Turning the Tide A Financier's Guide to Investing in Blue Carbon Ecosystems 2026

EcoShape, a Dutch foundation, and Wetlands International, a global NGO, are demonstrating how nature-based infrastructure can deliver climate resilience, biodiversity gains and improved community livelihoods through financially viable models. Operating as a consortium of 15 partners – including government parties, engineering consultants, knowledge institutes, contractors and NGOs – EcoShape and Wetlands International’s Building with Nature Indonesia project in Demak, Central Java, integrates mangrove restoration with engineered sediment-trapping structures built from locally sourced bamboo and wood. These semi-permeable barriers slow waves, capture sediment and create the right conditions for natural mangrove regeneration – thereby achieving long-term coastal protection at lower cost than conventional sea walls.31 The project employs a “bio-rights” financing mechanism that directly links community engagement with conservation outcomes. Local households receive small loans to develop sustainable aquaculture and other income-generating activities; once restoration targets are met, the loans convert into grants. This model creates clear, performance- based incentives for community participation while aligning ecological restoration with livelihood security. Embedded in the work plan of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the approach has now been replicated in the Philippines, Viet Nam and Sri Lanka, demonstrating its scalability and policy influence across Asia. These experiences illustrate the financing interventions and enabling conditions needed to mainstream blue nature- based infrastructure. Enabling finance through development and philanthropic capital helped de-risk early community engagement and pilot hybrid structures. Structured finance solutions were used in raising long-term maintenance and monitoring funds – currently absent from most public budgets – to support project durability. At the direct finance level, they integrated hybrid coastal protection into procurement pipelines and public-private partnerships, to help mobilize institutional investors seeking resilience-linked returns. The project demonstrates that combining infrastructure and financial solutions with ecosystem restoration and community incentives can deliver durable coastal resilience outcomes. Though the integration of blue infrastructure solutions into coastal infrastructure design has the potential to deliver significant and multidimensional benefits, a number of barriers currently inhibit their uptake and, consequently, their capacity to attract private finance flows. CASE STUDY 3 EcoShape and Wetlands International: Redefining coastal infrastructure by “Building with Nature” Image credit: Nanang Sujana/Wetlands International Turning the Tide: A Financier’s Guide to Investing in Blue Carbon Ecosystems 17