23 in '23: A Rare Year-in-Review
Welcome to Rare's 2023 Year-in-Review. In this year's report, we elevate and celebrate our work through 23 voices of individuals working with Rare toward positive change for people and nature.
Every one of us has a story to tell, and we can all contribute meaningfully to building a more sustainable and equitable planet.
By sharing our stories of positive change, we seek to inspire the collective action that will make the future worth celebrating.
A message from the President
Part 1: Our actions can drive positive change
In 2023, we demonstrated that the collective power of individual choices and actions can bring about substantial change for nature. These collective actions, combined with systemic change, robust policies, international cooperation, and local leadership, amplify our ability to tackle our leading environmental challenges head-on.
Finalists at the Earthshot awards in Singapore. Mayor Coro, second to left.
Finalists at the Earthshot awards in Singapore. Mayor Coro, second to left.
When The Earthshot Prize named the Coastal 500 a prize finalist, it recognized mayors' vital roles in safeguarding our coastal communities and ecosystems and provided our climate change frontliners the chance to share their ocean success stories with other mayors and the world."
The Coastal 500, which Rare helped launch in 2021, was one of three finalists in the "Revive our Oceans" category for a £1 million prize awarded by HRH Prince William and the Earthshot Prize.
Rare in Indonesia's Southeast Sulawesi province formalized 74 microbusinesses of coastal entrepreneurs once excluded from accessing the formal economy's benefits. Women lead half of these businesses.
This year, Rare trained nearly 1,000 practitioners in behavior-centered design. Over time, the BE.Center has partnered with 50+ organizations to build behaviorally informed solutions to critical environmental challenges.
Support from donors like Blue Action Fund ensures that Rare and its Fish Forever partners systematically improve how we help coastal communities manage and protect our ocean’s most valuable waters.
Rare’s new Boston SHINE initiative expands access to solar power for Boston’s historically disadvantaged communities and trains workers from those communities as professional solar installers.
Building people's confidence in their ability to act on climate change and other environmental crises is key to mobilizing large-scale change."
Rare’s nationwide Climate Culture Index measures the state of Americans' beliefs related to climate action. The data provides valuable insights for media and the government and empowers climate activists, advocates, and allies to design data-driven interventions that move people along the journey from inaction to action.
Part 2: Committing to change is powerful
In 2023, the following remains true: Human behavior is both the cause and the solution to every major conservation and development challenge. Working together to adopt more responsible, sustainable, and climate-friendly behaviors is the single most important thing we can do to ensure human well-being and nature’s survival.
What we’re doing is amazing. It’s changing lives. And it’s necessary for the planet. I hope to keep participating in this community change and documenting it so people see that we must continue this work.”
Recent program results from Agrosavia, Colombia’s leading Institute for Agricultural Research, found a more abundant yield, healthier trees, and a nearly 50% cost savings to farmers implementing Rare’s approach to regenerative agriculture in Colombia through its Lands for Life program.
Bloomberg Philanthropies' Bloomberg Ocean Initiative, launching its third phase in 2023, is a core funder of Rare’s Fish Forever program. Other Initiative members include Oceana, Global Fishing Watch, Oceans5, WCS, National Geographic Pristine Seas, and Blue Ventures.
With new funding from Blue Action Fund and USAID, Rare is supporting 13+ more communities and their fisheries management bodies in Mozambique to create community-managed marine areas and alternative livelihoods.
1,100+ practitioners and policymakers from 140 countries have signed up for Rare’s new virtual course, ‘Intro to Behavior-Centered Design,’ hosted on UNDP's global Learning for Nature platform.
In Colombia, Rare's Lands for Life program, partnering with farmers and local leaders in Colombia's Meta region, has planted over 131,000 trees on participating farmers' land since the Trees for Life campaign launched.
I have witnessed so many positive changes in our communities. They have taken power over their resources and are defending them. I have worked in marine conservation for 23 years, and I have never seen a process led by the community like this.”
Fish Forever in Honduras declared two coastal municipalities, Trujillo and Santa Fe, as managed access areas covering nearly 1,500 km2 in 2023. All 298 Honduran municipalities support the national government declaring 0-12 nautical miles from shore as community-managed marine areas.
Part 3: Rare’s work is more vital than ever
In 2023, our global challenges abound. The climate emergency. Overfishing. Deforestation. The extinction crisis. These problems threaten biodiversity, jeopardize people’s health and well-being, drive inequities, and endanger the planet’s future. Rare remains committed to co-creating local solutions with our partners worldwide to strengthen and restore our relationship with nature.
As climate change and biodiversity loss increase, the new global 30x30 campaign offers us a critical opportunity to protect our community seas and the two billion people living near the world’s coasts.”
In 2023, Fish Forever expanded into more coastal areas of Indonesia, Mozambique, the Philippines, and Brazil, created a sector-wide global learning platform, published a report about its work helping fishers adapt to climate change, and joined NGOs creating a 30x30 policy framework to recognize community-managed marine areas.
Rare, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) and Meta released the 2nd annual global study of public attitudes and beliefs about climate change in 2023. An updated version that includes Rare's behavioral science research insights will be published in 2024.
President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, Costa Rica’s 48th President and Rare Trustee, spoke at a Rare event at Netflix about the importance of taking personal action for the climate. He also shared insights during a Rare Conversation with Rare CEO Brett Jenks on the new era of global climate migration.
In September, Fish Forever organized the world’s first Amazonian Mangrove Conference in Belém, Brazil, with the 12 Associations for Marine Extractive Reserves and CONFREM. Over 300 experts and advocates gathered to discuss solutions for safeguarding the coastal Amazon's future.
Our 2023 Rare Conversations series engaged over 1,000 individuals on topics ranging from regenerative agriculture to climate migration and climate action.
Part 4: Together we can transform our future
Rare's global network of mayors, local leaders, governments, funders, community members, creatives, partners, practitioners, entrepreneurs, scientists, and staff works together to guarantee the future of our food, our livelihoods, and our well-being. In 2023 and beyond, we have remained inspired and hopeful by the potential to transform how we protect and manage our planet.
Culture, community, and climate are inextricably linked. The stories we tell reflect the communities we come from and the future we aspire to."
Based on Rare’s research, 7 in 10 Americans want climate-friendly behaviors on screen. Rare's Entertainment Lab, which has been highlighted as a climate leader changing the film and TV industry (and featured in The Guardian, Fast Company, and NPR), helps the industry represent our climate reality and opportunity for action.
Through Pride on our Plates, Rare has trained 150 restaurants in Beijing and Kunming while directly supporting 20 to adopt sustainable practices that curb food waste – a major contributor to China’s GHG emissions.
Rare’s 2023 Solution Search Contest, ‘Changing Unsustainable Trade,’ with WCS and USAID, solicited existing behavioral solutions throughout Latin America & the Caribbean. To date, the contests have showcased nearly 1,000 solutions across 132 countries.
Rare's Fish Forever program reaches 300,000 community members across Honduras. This includes the Indigenous Garifuna communities of Santa Fe and Iriona and others across the program. The program's 47 new savings clubs have collectively saved $400,000 to date.
In 2023, Rare and Palau’s Bureau of Fisheries handed over a new, first-of-its-kind national fisher registration system to the Republic of Palau. This system seeks to formally register and license Palau’s small-scale fishers to support their decision-making.
Thanks to you, 2023 was no less than extraordinary. Rare’s work in 2023 illuminates a universal truth: Our actions, when taken together, amount to a more hopeful, plentiful, and beautiful future for us all."
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