Nia Cambridge

Small island developing states (SIDS) are increasingly turning to the private sector for climate finance. The ocean has emerged as a key space for market-based investment in environmental management projects that attempt to lower SIDS’ debt while mitigating against the impacts of climate change. However, private investment in environmental management has historically raised concerns about resource governance, sovereignty and livelihood sustainability. This project provides an unprecedented analysis of how new markets for private investment in national climate action are being negotiated, built, and maintained through case studies of two climate mitigation projects in The Bahamas: The Bahamas Blue Carbon Credit Project and a debt-for-nature swap with the Nature Conservancy. This project utilizes mixed methods–blending ethnography, critical geospatial information science (GIS), and digital storytelling methods–to map the spatial, material, and affective implications of global financial flows on the lives and mobilities of fishing and coastal communities in The Bahamas.