THE PERPETUAL PLANET INITIATIVE
For nearly a century, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. The company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to support individuals and organizations using science to understand and devise solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

This engagement was reinforced with the launch of the Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019, which initially focused on individuals who contribute to a better world through the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, on safeguarding the oceans as part of an established association with Mission Blue, and on understanding climate change via its longstanding partnership with the National Geographic Society.

An expanding portfolio of other partnerships embraced by the Perpetual Planet Initiative now includes: Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen in their work as conservation photographers; Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, offspring organizations of Tompkins Conservation, which are protecting landscapes in South America; Coral Gardeners, transplanting resilient corals to reefs; Steve Boyes and the Great Spine of Africa series of expeditions, exploring the continent’s major river basins; the Under The Pole expeditions, pushing the boundaries of underwater exploration; the B.I.G expedition to the North Pole in 2023, gathering data on threats to the Arctic; and the Monaco Blue Initiative, bringing together ocean conservation experts.

Rolex also supports organizations and initiatives fostering the next generations of explorers, scientists and conservationists through scholarships and grants such as Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.

ROLEX AND MISSION BLUE
Since the 1930s, Rolex has been an active supporter of pioneering explorers. Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches have accompanied individuals to the highest mountains and to the ocean depths, serving as precise, reliable tools. In turn, these groundbreaking expeditions proved to be the perfect “living laboratory” for the brand to test its timepieces. Rolex played a pioneering role in the development of divers’ watches that enabled and accompanied the development of deep-sea diving and exploration.

Sylvia Earle, a Rolex Testimonee since 1982, has been a pioneer of ocean exploration for more than a half-century. Since 2009, through her Mission Blue initiative, Earle has encouraged communities and governments to shield marine life that is at risk from human pressures through protected areas called Hope Spots.

Rolex partnered her Mission Blue project to promote marine conservation in 2014, as part of a commitment to help protect the oceans.

Earle launched Mission Blue after winning a 2009 TED prize for her “vision to spark global change”, with the aim of creating a global network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) called Hope Spots. These are ecologically important areas of the oceans considered vital to the preservation of species or places where communities rely on a healthy marine environment to survive. Key to the programme is the empowerment of local people to make change by creating a global wave of community support for ocean conservation.

The oceans represent nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and harbour most of the world’s biodiversity, but they are in trouble. Many commercially exploited species of fish have declined by 90 per cent; about half of the coral reefs have disappeared or experienced serious decline; and hundreds of coastal dead zones have developed.

Mission Blue’s goal is to help protect 30 per cent of the oceans by 2030, which is the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) recommended target for safeguarding ocean health. With the support of Rolex, Mission Blue is trying to ensure that marine ecosystems, in all their teeming diversity, are not lost to future generations.

HOW MISSION BLUE WORKS
Individuals, local governments or community organizations can nominate an area for Hope Spot status by filling out a detailed form on mission-blue.org. Applications are assessed by a team at Mission Blue and then put to the Hope Spot Council, which is comprised of marine scientists and policy experts.

Essential to a successful application is evidence of support from community and conservation organizations, as well as a “Champion”, a person or organization who can represent the area nominated on a scientific and policy level. The Champion conducts research projects and coordinates action in a Hope Spot by meeting government, business and community leaders, running advocacy events and working with children of all ages.

Once applications for Hope Spot status are approved by the council, work begins on a launch plan with local communities intended to put the area on a global stage, raise awareness about the issues at hand and provide bottom-up pressure on policymakers to create and enforce MPAs.

Hope Spots can be established in areas where no formal protection exists or in MPAs where more action is needed. Furthermore, a legal framework is not necessary as long as the community comes together to protect the area. The ultimate goal, however, is to have a legally enforced MPA. From just a concept of preserving the oceans in 2009, Mission Blue now comprises a California-based staff, a diverse board of directors, a scientific advisory council and a wide coalition of partners.

HOW MISSION BLUE CREATES IMPACT
More than 145 Hope Spots have so far been recognized around the world. Mission Blue now works directly with communities in more than 69 countries to restore and protect their unique ocean environments. It implements communications campaigns through documentaries, social media, traditional media and tools such as StoryMaps that gather stories and content on Hope Spots.

Since 2009, the organization has also undertaken more than 30 very specialized expeditions with local partners and scientists to gather data and to create visual content that highlights discoveries, conservation challenges and cutting-edge science that will assist in ocean advocacy; stories and findings are shared on Mission Blue’s digital platform. During expeditions, Mission Blue typically meets with government and community leaders, views scientific projects and co-hosts community events.

EXAMPLES OF HOPE SPOTS
COCOS−GALÁPAGOS SWIMWAY
Mission Blue, along with many like-minded organizations, both global and local, successfully petitioned the governments of Ecuador and Costa Rica to create one of the first bilateral MPAs in the world – a protected swimway allowing animals to swim between two protected marine reserves in the Cocos and the Galápagos. On 17 December 2021, Costa Rica expanded the Cocos Island National Park, which lies at the heart of the Cocos Island Hope Spot. This move adds approximately 53,000 sq km (21,235 sq miles) of fully protected waters to Costa Rica’s territory. Ecuador followed on 14 January 2022 by expanding the Galápagos Marine Reserve by 60,000 sq km (23,166 sq miles), an area that includes the swimway.

Recent studies have revealed that at least five endangered marine species – whale sharks, leatherback sea turtles, green sea turtles, silky sharks and scalloped hammerhead sharks – use this swimway to migrate between the reserves.

Hope Spot Champion and Executive Director of the Turtle Restoration Network Todd Steiner says: “By expanding these marine reserves and working with the governments of Costa Rica and Ecuador, along with additional partners to create the first bilateral agreement, we allow endangered species to migrate safely outside the small MPAs and connect two sovereign nations’ marine national parks, something we hope will be a blueprint that is copied across the globe.”

Sylvia Earle led a 2022 Mission Blue expedition to the archipelago that focused on migratory sharks and exploration of Wolf and Darwin Islands, the most remote islands in the archipelago. Members of the team contributed to research on a newly discovered kelp, which may be a new species.

EXMOUTH GULF – NINGALOO REEF WORLD HERITAGE AREA
Mission Blue was instrumental in the creation of a new marine park in the eastern and southern sections of West Australia’s Exmouth Gulf, which borders the world-famous Ningaloo Reef. Ben Fitzpatrick, who has researched the Ningaloo Reef for more than 20 years, became Champion of the Exmouth Gulf and Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Hope Spot when it was established in 2019. He and his team at Oceanwise helped to create the momentum for the government’s park announcement in late 2021. “This newly protected area exists in a particularly important bioregion for conservation that has been poorly represented in marine parks to date and has sustained an incredible amount of industrialization in the last two decades,” Fitzpatrick said. “Creating a representative marine park containing the arid mangrove forests, humpback whales, dugongs, turtles, sea snakes, seabirds, mantas, sharks and rays, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and echinoderms unique to this part of the world is vital to conservation.” 

AZORES ARCHIPELAGO
When Mission Blue announced the Azores as a Hope Spot in 2021, founder Sylvia Earle described the waters surrounding the archipelago in the north Atlantic as a “magnet for life”. They teem with cetaceans and other megafauna that find rich feeding grounds among the area’s concealed seamounts. The area has been under pressure from fishing, agriculture, maritime transport, as well as plastics. In 2019, the Regional Government of the Azores created a no-take MPA in 15 per cent of its waters. In June 2022, the area was doubled creating the largest MPA in the north Atlantic and allowing the Azores to meet its commitment to protect 30 per cent of its ocean by 2023.

SYLVIA EARLE – A VISIONARY
As President and Co-Chairman of Mission Blue, Sylvia Earle lives up to the name of “Her Deepness”, bestowed on her by The New York Times. Oceanographer, explorer, author of more than 225 publications and lecturer, she has a lifetime of experience as a field research scientist, government official and director for corporate and non-profit organizations. Armed with a PhD from Duke University and 30 honorary degrees, Earle, among her many prestigious positions, was formerly Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a National Geographic Explorer-in- Residence and founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research Inc (DOER). In 1970, Earle led a team of aquanauts who lived for two weeks in an underwater laboratory as part of a US government research project, Tektite II, to study ocean life and the effects of living underwater on the human body. In 1979, she set the world untethered diving record, descending 381 metres (1,250 feet) beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a pressure-resistant JIM diving suit. In 2022, Rolex celebrated her 40 years as a brand Testimonee.