Give the Coast and Ocean a Gift

Twenty years ago, when Dr. Wallace J. Nichols and I co-founded WILDOAST, we were committed to preserving the coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife of the Pacific coastlines we knew and loved.

While we were successful at stopping the slaughter of sea turtles in Baja California and protecting the world’s last undeveloped gray whale lagoon (since then WILDCOAST has helped to conserve and manage over 30 million acres of coastal and marine ecosystems), we really never thought about how climate change could threaten our work and the places we were saving.

Today, with the climate crisis ever present, our international team that works from the California-Oregon border to the the mangrove fringed coastline of southern Mexico, is dedicating its efforts to tackle the threat of a changing climate.

Through natural climate solutions, like protecting Mexico’s mangroves and coral reefs, restoring California wetlands, and helping to manage vast protected areas in Mexico and California, we are on the frontlines of climate change adaptation and mitigation on a global scale.

Recent research shows that by protecting natural ecosystems such as tropical forests, mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes, we can help to mitigate over 20% of our annual net carbon emissions and help meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Blue Carbon ecosystems – mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes – sequester up to five times more atmospheric carbon than their terrestrial counterparts. Their preservation is critical.

Will you donate today to make sure that WILDCOAST can continue to carry out strategic and award-winning conservation programs to protect the world’s most important coastal and ocean ecosystems and help combat climate change?;

Although our goal has always been ecosystem and wildlife conservation, it is now evident that the protection of the California coast, Baja California Peninsula, Gulf of California, and southern Mexico is more important than we ever thought.

That is why we are so excited about our new found purpose and efforts to preserve coastal and marine ecosystems like the tropical ecosystems of Oaxaca, Bahia Magdalena in southern Baja California Sur, the coral reefs of the Mexican Pacific, and California’s offshore marine wilderness.

These incredible places are not just home for wildlife like whales, sharks, and sea turtles. In the case of Baja’s mangrove forests for example, they help sequester more atmospheric carbon than any other ecosystem on the planet.

Together with Mexico’s Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and with the support of the Leonard DiCaprio Foundation, we are making progress in preserving tens of thousands of acres of mangroves that will help to sequester and store thousands of tons of atmospheric carbon

The conservation of Blue Carbon ecosystems is the next frontier of ocean conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation. I am so excited that WILDCOAST is helping to lead this effort in California and Mexico.;

So, thank you for your support to preserve some of the most beautiful and wildest coastal places on the planet.

With your continued support and a year-end donation to WILDCOAST, we can continue this work for years to come.

For our coast and ocean.

Serge Dedina, Ph.D
Executive Director;

P.S. As the end of 2018 approaches, I hope that you can take this chance to support our incredibly dynamic and impactful conservation team that is safeguarding our Blue Planet.