Photo credit: Adobe Stock
A new fund for the recovery of Wales’s marine and coastal ecosystems has opened a call for ideas, asking organisations across the country what work is needed and where the gaps lie. MARINE Fund Cymru, which stands for Marine Resilience and Improvement of Natural Ecosystems, is managed by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and is gathering views as it designs its first grant round.
What the call for ideas is
The survey is an early step to help the fund understand what activities organisations are planning and what barriers or funding gaps currently exist. It is explicitly not a funding application, and organisations do not need a fully developed project to take part, with early ideas welcome. Submitting an idea does not commit an organisation to applying later, nor does it guarantee funding. Responses will be used in a combined, high-level way to shape the fund’s future design and focus.
The form runs to three short sections covering organisational details, funding and delivery needs, and the idea or ideas themselves. It takes around 15 to 20 minutes for a single idea, and is available in both English and Welsh. All questions are optional.
How the fund works
MARINE Fund Cymru brings in voluntary contributions from businesses and others that want to support the marine environment, then distributes that money as grants to ecosystem recovery projects around the Welsh coast. It opened to contributions in January 2026, supported by a £500,000 commitment from The Crown Estate, and intends to run its first grant round later this year.
Grants will go to projects that improve the health, resilience and biodiversity of Welsh marine and coastal ecosystems; that tackle climate change and other pressures through practical, nature-based action; and that build the knowledge, skills and partnerships needed for long-term recovery and for coastal communities to deliver sustainable outcomes.
Governance and origins
WCVA has developed the fund alongside the Wales Coasts and Seas Partnership, known as CaSP Cymru. Oversight comes from a steering group drawing on the Welsh government, The Crown Estate, Natural Resources Wales, WCVA and CaSP Cymru members, including both industry and environmental organisations. The fund is intended to support the Welsh government’s marine policy and its vision of seas that are clean, healthy, safe, productive, sustainably used and biologically diverse. WCVA says its model draws on the Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund, adapted to Welsh priorities.
Sources: