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NEWS in brief

Global Highlights

San Francisco‘s World Ocean Summit 2014
Yet, as the result of unsustainable practices, the Ocean
is now one of the Earth’s most threatened ecosystems.
There is only one interconnected Ocean on this blue
planet, which means that what we do in one part of it
will ultimately affect the others. The cumulative impact
of these human activities, whether land or sea-based, has
already been estimated to affect almost the entire Ocean.
The picture is clear: the problems are global and require
global action, but will most often require local responses.
Above all, we need to change the way we interact with the
ocean.

©UN Photo/Martine Perret - As in all coastal
communities in Timor-Leste, the ocean both feeds
and sustains villagers. For generations coastal
communities in Asia have relied on a wide range
of fish for their livelihoods. However, fish stocks in
South-East Asia are being significantly depleted due
to illegal fishing and overfishing.

Ocean governance is critical: the more healthy
and resilient the ocean, the more positive its
contribution to the environmental, social and
economic dimensions of sustainable development
and vice versa. This week’s World Ocean Summit
is bringing together the Ocean community –global
leaders, business, NGOs, think-tanks, academia
and international organizations– to work on common
solutions for sound governance, with the participation
of Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, and
Wendy Watson-Wright, Executive Secretary of the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of
UNESCO.
The second World Ocean Summit took place in San
Francisco, USA, from 24 to 26 February 2014. It was
hosted by The Economist in partnership with National
Geographic as a means to feature the ocean more
prominently on global environmental, climate-change and
sustainability agendas. The Ocean is essential to life: it
provides the oxygen for every second breath we take, and
2/3 of the value of all the natural services offered by the
planet. It regulates our weather, provides food for billions
of people, and supports many industries such as fishing
and aquaculture, shipping, oil and gas, marine and coastal
tourism.

To be effective, response strategies must be sciencebased, but the importance of the ocean is not matched by
our knowledge. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) promotes
international cooperation in order to generate knowledge
about the nature and resources of the ocean and
coastal areas and to apply that knowledge to improve
management, sustainable development, marine
environment protection, and decision making processes.
It has always been a pioneer in identifying threats to the
Ocean, such as ocean acidification. It is leading global
efforts to monitor the ocean and understand such
emerging issues.
Public and private stakeholders brainstormed together
in thematic working groups to identify solutions across
sectors on the collective governance of the high seas,
integrated ocean management within Exclusive Economic
Zones or putting the ocean economy on a rational footing
to conserve ecosystem services, among others.
Good governance is difficult to forge—not least in the
high seas, where there is little formal jurisdiction. The
World Ocean Summit is also an opportunity to meet with
like-minded partners and discuss future collaboration to
reach common goals. One such organization is the Global
Ocean Commission (GOC), an independent international
commission addressing ocean health and high seas
governance that recently launched a call for a stand-alone
Sustainable Development Goal for the ocean in the post2015 agenda. Irina Bokova and Wendy Watson-Wright
met with José María Figueres, co-Chair of the GOC and
Former President, Republic of Costa Rica and discussed
synergies on shared objectives such as the post-2015
sustainable development agenda, the definition of Marine
Protected Areas for the high seas as a resilience mechanism
for the ocean, and mitigating the impacts of climate
change and ocean acidification.

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • March - April 2014

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