Vartul: The Learning Circle/Naidiri Marine Biodiversity Park. 

Fiji

An Indigenous youth-led ocean literacy program integrating traditional and scientific knowledge. It empowers students and communities to understand coral reef ecosystems through peer-led education, expeditions, and hands-on learning across Fiji.

VeryNile

Egypt

Africa’s first large-scale Nile-based initiative turning river waste into livelihoods. Local fishers collect and recycle river plastics before they reach the sea, creating green jobs and promoting circular economy models across Upper Egypt.

Husna Amima
Msola

Colombia

A holistic community-led model combining coral restoration, sustainable fishing, eco-tourism, and financial inclusion. It empowers local divers and women to restore reefs and build economic resilience across the Kilwa Seascape.

Association for Community
Awareness

Cameroon

A youth-driven campaign engaging 200 young leaders in five coastal communities in Limbe. Combining education, cleanups, and the “Ocean Biodiversity Cup” football tournament, it turns conservation into a source of pride and action.

Nadine Wahab

Cairo, Egypt

A pioneering national network uniting sustainability practitioners across Egypt to share resources, amplify impact, and collaborate on joint action. The initiative promotes collective, non-competitive environmental stewardship, strengthening ties between Red Sea and Mediterranean projects.

Oceanography centre

Cyprus

A modular wet lab transforming a shipping container into a marine research and education hub. The “ClimatePod” empowers scientists and students to monitor Mediterranean warming and ocean acidification while engaging local communities.

Saad Abid

Marocco

Inspired by the need to combat one of the most pressing threats to our oceans, Chbika is a practical and effective tool designed to capture micro-waste from our beaches. The project offers a simple and accessible solution to local communities and environmental protection organizations and raises awareness amongst the beach goers and volunteers. According to the assessment of the panel of judges, the Chbika scored highly on the criteria of originality, impact, positivity, location, feasibility and sustainability, as they recognised that not only is it an effective tool for extracting micro waste, it also fulfills a function for education about the cause of marine pollution. Chbika is also easy to replicate in other countries and regions, and is therefore easy to scale-up.

Gabriela Casuso

Proyecto Acuática (Colombia)

Sixteen-year-old Gabriela Casuso submitted her innovative idea, Charlas El Océano: an educational program promoting oceanic culture, marine life protection, and instilling ocean awareness in children and adolescents. The initiative is part of her project Proyecto Acuática which she founded when she was only 10 years old and consists of educational and allusive programs, reflexive videos and games, that aim to plant ocean awareness in new generations. Indeed, as the founder states: “Because children can change the world too.”

Uriel Sanchez

Colombia

Uriel Sanchez’s project, SeaSprout, involves transforming areas of the continental shelf affected by decades of trawling through artificial rhodolith beds. This initiative harnesses the power of circular economy and provides the means of permanently fixing carbon through the calcification of coralline algae, fostering biodiversity and improving the fish environment. Taking a research based approach, SeaSprout’s goal is to implement an innovation for both biodiversity enhancement (restore the local ecosystem) and climate (facilitate carbon storage).

Johannes Bochdalofsky

SeaH4 (South Africa)

Johannes Bochdalofsky proposed an innovative solution using seaweed and green hydrogen to produce alternative fuels at scale. This sustainable approach not only tackles climate change but also brings economic opportunities to rural coastal communities. A win for the planet and its people. The judges found this innovation to be a well substantiated plan of action for conducting a pilot and when fully realized it would address the area of ocean acidification which is a major threat to the ocean ecosystem, while also fueling the local economy in South Africa.

Tom Wheeler

Treesistance (Brazil)

Guardians of the Sacred Waters is a new Indigenous led protection and prevention model, coordinated between the European Crime prevention team and the leaders of the Lower Tapajos. The initiative is an expansion of a previous award winning pilot project on protecting the forests, which now aims to apply the tested approach to safeguarding the river ecosystem of the precious water territories in the Amazon. Using a blend of traditional wisdom and modern technology, they are taking a stand against water-based environmental crimes.