Partnerships & Collaborations

In seeking to establish protected areas, as in all else, we join forces with wonderful partners and collaborators.

We want to express our greatest admiration and thanks to the fishing villages of the central Philippines, where we worked. The people of Danajon Bank married an intimate understanding of their marine environment, a determination to manage their fisheries better, and great courage to embark on new adventures. We are so lucky to have enjoyed your trust and your friendship.

Most of our practical work in the Philippines was executed by a wonderful set of Filipino colleagues, with support from Project Seahorse team members in Canada and the UK. Our first field work in the Philippines was conducted in partnership with Haribon Foundation, the oldest environmental NGO in the country. Colleagues there taught us a great deal about integrated and respectful conservation approaches and practices.

We later established our own national NGO, Project Seahorse Foundation for Marine Conservation (PSF), to lead on Project Seahorse work. PSF was eventually merged into ZSL Philippines, a programme of the Zoological Society of London (one of the two Project Seahorse host institutions). ZSL Philippines continues to support the MPAs initiated by Project Seahorse.

In Canada, we are humbly grateful for vibrant collaboration with the Gitg’at and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, located on the west coast of North America. They generously shared their knowledge of the waters in their traditional, ancestral and unceded territories, and guided many aspects of our research.