the tiny african island nation of seychelles blue bonds economic roadmap using an integrated approach to the sustainable development of ocean resources has inspired original investor nuveen to expand its reach nuveen is considering buying a portion of ecuadors new 656 million blue bond to help fund conservation of its galapagos islands will nuveen be able to find the same success in ecuador as it has in success as the seychelles the first sovereign entity to issue a blue bond the breakdown you need to know reuters reported that this potential deal in ecuador follows smaller such debt issues including from seychelles and barbados which nuveen bought into becoming one of the worlds biggest buyers of ecofriendly bonds blue bonds aim to use debt proceeds to finance waterrelated andor oceanbased projects according to culturebanx in 2020 seychelles made 30 of their exclusive economic zone marine protected areas and have been able to use the blue bonds to ride the waves towards lowering national debt the seychelles where nuveen invested in 2018 is using proceeds from its own blue bond for cash grants to provide better equipment for the fishing industry and working on building more efficient processing plants for the catch said stephen liberatore nuveens head of esg in an interview bluebond background here’s a little background on how the 2018 seychelles 15 million 10year blue bond works it’s backed by a 5 million guarantee from the world bank along with a 5 million concessionary loan from the global environment facility and investors will receive a 65 annual interest rate blue bonds are modeled on the green labeled debt which was pioneered by the world bank and first emerged a decade ago moody’s reported that issuance of green bonds reached 254 billion in the first quarter of 2023 up 36 from the fourth quarter of 2022 situational awareness seychelles being the first country to sell debt earmarked specifically for ocean projects make sense especially because fishing brings in 97 of its annual export earnings and employs 17 of the nation’s population the concept has seen some traction worldwide with both the nordic investment bank and the world bank launching their own blue bonds to address specific marine protection issues