Blue Pioneer | 2024 Blue Pioneer, here we come!

The "Blue Pioneer" program is a capacity building project for local marine public welfare talents in China, jointly supported by Yintai Philanthropy, Paradise Ecological Protection Foundation, Paradise Wang Xiaoduan Director, and David and Lucille Parker Foundation. The project is being executed by the Environmental Research Center, Sustainable Investment Research Program, and Kunshan Duke University Education Development Foundation. Since the launch of the project, 120 trainees have successfully completed the training, and their professional abilities in the field of marine protection have been significantly improved. In 2024, we welcomed 20 new students from different backgrounds with a deep passion for marine conservation. They hope to enhance their personal abilities through professional training, and communicate and collide with peers to contribute to the marine conservation cause together.

Riding the wind and breaking the waves, we are here!

We're back to school! On the morning of May 10th, the 2024 Blue Pioneer Program was officially launched. At the launch ceremony, Professor Zhang Junjie, Director of the Sustainable Investment Research Program at Duke Kunshan University, delivered a speech welcoming the students. Ms. Liu Hui, Director of the Marine Project of Paradise Ecological Protection Foundation, gave a keynote speech, sharing the methods and concepts of the foundation's frontline protection work, its investment in the cultivation of marine protection talents, and its expectations for the students. The Yintai Philanthropy also looks forward to the new generation of blue pioneers taking marine protection as their true mission and growing into the backbone of China's marine protection cause.

Professor Zhang Junjie delivers a welcome speech

Director Liu Hui's keynote speech

How can we do better in ocean public welfare?

As a marine conservation public welfare person, passion alone is far from enough. Every Blue Pioneer partner hopes to further enhance their project operation level and institutional management capabilities while improving themselves. In response to the training needs of our partners, the project team has broken down the training into three parts: a macro perspective on marine conservation science and policy, practical experience of frontline public welfare partners, and improvement of working methods for marine public welfare personnel.

Fishery Resource Economics, Marine Anthropology, Marine Protected Areas  These three classes, along with their effectiveness evaluation, have brought many new insights to the Blue Pioneer partners in the new year. Marine conservation is a grand issue, and under this topic, we need to work together;    We have seen the diverse value of fishery resources and further recognized the complex challenges faced by marine protected areas in management. Solving major problems requires concrete actions. During this training, Hai Shu from Qingbang Island and 7 Blue Pioneer alumni also came to the venue to share their solutions. "Local action of fishing villages", "reduction of foamed plastic waste in fishing operations", "restoration of abandoned shrimp ponds into mangroves"... The sharing of the guests was specific and fresh. Marine protection was not a whim of blue pioneers, but depended on daily efforts and persistence. Amidst enthusiastic sharing, the students of 2024 are also eager to "get things done" together.

The 2024 students not only gained a lot of theoretical knowledge and practical experience in marine conservation, but also had new inspirations and gains in the design of public welfare projects and the improvement of specific work methods. Marine public welfare projects designed for different service groups in different cities will face diverse challenges, and there is no unified standard answer to these questions. But through the explanations of public welfare experts on a series of issues such as "theory and practice of scientific public welfare", "insight into needs in public welfare projects", "using stories to unite people", and "effectiveness evaluation in public welfare projects", the students comprehensively sorted out the entire closed-loop process of public welfare projects from initiation, implementation, dissemination to evaluation, which laid a solid foundation for them to carry out marine public welfare projects in the future.

Blue Pioneer students will take this as a starting point and set sail. In the future, Yintai Philanthropy will continue to support the "Blue Pioneer" program through various forms, cultivate more marine public welfare talents, and promote the prosperous development of China's marine protection cause.