Financial Innovation Coast 4C
Project Lead: Save the Waves
Location: El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and the Maldives
Timeline: Ongoing (2024-2026)
Financial Support: Received mentoring, training and financial support from the second cycle of the Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge (ORIC), that was financially supported by the Swiss Re Foundation and the UK’s Blue Planet Fund. Save the Waves subsequently received funding from the Government of Canada.
Save the Waves is developing a parametric insurance product to insure and protect surf ecosystems and their associated tourism value
ORRAA is supporting Save The Waves to safeguard surf ecosystems from the impacts of erosion and extreme weather events due to climate change. This is being undertaken through a combination of securing protected area status for surf locations, stewardship and community activism.
Through the second cycle of ORIC, ORRAA supported Save the Waves to develop the initial concept. With support from the Government of Canada Save The Waves is now developing a parametric insurance product and a surf ecosystem resilience trust fund in El Salvador to compensate coastal communities for revenue loss caused by the destructive nature of storms.
Challenge
Climate change has led to sea level rise and more extreme weather events, including through storm surge and coastal flooding. This in turn has led to the denigration of Ocean floor features and undulations, bays and headlands, which help create suitable waves for surfing. A sea swell, colliding with a coral reef or sand bank can generate big, barrelling waves good for surfing. This, together with the tourism and teaching communities around these coastal areas is the complete surf ecosystem. If the physical features that create surf waves are damaged or significantly altered by storm surge and other extreme weather events, the whole surf ecosystem is harmed.
Solution
Save The Waves is working with local surfing communities to incentivise the protection and conservation of surf ecosystems. Using “Surfonomics”, which involves valuing the quality of the break, Save the Waves is developing a bespoke parametric insurance product to insure and protect surf breaks and their associated tourism value. This insurance model helps financially sustain communities for loss of revenue due to coastal development or climate disasters that affect the ecosystem and its ability to produce surf breaks.
Save The Waves’ vision is a world where surf ecosystems are valued and protected and where surfing provides a vehicle for long-term coastal conservation. The global surfing industry is worth USD$9.5bn [Surfing – statistics & facts]. Save The Waves’ goal is to protect 1,000 surf ecosystems by 2030.
Scalability and Next Steps
Save the Waves’ goal is to help give coastal communities the tools they need to value, protect, and manage their own natural resources. It currently monitors over 5,000 surf spots around the world – 24 per cent of which are in key biodiversity areas. The parametric insurance product to be developed in El Salvador has the potential to be replicated in other key surfing regions through the World Surfing Reserves network.
We are so grateful to ORRAA and the Government of Canada for their support and belief in the potential of this out of the box thinking, and the willingness to engage with surf tourism as a financial mechanism for coastal resilience.
About Save the Waves
Save The Waves is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting surf ecosystems across the globe. Save The Waves’ vision is a world where surf ecosystems are valued and protected and where surfing provides a vehicle for long-term coastal conservation. The global surfing industry is worth USD$9.5 billion. Save The Waves’ goal is to protect 1,000 surf ecosystems by 2030.
