The Conservation Land Trust (CLT) has worked for 25 years on land conservation in Argentina and Chile, achieving their greatest conservation lands donation in history. To ensure healthy terrestrial ecosystems, it is crucial to protect the ocean as well: 36% of Argentine territory is sea and less than 3% is protected. In 2017, Sin Azul No Hay Verde was created to help protect at least 10% of the Argentine Sea by 2020, through no-take protected areas under an effective governance mechanism.
Sin Azul No Hay Verde works to create marine and coastal corridors that protect the migratory routes and feeding and breeding grounds of ocean wildlife. In coastal corridors, they apply CLT’s concept of “Full Nature”, creating national parks that offer long-term protection to intact ecosystems that can also act as ecotourism destinations. In the open sea, they work to establish a network of well-enforced protected areas with a focus on corridors for the life cycle of marine species and protecting vulnerable ecosystems.
Sin Azul No Hay Verde has made history: they encouraged the signature of the Presidential Decree that named Argentina's National Parks Administration (NPA) the authority for future marine protected areas. It is the first time a national agency with a conservation interest has authority on the Argentine Sea. Sin Azul No Hay Verde also introduced a bill in Argentina's Congress that creates their first two marine national parks, covering a total of 102,000 sq. km, mostly managed as no take.
