only a matter of ethics; it is a matter of strategic necessity.

Indigenous knowledge is already “nature-based” — the blue economy must catch up

A recent article in Blue Economy News summarized a major study demonstrating that Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) are inherently and historically nature-based. Long before “ecosystem-based management” or “nature-positive investment” entered policy vocabulary, Indigenous and coastal communities governed their waters through systems grounded in balance, reciprocity, and intergenerational responsibility.

Yet modern ocean planning often positions Western science as primary and treats Indigenous knowledge as supplementary. This framing is backwards.

Indigenous knowledge emerges from millennia of observation: seasonal patterns, species behavior, governance protocols, migration routes, food systems, navigation traditions, and place-based ethics that have sustained marine ecosystems long before modern states existed.

The study calls for something more than consultation: co-production, where Indigenous experts co-design the frameworks, indicators, and decisions that shape ocean governance. Indigenous authority should be operational, not symbolic.

A simple truth follows: we cannot meaningfully protect the ocean — or build a durable economy around it — without strengthening the communities who have safeguarded it for generations.

Blue finance needs a value shift

In my work as Senior Advisor for Blue Finance at The Ocean Cleanup, I engage daily with governments, multilateral banks, investors, and philanthropies seeking to unlock capital for ocean solutions. The momentum is real — but momentum alone does not guarantee alignment.

As blue finance expands — through blue bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, plastic credits, blended-finance vehicles, and outcomes-based conservation funds — we risk embedding the logic of capital markets without transforming the logic of ocean governance.

If blue finance is not grounded in justice, sovereignty, and stewardship, it will replicate the same extractive patterns it claims to solve.

A resilient blue-finance system requires three fundamental shifts:

1. From resource-first to relationship-first

The core question cannot be “How do we extract value from the ocean?”
It must become: “How do we sustain the relationships — ecological and cultural — that make ocean life possible and valuable?”

2. From capital efficiency to cultural legitimacy

Investments must be co-designed with Indigenous and coastal communities, strengthening — rather than overriding — place-based governance.

3. From technocratic metrics to knowledge pluralism

Monitoring systems should integrate Indigenous ecological indicators and community-defined metrics of wellbeing — not rely solely on remote sensing, hydrological models, or investor-centric KPIs.

Without these shifts, blue finance risks accelerating inequality under the banner of sustainability.

Bristol Bay: A lens into stewardship, sovereignty, and resilience

My PhD research on resource politics and Indigenous governance in Bristol Bay, Alaska, highlights how place-based stewardship functions at ecological and political scales.

Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest wild salmon fishery and to Indigenous communities whose cultural identity, subsistence practices, and spiritual relationships are inseparable from the watershed. In Bristol Bay, the return of salmon is not just an ecological event — it is a seasonal rhythm that shapes identity.  The proposed Pebble Mine was not merely an environmental threat — it was an existential one. A threat to salmon was a threat to culture, governance, ceremony, memory, and place.

The resistance movement — led by Indigenous communities and supported by scientists, fishers, youth, and global allies — demonstrated how Indigenous sovereignty acts as a form of ecosystem resilience.

Bristol Bay shows that:

• Indigenous governance is ecological governance
• Indigenous sovereignty is system-wide resilience
• Indigenous knowledge is adaptive management, not a historical artifact

Its lessons extend far beyond Alaska — to the Philippines, the Pacific Islands, the Mekong, the Caribbean, and beyond.

Technology can support stewardship — but cannot replace it

At The Ocean Cleanup, we design and operate systems that intercept plastic in rivers and remove legacy plastic from the ocean. But technology alone cannot restore marine health. Successful interventions depend on:

• Strong community partnership
• Indigenous and local co-governance
• Equitable benefit-sharing
• Cultural legitimacy
• Place-specific adaptation

From Manila Bay to Kingston Harbor, from Mumbai to the Mekong, cleanup systems endure only when rooted in the social and cultural ecosystems of the communities where they operate. The same principle must guide blue finance: oceans are social spaces, not blank slates.   

A blueprint for an Indigenous-centered blue economy

To make Indigenous leadership structurally central — rather than symbolic — blue finance and ocean governance must commit to:

1. Co-governance — Indigenous leadership and meaningful representation in decision-making bodies

2. Integrated indicators — embedding Indigenous ecological metrics within MRV frameworks

3. Data sovereignty — applying CARE principles to ocean data collection and use

4. Equitable flows — ensuring that financial benefits reach communities, not only capital providers

5. Intergenerational horizons — designing investments aligned with stewardship traditions rather than quarterly cycles

These are not peripheral reforms; they are the conditions for a credible and resilient blue economy.

Choosing the ocean’s future

Around the world, Indigenous and coastal communities are redefining what ocean governance can be. They are mapping marine territories using both ancestral knowledge and advanced geospatial tools. They are building conservation economies, revitalizing stewardship traditions, and offering governance systems finely tuned to ecological complexity.

The blue economy now faces a choice: repeat the path of extraction, or pursue a future grounded in respect, reciprocity, and relationship.

If the blue economy is to be truly regenerative — not merely financially innovative — Indigenous knowledge must be treated not as a stakeholder input but as the original ocean governance system.

A sustainable ocean future begins by honoring those who have stewarded it the longest.

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