BLUE INDIGO FOUNDATION

Blue Indigo Foundation is a locally based organisation in San Andrés, Colombia, working on the conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems, with a particular focus on coral reefs. It was co-founded by three people — a biologist who serves as director, her husband (a native islander of Raizal heritage), and a friend who is also Raizal — a composition that deliberately reflects the three principal identities of the archipelago: Raizal, Islander, and legal resident. The foundation operates through three interconnected lines of work: environmental restoration and conservation, social education and community engagement, and the generation of local employment for environmental professionals from the island.

The organisation runs a modular laboratory on the southwest of San Andrés, housed in repurposed shipping containers on a 600-square-metre plot granted under a 30-year usufruct arrangement from the local authority. The laboratory includes two wet labs, a dry lab, office space, an open workspace, and a storage area. From this facility, the team conducts coral cultivation in underwater nurseries using methods such as rope systems, tables, and domes, transplants cultured fragments onto degraded reef areas, and researches techniques for improving coral disease resistance — including a collaborative project with universities in the United States and an institute in the Bahamas to develop probiotics that strengthen coral fitness. A hybrid reef project addresses coastal protection. A separate seagrass conservation line is funded through a national environmental fund. An education programme funded by an international energy company brings reef conservation content to schools and diving operators.

The foundation finances its work almost entirely through competitive international grants and donor partnerships, working alongside bodies including Conservation International, an international animal welfare fund, a marine science institute from the Bahamas, universities in North Carolina and Massachusetts, and a facility linked to the global conservation union. It also holds a formal relationship with Coralina, the archipelago's environmental authority, which provides institutional endorsement for grant applications. A small supplementary income stream involves commercial partnerships with local San Andrés businesses, through which a portion of product sales is directed to the foundation.

The foundation employs a core team structured around project coordinators, each leading a small group of two to four people depending on active funding, with the director overseeing all lines and handling fundraising and administration. Recruiting and retaining locally trained marine science professionals is a stated organisational priority, as is building a pipeline of island-born talent. The foundation identifies its principal financial vulnerability as dependence on project-based funding cycles, and a current operational challenge involves formalising a fee-for-access arrangement with the island's approximately 40 registered diving schools, whose commercial activity depends directly on healthy reefs that the foundation works to restore.