Forests of the Sea
a legacy project to protect and restore kelp forests around the world through science, storytelling and policy change
Kelp forests stretch across 28% of the world’s coastline like a thin, golden ribbon, but if you were to condense them into a single space, they’d cover an area as large as the Amazon. Like these terrestrial forests, kelps are critically important for planetary health, yet their disappearance has largely gone unnoticed. Kelp forests are vanishing four times faster than rainforests.
The mission of Forests of the Sea is to restore and protect kelp forest ecosystems around the world. This mission, in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, Mission Blue, national partners, and individual changemakers is in line with the 30x30 target proposed by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to protect 30% of the Earth’s biosphere by 2030.
Forests of the Sea is leading a holistic approach to the protection of kelp forests around the world that prioritizes and supports the development of local, Indigenous and global knowledge – using exploration, science, community involvement, policy change and media as powerful tools to shift narratives.
The key to our work is the integration and collaboration between the local and global, the citizen and the politician, nature and culture – and hearts and minds. By fostering science, exploration, storytelling and policy work in local communities, we help people develop the tools needed to understand and protect their kelp forest ecosystems in a way that reflects an intimacy with local dynamics and politics, and inspires ingenuitive, locally-led solutions and stories.
Photography by Faine Loubser