The Faiths High Ambition Coalition for Ocean & Nature Action
What faith has always done for the soul, it is now called to do for the sea.
A coalition of faith communities making public, trackable commitments for ocean action, and pressing governments to do the same.
Founded at the 11th Our Ocean Conference, Mombasa, June 2026.
First commitments at BBNJ (High Seas) COP1, 2027.
Why this matters
The ocean is in crisis, and much of that crisis is invisible.
The carbon dissolving into the sea has no colour and no scent. The acidification eating at the shells of corals and the small creatures around them makes no sound, even as the water turns acid faster than at any time in 66 million years. Warming, plastic pollution, and the looming threat of deep-sea mining advance with it, and the window to act is closing. But the invisible is not the unreal: what is not seen is not mourned, and what is not mourned is not saved.
This is the work faith communities are made for. For millennia, every great tradition has practised the very skill the ocean now needs: making the unseen real, moving people to care for what they cannot touch and protect what they cannot count.
To those who live alongside it, the ocean has never been only a resource. It is a place of life, memory, and hope, a sacred trust now under strain. What faith has always done for the soul, it is now called to do for the sea.
What it is
Turning declaration into delivery.
A platform where faith communities of every size, from a single parish, mosque, temple, or synagogue to a global denomination, make and keep public promises for the ocean.
The Coalition turns the commitment made in the 2025 Multi-Faith Declaration, Turning the Tide, into a public, trackable contribution to ocean protection. It borrows its structure from the inter-governmental High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, which championed 30x30, and works as an independent civil-society coalition.
It channels faith into the two international frameworks that protect the ocean to 2030: The Global Biodiversity Framework and its 30x30 target, and the BBNJ Agreement, the new United Nations treaty for the high seas. What counts is ambition relative to capacity, not size. A faithful commitment from a parish carries the same standing as a portfolio of pledges from a global institution.
The Declaration provides the why. The Coalition provides the who, the what, the by-when, and the proof.
Pledge
Make at least one concrete, time-bound promise, sized to what you can deliver.
Register
Record it on a public, open register that anyone can see.
Report
Send a short update each year on how the pledge is progressing.
Stand together
Join other signatories who hold one another to account.
How pledges work
Every commitment sits on two axes.
A thematic priority, what you commit to, and a functional category, how you act. Six priorities, five kinds of action, dozens of ways for a community to make its mark.
Tap any pairing to see a pledge
All can lead. Whether a parish, temple community, waqf or an entire denomination. Ambition is measured by capacity, not size.
Why faith carries weight
Faith reaches where science and policy cannot.
Faith communities hold moral authority, deep community networks, financial weight, and coastal land. The Coalition turns these into measurable protection for the ocean.
Founding members
Convened across traditions and continents.
A founding group of nine faith communities, spanning traditions and regions, is bringing the Coalition into being and will anchor its Coordination Group.
“The ocean does not belong to one nation, one generation, or one faith. It belongs to all life, and all faiths share the duty to protect it.” From Turning the Tide: A Multi-Faith Declaration for the Ocean
In their own words
Many traditions, one ocean.
Faith leaders reflect on what the ocean means within their traditions, and why its protection is a shared and sacred duty.
The moment
It’s time to turn the tide.
The treaties are in place. The decisions are being made now. The Coalition launches into the window where commitments can still shape the outcome.
The High Seas Treaty enters into force Now in effect
The BBNJ Agreement, the first treaty to protect ocean life beyond national borders, becomes binding law.
The Founding — Mombasa
Founding signatories announce the Coalition at the Ocean Interfaith Forum, on the eve of Our Ocean.
The 11th Our Ocean Conference
The first Our Ocean Conference held in Africa, where governments and partners turn pledges into commitments.
The UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17)
Governments gather in Yerevan, Armenia to review the Global Biodiversity Framework and its 30×30 target — the track that faith commitments help carry forward.
First Commitments Launch
Founding members register their commitments at the first Conference of the Parties to the High Seas Treaty, at the United Nations in New York.
The 30x30 deadline
The full faith constituency contributing to delivery of 30x30 and the High Seas frameworks.
The ocean has carried every faith that ever crossed it. The time has come for those faiths to help carry the ocean.
Express your interest →Join the movement
Add your community to the Coalition.
If your community, of any tradition and any size, wants to make its mark for the ocean, tell us. We will share how to shape and register a commitment of your own, ahead of the first Conference of the Parties.
What faith has always done for the soul, it is now called to do for the sea.
Thank you.
Your interest is registered. We'll be in touch about how your community can take part.