Save the Waves is a pioneer of the international conservation of surfing coastlines, offering proactive insurance policies to preserve surfing hotspots and provide a financial safety net to coastal communities. Their parametric insurance policy promotes sustainable tourism, safeguards household income, and equitably distributes resources to enable communities to take proactive action in maintaining local marine ecosystems. This innovative insurance project has the potential to serve as a model for the global protection of surf ecosystems and coastal communities.
The Save the Waves initiative centralises surfing as a critical stakeholder in conversations about blue economies. It acknowledges surfing as a significant financial contributor to coastal communities and recognises the necessity of building coastal resilience in the face of climate disasters. The recent intensification of storm surges and coastal floods have contributed to the denigration of ocean floors, including coral reefs, kelp forests, bays and headlands, and the acceleration of watershed sedimentation rates. The 2023 Ecological Threat Report by the Institute of Economics and Peace outlines the severe, destructive effect of these extreme weather events on ocean ecology, indicating the risk climate disasters pose to the physical integrity of surfing hotspots, which rely on these natural oceanic formations to generate surfable swells.
The ETR emphasises how the effects of climate disasters compound when a country has low resilience levels. The Global Peace Index indicates that environmental shocks like climate disasters can affect a country’s levels of peacefulness by generating food insecurity and conflict. Concurrently, the Positive Peace Index ranks El Salvador as a country with a high natural disaster risk and low resilience. IEP research indicates the region faces substantial challenges in biodiversity protection, with low indicators of species protection and habitat preservation. Furthermore, El Salvador is a known tourist hotspot infamous for its incredible beaches and surfing culture. Therefore, the Save the Waves initiative strategically prioritised El Salvador in offering their new insurance policy and named the Oriente Salvaje region as a World Surfing Reserve.
The organisation recognises the significance of surfing as a sport and recreational activity that generates revenue for coastal communities, hence the importance of protecting the ecosystems that ensure the integrity and quality of the surfing environment. The Save the Waves initiative allows Salvadoran coastal communities equitable access to helpful resources to build economic resilience in the face of climatic extremes and protect critical surf ecosystems while mitigating the environmental impact of surf tourism.
At the core of the Save the Waves initiative is the parametric insurance model, a proactive policy that provides insurance payouts for fulfilling specific climate conditions pre-emptive to natural disasters. The project will leverage current ecosystem-generated revenues from the insured surfing locations to offset future weather-related risks to the ocean area, making the solution affordable for residents. The initiative was successfully introduced in El Salvador with support from the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) and the Government of Canada.
The conjunctive efforts of these organisations culminated in declaring Oriente Salvaje a World Surfing Reserve, promoting its conservation and providing international recognition for the significance of mitigating environmental threats against its waves and coastal ecosystems. The policy has allowed the local community to take swift preventive measures and respond more effectively to environmental threats. The initiative aims to protect 1,000 surf ecosystems by 2030 by equitably distributing the resources necessary for coastal communities to value, protect, and manage their natural resources.
Currently, the organisation monitors over 5,000 surf spots worldwide – 24% of which are in key biodiversity areas. Supporting the insurance model, Save the Waves is implementing additional initiatives, including establishing more surf reserves, ecosystem restoration projects, and educational programs. These efforts promote sustainable tourism and conservation, addressing the broader challenges of climate change and rising sea levels, the degradation of coastal ecosystems, and the social inequity and economic vulnerability of coastal communities, highlighted in IEP’s Ecological Threat Report. Specifically, introducing programs to increase and spread awareness of these ecological threats and their impacts adheres to IEP’s recognition of education as a critical factor in building resilient, peaceful societies capable of addressing complex challenges like climate change.
The recently announced World Surfing Reserve in Oriente Salvaje, El Salvador, will serve as a case study to scale this approach, an effort led in coalition with local partners ADETCO, Paso Pacifico, and Sociedad Salvaje Salvadoreña. The success of the Save the Waves project in El Salvador could have far-reaching implications for coastal communities worldwide; as a model for combining financial innovation with environmental conservation, it offers a replicable framework that could be adapted to various coastal regions facing similar climate threats.
The project exemplifies IEP’s findings on the interconnectedness of environmental protection, economic stability, and peacebuilding by demonstrating how targeted environmental initiatives can contribute to broader peace, strength, and sustainable development goals. Save the Waves is charting a course for integrated approaches to global challenges.
Implementing this innovative model presents challenges. Accurate climate modelling, community engagement, and long-term financial sustainability are critical factors determining the project’s success and scalability. As the IEP’s Ecological Threat Report suggests, environmental initiatives must be part of a broader strategy that addresses underlying social, economic, and political factors to contribute to lasting peace and stability. The project must also navigate the complexities of local governance structures and ensure that the insurance model’s benefits reach those most in need.
Balancing the interests of various stakeholders, from local surfers to international tourism operators, will be crucial for the initiative’s long-term success and acceptance. Furthermore, as climate change accelerates, the project may need to adapt its parameters and expand its scope to address new and emerging threats to coastal ecosystems. This will require ongoing research, collaboration with climate scientists, and flexibility in the insurance model’s design.
The initiative’s success in El Salvador could lead to similar projects worldwide, creating a network of climate-resilient coastal communities. As climate change challenges increase, projects like these demonstrate the potential of innovation, collaboration, and proactive planning in building a sustainable future.
The Save the Waves project is an approach to preserving coastal environments, supporting local communities, and fostering global cooperation in response to climate change. Such integrated approaches may be important in building a resilient, sustainable, and peaceful world. The project demonstrates the connection between environmental conservation and peacebuilding by providing access to resources for preserving oceanic ecosystems, potentially contributing to maintaining peace in coastal communities that depend on these natural environments.
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