Invest in First Nations leadership, partnership, and lasting change.
Support genuine partnership with First Nations peoples to advance shared learning on Country, ethical procurement, and community-led action—creating enduring impact beyond marine conservation.
For more than 60 years, the Australian Marine Conservation Society has worked to protect the ocean, coastlines and marine life. Yet we know the long-term health of Sea Country depends not only on conservation outcomes, but on transforming how organisations like ours work with the First Nations peoples who have cared for these waters for millennia.
AMCS is committed to ensuring that First Nations leadership, cultural knowledge and governance are meaningfully embedded in how our organisation listens, learns and makes decisions.
Our Side by Side Plan for Action recognises that lasting ocean protection requires institutional and systems-level change. It reflects our commitment to walk alongside First Nations peoples in ways that build trust, respect cultural authority and create genuine opportunities for partnership and leadership.
This work requires sustained investment to continue building a stronger model for ocean conservation, one grounded in respect, relationship and shared stewardship.
If you share our belief that the future of Australia’s ocean must be shaped side by side with First Nations knowledge and leadership, we invite you to support this work. With your philanthropic partnership, we will continue to:
- Embed cultural learning across our staff, leadership and board to strengthen understanding of First Nations cultures, histories and Sea Country knowledge.
- Ensure First Nations expertise, cultural knowledge and intellectual property are appropriately recognised and fairly compensated.
- Develop respectful engagement frameworks that guide how AMCS builds relationships with Sea Country custodians across Australia.
- Invest in long-term partnerships with First Nations organisations and communities connected to the marine environments we work to protect.
- Expand employment, collaboration and procurement opportunities for First Nations peoples and businesses within AMCS’ work.
- Create opportunities for knowledge exchange and First Nations leadership in marine conservation initiatives and storytelling.
- Strengthen governance and accountability by embedding reconciliation commitments into AMCS policies, budgets and organisational decision-making.
Explore how you can help enable this important work below.
All donations over $2 are 100% tax-deductible. The projects featured in the Funding Prospectus are priority campaign activities and needs for which we are urgently seeking funds – current at the time of posting or going to press. As time progresses, there may be some cases in which the project you have selected may already be fully funded. In that instance, we would be delighted to discuss where the need is greatest at the given time. All of our campaigns work in symbiotic support of our mission to protect our oceans. Please be assured your gift will go to work to be the voice for Australia’s oceans, working on the big issues that risk our ocean wildlife.
