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Good practice Imported

Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence — Indigenous-Led Marine Conservation Trust

Canada · Bella Bella · See the Canada profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In June 2024, 17 First Nations closed a $335M Project Finance for Permanence deal with Canada, British Columbia and philanthropies, funding 2.8M ha of new marine protected areas across the 10.2M ha Great Bear Sea via an Indigenous-administered trust.

US$335M
Total initial funding (2024)
2.8M ha
New/enhanced marine protected area
10.2M ha
Total bioregion
1,400+
Great Bear Rainforest precedent — permanent jobs created

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Coastal First Nations / Nanwakolas Council / Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, Government of Canada, Government of British Columbia, Coast Funds
Period
2024–2044 (closed June 2024; 20-year disbursement horizon)
Keywords
marine conservation, Indigenous-led governance, conservation finance, blue economy, ocean stewardship

Context

Seventeen First Nations on British Columbia's north and central coast sought durable, long-term financing for marine conservation under the Northern Shelf Bioregion Marine Protected Area Network Action Plan.

Activities

The Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) closed 25 June 2024 with $335M: $200M from the Government of Canada, $60M from British Columbia, and $75M from philanthropic funders, split across a $167M Marine Stewardship Fund endowment, a $120M Community Prosperity Fund and a $48M MaPP Implementation Fund (both disbursed over 20 years), all administered by the Indigenous-led Coast Funds.

Results

The financing supports 2.8M hectares of new and enhanced marine protected areas within the 10.2M-hectare Great Bear Sea, targeting 30% protection of the bioregion and contributing an estimated 0.3 percentage points toward Canada's national 2030 marine conservation target.

Conclusions

The 2007 Great Bear Rainforest PFP precedent is credited with over 1,400 permanent jobs, 140 new/acquired businesses, $444M in coastal investment and 18 Indigenous Guardian programmes, but the marine deal itself only closed in 2024, so independently measured ecological outcomes are not yet available.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
17 First Nations (Coastal First Nations, Nanwakolas Council, Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance), Coast Funds (Indigenous-led administering organisation), Government of Canada and Province of British Columbia

Conditions for success

  • Reuses the governance model of the 2007 Great Bear Rainforest PFP, with a 2026 ESSA Technologies 'lessons learned' review documenting the design choices
  • Funding split across an endowment, a community-prosperity fund and an implementation fund, each with different disbursement horizons

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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