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OUR PARTNERS
Allies in equity, experts in impact.
Moananui Sanctuary works with a global network of partners across science, law, finance, innovation, and ocean stewardship. Each relationship is grounded in reciprocity and a shared commitment to protecting whales, strengthening ocean ecosystems, and advancing Indigenous-led conservation.
Our Approach
Empowering communities, strengthening ocean stewardship.
Moananui Sanctuary is an Indigenous-led organisation working to protect whales, migration corridors, and the living ocean systems of the Moananui.
We recognise a long-standing imbalance in global conservation and climate finance, where Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities—despite safeguarding much of the world’s remaining biodiversity—continue to receive limited access to funding and decision-making.
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Less than 1% of global climate finance reaches Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities directly.
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Only a small proportion of major climate funding flows has reached Indigenous and community-led organisations.
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These patterns reflect structural inequities in how conservation has been resourced over time.
We work to shift this by strengthening Indigenous leadership, reducing barriers between communities and resources, and supporting locally led governance. We value global partners working across conservation, science, and philanthropy. Our role is to ensure Indigenous governance remains at the centre of ocean stewardship.
Our mandate is simple: those who have safeguarded the Moananui for generations must continue to lead its protection into the future—with the tools, relationships, and resources to do so on their own terms.
Who We Partner With
To achieve this, we have built a bespoke, agile network of aligned allies. We
actively partner with:
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ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) leaders and impact
financiers who are committed to high-integrity, equitable nature-positive
conservation projects and nature markets.
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Economic, legal, and scientific experts who provide world-class
technical support to our grassroots initiatives.
This collaborative model ensures that our communities are backed by top-tier
global expertise, but strictly on our own terms. Every partnership and
engagement is governed by traditional cultural protocols, ensuring that
Indigenous equity and sovereignty are upheld at every level of operation.
Huelo Matamoana Trust
Tonga
Rahui Centre
Tahiti
Apparent Winds
United States of America
EarthRanger
United States
Ocean Vision Legal
United States
Simmons+
Simmons
United Kingdom
Vava’u Environmental Protection Association
Tonga
Citizens Of The Sea
Aotearoa
Together for the better good
Portugal
Blue Green Future
United States of America
Stewardship Circle
Huelo Matamoana Trust
Huelo Matamoana Trust is a Tonga-based Indigenous organisation working at the heart of
community-led ocean stewardship and whale protection. Grounded in Tongan values, knowledge
systems, and relationships with the ocean, the Trust plays a vital role in guiding and anchoring
Moananui’s work in Tonga.
Their leadership ensures that conservation in the region is shaped by local voices, lived experience,
and cultural responsibility to the moana and its life. Through deep community relationships and
longstanding stewardship practice, Huelo Matamoana Trust helps hold the integrity of place-based
knowledge within broader Pacific collaboration.
Our partnership is grounded in respect, reciprocity, and trust. Together, we are strengthening
Indigenous leadership in Tonga and supporting approaches to ocean governance that are led from
within the communities who have cared for these waters for generations.
The Rāhui Centre
The Rahui Centre is based in Moorea, Tahiti, and works at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge, cultural revitalisation, and environmental stewardship. Their work reminds us that healthy oceans and healthy communities are inseparable, and that lasting conservation begins with strong cultural foundations.
Our partnership reflects a shared belief that traditional knowledge systems hold essential wisdom
for addressing today's environmental challenges. Together, we are supporting Indigenous
leadership, strengthening community guardianship, and ensuring that cultural knowledge continues
to guide how we care for the Moananui.
Together, these partnerships help create something larger than any one organisation could achieve
alone: a living network of people, knowledge, technology, and stewardship working together to
protect whales, strengthen ocean guardianship, and support the wellbeing of future generations.
Apparent Winds
Apparent Winds is the nonprofit organisation behind Resilience, the vessel at the heart of the
ĀVEI MOANA™ voyage.
Through this partnership, Resilience becomes a platform for connection across the Pacific—bringing
together Indigenous leaders, scientists, navigators, storytellers, artists, and communities who share
a commitment to protecting the ocean.
ĀVEI MOANA™ creates opportunities to exchange knowledge, strengthen relationships, elevate
Indigenous voices, and celebrate the cultural connections that have linked our ocean nations for
generations. Together, we are helping build a movement grounded in respect, reciprocity, and a
shared responsibility to future generations.
Collective Partners
Whale Seeker
Canada
Blue Carbon International
United States
Supporting Partners
Circular Bioeconomy Alliance
United Kingdom
UNESCO
France
Ocean Allies
