Description
Among Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the Bahamas and Barbados have emerged as key testing grounds for innovations in ocean management and its financing under the banner of the ‘blue economy’. This research examines the actors shaping this agenda and how new forms of blue finance are negotiated and advanced in practice. It pays particular attention to the adoption of debt-based financing instruments such as debt-for-nature swaps (DNS), marketed as a new way to resource environmental protection and ocean governance while providing fiscal relief. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, this research shows how debt restructuring has become a key channel for integrating conservation goals with financial tools, under frameworks promoted by NGO actors such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC), multilateral development banks, and private impact investors. Situating “blue bonds” and DNS within the broader architecture of blended finance and climate finance, the study analyses how ocean spaces and resources are recast as investable assets. It interrogates the promises of climate adaptation and debt sustainability attached to these deals, while highlighting concerns around ownership, sovereignty, additionality, and the limited participation of local communities. These instruments reinforce existing hierarchies of financial subordination and extend the logics of financialisation into environmental governance, raising critical questions about the politics and limits of market-led solutions.
