Together for our oceans: UN agencies in Brussels celebrate World Oceans Day

FAO, together with four other United Nations agencies – the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – joined forces to celebrate World Oceans Day by raising awareness of the critical role of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

The event, held at the UN House in Brussels, offered a forum to discuss opportunities for strengthened partnerships in the run up to the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, taking place in Lisbon from 27 June to 1 July. Also participating were representatives of the EU Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Co-Chairs of the United Nations Ocean Conference, Kenya and Portugal.

“Marine resources sustain the life of about 3 billion people worldwide, yet with 90 percent of the big fish population depleted, 35 percent of fish stocks overfished and 50 percent of coral reefs destroyed, we are taking more from the ocean than can be replenished,” said Camilla Brückner, Director of the United Nations Office in Brussels in her opening remarks. Stressing the importance of partnerships to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development – she added: ‘”The UN family cares deeply about ocean-related topics and cooperates in various forms with multiple national and international partners, governments, academia and civil society.”

Presenting the European Union strategy to achieve clean, healthy, productive and resilient oceans by 2030, Charlina Vitcheva, Director-General of the European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), highlighted some of the EU’s expectations for outcomes of the UN Ocean Conference. “In Lisbon, we expect an unequivocal commitment from all, for measurable and impactful actions to sustainably manage marine resources, increase the oceans’ resilience to climate change and safeguard its health for generations to come,” she told the gathering.

“We have the honour of working closely with the UN and our Kenyan partners to deliver on the main objective of the UN Oceans Conference 2022,” said Manuela Teixeira Pinto, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Portugal to the European Union and Co-Chair of the UN Oceans Conference. She stressed the importance of “maintaining the momentum for action, to conserve and sustainably use marine resources”.

Opening the first panel on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU), Raschad Al-Khafaji, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels, underscored the crucial role of effective management. “Responsible fishing practices and international regional fisheries governance mechanisms need to be implemented efficiently to safeguard the sustainability of fisheries resources,” he told the audience.

“Eliminating IUU fishing will help replenish marine life and secure food and livelihoods for billions of people,” added Cristelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary-General for the Environment and Climate Action of the Organization of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States. She went on to highlight the urgent need to ensure effective coordination and implementation of regional vessel monitoring and surveillance.

Alan Cole, Director of UNODC, Border Management Branch, spoke of the need to enhance capacities for crime-related evidence collection in the fishery sector.

Speaking in the second panel session on marine pollution & marine plastics, Veronika Hunt Šafránková, Head of the UNEP Brussels Office, recalled the importance of a recently adopted landmark resolution to end plastic pollution, which paves the way for an international legally binding instrument on ending plastic pollution, including in marine environments.

Hugo-Maria Schally, Adviser for International Environmental Negotiations at the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment, emphasized the need to tackle plastic pollution in other aquatic environments, given its role as a major source of marine litter that ends in river systems around the world.

On strengthening partnerships to achieve progress towards achieving SDG 14, Maria Nikolopoulou, Rapporteur of the Economic and Social Committee Opinion on Zero Pollution Action Plan for Air, Water and Soil, spoke of the need to break silos and create spaces to share best practices and work in synergy.

During the third session on ocean governance and awareness, Andrew Hudson, Head of UNDP’s Water & Ocean Governance Programme, recalled several ocean governance initiatives that have been transformational at regional or global scale and have made important contributions to SDG 14. Examples include scaling up integrated coastal management on the East Asian coastline and significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the international shipping sector.

Louise Haxthausen, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels, presented one of UNESCO’s key policy objectives on marine spatial planning, which aims to achieve broad ecological, social and economic objectives, in collaboration with the European Union. “Since 2017, together with DG MARE, we have adopted an ambitious roadmap to accelerate international marine spatial planning worldwide by sharing our expertise,” she said.

A special intervention was made by Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, who observed that “the current knowledge of the ocean remains mostly qualitative, hence insufficient for driving solutions to sustainability. That is why it is so important to capitalize on the UN Ocean Decade, to create a sound theoretical basis for sustainable ocean planning and management, and launch its global implementation.”

The closing session was addressed by Evans Maturu, Deputy Head of Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the European Union and Co-Chair of the UN Oceans Conference, who emphasized the important role of a multistakeholder approach in keeping the momentum, raising ocean awareness and galvanizing collective outreach towards the UN Ocean Conference 2022.

The recording of the session is available here.