YEAR IN REVIEW
2021
foreword from the
president & ceo
In 2021, despite the persistence of the global pandemic, we remained resilient and hopeful. We pivoted, we adapted, and we innovated to achieve impact and bring it to scale. Working with partners, we were able to...
- Surpass 1,000 communities engaged by Fish Forever.
- Launch a global network of local leaders.
- Create a digital platform to empower thousands of Colombian farmers.
- Unveil a global data portal supporting ocean conservation.
- Partner with two major media companies to accelerate the uptake of climate-friendly behaviors.
- Train hundreds of practitioners from around the world in Behavior-Centered Design.
This year was also about re-emergence. While the pandemic continues to impact many, some of us have re-engaged supporters and partners beyond the Zoomsphere. As I reconnect in person with leaders in business, philanthropy, and conservation, I've witnessed a growing recognition of the power of individual and community-level action. That is the message of this video, which will leave you inspired by how our interconnectedness provides a vital pathway to safeguarding and restoring our shared waters, lands, and climate.
Right now, conservation is in the spotlight. Philanthropic and government investments are making headlines. But we know that for these investments to pay dividends, people will ultimately have to change. This is what Rare does. And you can help by joining the Batten Challenge and supporting our work to heal the natural world by inspiring meaningful, lasting change.
On behalf of the global Rare community, thank you for your continued support during a demanding time. I wish you a safe, healthy, and happy new year.
Cheers,
Brett Jenks
President & CEO, Rare
On the Many Fronts of Climate Change
The urgency of the climate crisis requires us to reduce emissions and help countries and communities adapt to its impacts. In 2021, Rare helped communities build climate resilience and catalyzed individual and grassroots action to adopt climate-friendly behaviors.
Protecting our Best Climate Ally:
The Ocean
Climate action and ocean action are intricately linked. Ocean and coastal ecosystems like coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves help coastal communities adapt to climate change and reduce its impact. In 2021, Rare helped achieve milestones in protecting ocean health, critical to building the climate resilience of coastal communities.
- In April, Honduras declared the nation's first community-based managed access area in coastal waters off the coast of two of our Fish Forever partner municipalities.
- In April, Indonesia announced its new Climate Resilience Development Policy. The plan reflects inputs from Rare's Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Tool and our work in Southeast Sulawesi on ecosystem- and community-based adaptation.
- In May, Fish Forever partner communities in Mozambique celebrated the country's first no-take reserve to be put under community co-management. In November, our partners celebrated a second set of reserves.
By the Numbers
In 2021, the reach of Fish Forever grew to...
8 countries
1,068 communities
5,505,483 hectares of ocean on the path to managed access
Advancing Climate-Smart Solutions with Smallholder Farmers
Helping Colombia's smallholder farmers shift to more regenerative and sustainable land-use practices holds tremendous promise for tackling climate change. In 2021, with support from UK PACT (a UK government-funded program), Rare's Lands for Life program worked with The Nature Conservancy and Precision Development to accelerate smallholder farmers' transition to climate-smart practices using a behavior-based, technology-enabled approach.
In November, the British Embassy in Colombia produced this video mentioning Rare to highlight the two countries' partnership to meet climate goals.
Partnering to Promote Personal Climate Action
In 2021, our Make It Personal program focused on piloting to learn what works in the real world and partnering to reach more people faster.
- Make It Personal and our Center for Behavior & the Environment (BE.Center) teamed up with Sony Pictures' A Greener World initiative to provide a Behavior-Centered Design training for writers, producers, and creative executives working in television and film, helping them to integrate narratives about plant-rich diets into storylines.
- Rare partnered with Netflix's "Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet," Count Us In, and Project Drawdown to collaborate on a new global platform to help individuals identify and adopt climate-friendly behaviors that resonate most in their lives.
- Rare launched "Green Benefits" pilots with Lindblad Expeditions, Natural Habitat Adventures, and a well-known global media company to inspire, engage, and support their employees in adopting climate-friendly behaviors. There are 12 other employers in the pipeline, and we have hired a Vice President to build out this channel.
Photo: Fisherman from Omoa, Honduras.
Mozambique: Buoys of Hope
On May 13, Rare's Mozambique team helped our partner communities achieve a milestone.
Honduras: Santafeños Sail Again
This summer, the Honduran municipality of Santa Fe revived an old tradition to celebrate its fishing culture and inspire fishers' commitments to fish responsibly.
Colombia: Ambassadors of Change
In May and September, UK PACT – a program facilitated by the United Kingdom’s Embassy in Colombia – joined Rare for field visits with farmers.
Glasgow: Rare at COP26
In November, European-based members of Rare’s team attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
Leading from the Ground Up
2021 was a watershed year for empowering and engaging local leaders around the world.
Launching a Global Network of
Local Leaders
On World Ocean Day (June 8), Rare helped launch The Coastal 500—the first-ever global network of mayors and other local government leaders committed to thriving and prosperous coastal communities. The network aims to connect 500 local government leaders from around the world to advocate for small-scale fishers, protections for coastal habitats, and influence the way entire nations and regions manage their fisheries. Explore the Costal 500 at Coastal500.org.
By the Numbers
Partnering with Local Leaders
in Colombia
Engaging mayors and local leaders is central to our Lands for Life program and is core to Rare’s scale strategy. In 2021, Lands for Life hosted Behavior-Centered Design workshops for mayors and other local leaders in Colombia to help them understand the benefits of regenerative and restorative practices and promote them within their jurisdictions. Partnering with local leaders contributes to meeting the nation’s climate targets – a top government priority.
Going Local to Tackle Climate Change in the U.S.
This year, Rare staked out its first city-based Make It Personal campaign in Boston, Massachusetts. We conducted a baseline survey in the greater Boston area to index current practices and likelihood of adoption of the target behaviors, and hired our first city-level Program Director.
Brazil: These Women Speak for the Trees
This year, Rare Brazil partnered with Purpose – a movement-building organization – to produce the "Mothers of the Mangroves" video series giving voice to women who nurture the mangrove ecosystems that support their lives and livelihoods.
Indonesia: Supporting Community-led Management
With support from the Walton Family Foundation, Rare’s Fish Forever program in Indonesia allocated 13 small grants to small-scale fisheries management bodies to erect surveillance posts, purchase boats for surveillance, and establish community businesses that sell fishing gear and other equipment needed for sustainable fishing.
Philippines: Networking for the Ocean
In July, several of our partner communities came together to create a network of marine protected areas in the Camotes Sea. With the signing of a memorandum of agreement, the communities jointly committed to promote fisher registration, enforce no-fishing areas and protect habitats, reducing the threat to marine life while increasing fish biomass.
Using a small grant to build a guard house in Indonesia.
Using a small grant to build a guard house in Indonesia.
Data for the Field
Data for decision-making is baked into Rare’s DNA. In 2021, Rare collected and deployed data in new ways to guide our programs, as well as the field.
Data for Decision-Making
On World Ocean Day, Rare officially launched the Fish Forever Portal, a digital platform providing real-time data from our partner communities, visualized through dashboards and summarized in reports, and made readily available to support implementing partners, local leaders, and practitioners.
Data for Action
The BE.Center partnered with The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)—the world’s largest conservation funder—to produce a comprehensive literature review identifying the best examples of behavioral science being used to address environmental challenges. We also produced a practical guide that dives into the “how” of behavioral design. Download the tools here.
Data to Guide
Our Fish Forever Science & Technology Team developed a new tool to visualize spatial data needed to make informed decisions on delineating marine reserve networks. The Networks of Marine Reserves planning tool will help Rare staff, implementing partners, and resource managers choose areas on a map, build a network of reserves with those areas, and assess them against program targets.
Data for Discovery
Using innovative research methods, our BE.Center conducted a series of studies to unlock insights into driving more climate-friendly behaviors, including one study that focused on the pathways to limiting carbon emissions by reducing air travel.
Photo: Hands-on learning in the field at a Lands for Life workshop for local innovators in Meta, Colombia.
Driving Behavior Adoption
In 2021, Rare continued to lead the conservation field in driving the adoption of sustainable behaviors and practices through hands-on trainings and engagement campaigns rooted in the behavioral sciences.
Palau: Formulating a Fisher Registration Strategy
In 2021, Rare formulated a national campaign to register the country’s small-scale fishers. To ensure the success of local-to-national registration campaigns, program staff surveyed fisher households to assess barriers to registration. The program aims to launch the campaign by Our Ocean Conference 2022 in Palau.
Guatemala: Gaining a Foothold
In 2021, Rare solidified partnerships with local NGOs and governments to advance Fish Forever, including establishing the country's first savings club and collecting fisher registration data for the first time in a decade.
Surech and Adara out collecting sea cucumbers to harvest.
Surech and Adara out collecting sea cucumbers to harvest.
Members of Guatemala's first savings club in Quetzalito.
Members of Guatemala's first savings club in Quetzalito.
Thinking in New Directions
Inspiring the behavioral shifts needed to counter our global environmental challenges requires us to innovate, test boundaries, and offer new approaches that challenge the status quo.
Expanding the Ocean Conservation Toolbox
Marine Protected Areas are an excellent ocean conservation tool, but are most often placed offshore, far from the coast. This year, Rare joined a coalition advocating for expanding the ocean conservation toolbox through measures like Managed Access with Reserves.
Serving Pride on our Plates
Rare’s BE.Center partnered with the European Union’s Switch Asia program to launch the “Pride on Our Plates” initiative in China and engage chefs and restaurants in curbing food waste—one of the most overlooked contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally.
I Want to Fight Climate Change. What's Good?
Rare recently began recruiting micro-influencers on Instagram and Facebook to talk about the high-impact actions they are already taking that reduce carbon emissions. The campaign, called What’s Good, is aimed at communicating to networks of Americans that behavioral changes to our food, transportation, energy and support for nature are necessary and that others are already taking action.
Surfacing Pollution Solutions
For its sixth Solution Search contest, Rare’s BE.Center set out to surface and spotlight behavioral solutions to water pollution. The contest surfaced 100 solutions from 33 countries, with the winners hailing from Tanzania, Peru, Egypt, and Haiti.
A Buzz-worthy Summit
In September, the BE.Center hosted its third BE.Hive summit (and first virtual one). The summit explored solutions to water pollution through the lens of human behavior. Nearly 300 people from 38 countries tuned in live to hear 30+ presenters share knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration for protecting the most precious resource on Earth: water.
Photo: Engaging chefs in a Behavior-Centered Design workshop in China.
Federated States of Micronesia (FSM): Getting Fish Forever Up and Running
In 2021, Rare’s implementing partner in FSM, The Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT), signed a contract with five municipalities to hire Natural Resource Coordinators to facilitate the Fish Forever program with coastal fishing communities – the initial steps to getting Fish Forever up and running in the country.
Brazil: Named to the top 100 NGOs
In December, Rare Brazil was named as one of the top 100 NGOs in the country by Instituto Doar, an organization whose mission is to expand the culture of giving in Brazil. The prestigious award recognizes and promotes NGOs that stand out each year for their excellence in management, governance, financial sustainability and transparency.
Chief Executives/Mayors of Pohnpei signed their respective MOUs to partner with and support Rare and Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT) in the Fish Forever program.
Chief Executives/Mayors of Pohnpei signed their respective MOUs to partner with and support Rare and Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT) in the Fish Forever program.
ON BOARD
The Batten Challenge
In 2021, Rare Board Chair Dorothy Batten issued a $10 million Challenge Grant to help us achieve our mission. The Batten Challenge will double all new gifts to Rare or double any amount in excess of previous gifts up to $10 million.
“I love how Rare empowers people to make decisions for themselves in the most appropriate way and does not try to impose strict rules and regulations on them. I love that we are this flexible, adaptable organization that listens to people and allows them to design solutions for themselves."
- Dorothy Batten, Board Chair
Photo: Women from fishing communities in Honduras participate in a March 2021 Rare-hosted event commemorating International Women’s Day.
How the Philippines' fishing communities are overcoming poverty
A lazy person's guide to saving the planet
Philippines: A Local Voice on the Global Stage
Local leaders called upon to safeguard small-scale fishing
How Individual Actions Contribute to Collective Action for the Planet
Trading trash for health insurance in Tanzania
Financials
In Memoriam: Dr. Arwan Rukma
This year, Rare lost Dr. Arwan Rukma—a mentor, colleague and friend who passed away in July due to COVID-19 complications. Arwan was a very special person. He was a great leader, with vision and conviction, who followed through to execute on his plans. He was generous with his time and wisdom, and he was entertaining—an “inspirational showman” who belonged on a big stage. Arwan directed Rare Indonesia’s policy work, helping to lift the voices of small-scale fishers, their families, and coastal communities throughout the country. His unmistakable presence is greatly missed by Rare and the many who knew him.
Built with Shorthand