Ocean governance plays a critical role in sustaining marine biodiversity and supporting the livelihoods of coastal communities worldwide. In this interview, we spoke with James Walsh, the Co-director of GOPA’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate, who shared insights into GOPA's work in ocean governance, from coral reef restoration to global biodiversity policy contributions.  

Q: What helps keep you passionate about working with GOPA? 

James Walsh: I’ve been at GOPA for almost 24 years. It’s an amazing job, and one of the reasons for that is I genuinely believe in what I do. The issues of climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources have only become more urgent, which has kept me deeply motivated. I’m surrounded by colleagues who share my passion and enthusiasm, which makes it easy to stay engaged. We all believe in the impact of our work. 

There’s also great variety in the work we do. One day, I could be working on coral reef projects in Indonesia, and the next, I’m focused on climate resilience in northern Ethiopia. It’s always exciting and an adventure.  

Q: How does GOPA contribute to protecting our oceans, and are there any unique strategies that have been particularly successful? 

James Walsh: Most recently, GOPA has been working on ocean governance through a project funded by the European Union titled “Ocean Governance for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)”, which ran for the last three years. It covered a wide range of activities, from grassroots coral reef and mangrove restoration, to inputting data and insights into regional and international policies and strategies focusing on ocean governance. 

We’ve worked on networking managers of MPAs across the Atlantic Basin—from Senegal to Antarctica—and Southeast Asia. Each region has unique problems and solutions, and our platform fosters communication and problem-solving among MPA managers globally. This dialogue has been fascinating, with managers from Senegal sharing knowledge with their counterparts in Indonesia, for example. 

At the policy level, we’ve also contributed to the Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to conserve 30% of land, water, and seas by 2030. Our work supports both grassroots initiatives and top-level policy development, and the impact is felt on all levels. 

Q: Can you give a couple of examples of surprising outcomes that have resulted from this exchange platform? 

James Walsh: One of the most interesting aspects of the project is its design and how it worked. Basically, it used very tangible on-the-ground initiatives and tools such as coral reef and mangrove restoration, development of a transboundary MPA, a variety of studies, and the resilience and marine mammals toolboxes as catalysts for dialogue and exchange. This dialogue process worked at a variety of levels, from local communities to international policy forums. This has given the project a huge outreach, far higher than initially anticipated, with a variety of positive effects including: restoring more coral reef area and sites than planned; linking networks of marine protected area managers beyond the Atlantic Basin and SE Asia e.g. Indian Ocean and Eastern Pacific Ocean in the promotion of good MPA management practices, and involvement and linkage of regional and national government bodies and organizations in policy and strategy development. 

Q: How does GOPA balance the need for biodiversity protection with the social and economic needs of coastal communities? 

James Walsh: The key is balancing the need for biodiversity protection against local economic needs and the needs of local communities surrounding those areas and often living in those areas as well. When it comes to the protection of natural resources 20 or 30 years ago, the attitude was one of protection and sometimes even isolation from local communities, seeing local communities and humans as being the perpetrators of damage to the natural resources that we were trying to protect. These approaches weren’t successful because in reality the communities living around those areas live from those natural resources. They are part of their culture and of their economic development. So we really cannot divide natural resource protection from local communities. 

Ocean governance plays a key role in recognizing the needs of local communities. For example, through our coral reef restoration work, local community members and businesses have been actively involved in the planning of the restoration works on the ground. We view local communities as the guardians of protected areas and their natural resources. They were involved in planning restoration work, sourcing materials, and building the physical structures we needed for coral reef propagation. This included training them in welding metal spider-shaped structures that were then seeded with live coral. These communities are now playing a key role in coral reef monitoring through regular inspections and monitoring of the restored sites. Local businesses and enterprises have also taken an active role in safeguarding these natural resources, as they form the foundation of their livelihoods. At the end of the day, if you want something to work, it actually has to be all about getting local communities involved and also enabling them to lead in the protection of the resources around them.