2021-2030: The Ocean Decade…
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| Image: UNESCO |
Now if you were waiting for thinker...here a deep one to go at it...
December 5 2017 goes down in history…
“The United Nations today announced the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to mobilize the scientific community, policy-makers, business and civil society around a programme of joint research and technological innovation,” UN official communication read that day.
The announcement of an entire Decade dedicated by the UN to the Ocean is a double edge knife. On the one side one can expect more scientific and conservation actions a whole global movement for the Ocean...but on the other..and this side cuts deep into us...it makes one wonder….Why did United Nations experts decide that 2021 should be the start of the decade of the Ocean? What do they see that we don't?
As global population continues to rise the whole battery of connected sectors begin to stress. When land becomes scarce and agriculture insufficient to feed the World, we turn to the ocean. When land oil and gas reserves dry out we turn to the ocean. When rivers to be dammed runout, we turn to ocean wind mills. When deposits of natural resources become out of reach, we turn to the Ocean. When new and old diseases find no cure, we turn to the ocean and so on...
From aquaculture, to fishery, from energy to mining to human development the Ocean can provide... but at what cost?
It is truly a thinker...what are United Nations representatives looking at on paper that made them decide that 2021-2030 would be the Ocean Decade.
UNESCO goes into it….deep…
“Nearly 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity to meet their needs. It absorbs around a third of the CO2 produced by humans and reduces the impact of climate change. However, science has not yet managed to fully evaluate the cumulative effects of human activities on the ocean, including the impact of pollution, warming and acidification, which threaten this environment, which is vital for our survival. According to the IOC’s Global Ocean Science Report, national spending on ocean sciences accounts for between 0.04 - 4% of the total invested in research and development,” they explain.
UNESCO`s Director-General Audrey Azoulay added; “The ocean is a new frontier. It covers 71% of the globe and we have explored less than 5%. The Decade will ensure greater coordination of research. UNESCO’s IOC is proud to be at the forefront of this effort,” she said.
The ocean is seen as a new solution for many sector, human health, environmental regional and global health, fishery programs, poverty eradication programs, economic and environmental and climate change agendas. The extraction sector also turns to the ocean as a multi-billion generator but the balance is delicate under current legal international and national ocean laws.
And yet...some legal Ocean momentum is moving in strange directions...unexpected directions...by unexpected players...big players...
On December 1 International Media reported that Nations agree to ban fishing in Arctic Ocean for at least 16 years.
Nine nations and the European Union have reached a deal to place the central Arctic Ocean (CAO) off-limits to commercial fishers for at least the next 16 years. The pact, announced yesterday, will give scientists time to understand the region’s marine ecology—and the potential impacts of climate change—before fishing becomes widespread.
“There is no other high seas area where we’ve decided to do the science first,” says Scott Highleyman, vice president of conservation policy and programs at the Ocean Conservancy in Washington, DC, who also served on the U.S. delegation to the negotiations. “It’s a great example of putting the precautionary principle into action.”
The deal to protect 2.8 million square kilometers of international waters in the Arctic was reached after six meetings spread over 2 years. It includes not just nations with coastal claims in the Arctic, but nations such as China, Japan, and South Korea with fishing fleets interested in operating in the region.
So what is going on? Why an Ocean Decade? Why now after all this time of “practically ignoring” ocean issues? United Nations sets out to answer this question...is this the only answer? Not likely but worth a read.
“While all major international assessments find that much of the ocean is now seriously degraded, there is an increasingly urgent need to find scientific solutions that allow us to understand the changes taking place in our ocean, and to reverse the declining health of our planet’s largest ecosystem,” UN responds first diplomatically and then sets the foot to pedal and the metal on the floor.
“The UN Decade of Ocean Science seeks...actions toward conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” – as stated in Objective 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals,” they kick it.
“There is no Internationally-agreed methodology for estimating the economic value of services the ocean provides to humankind; Science cannot yet meaningfully evaluate the cumulative impacts of climate change, marine pollution and other anthropogenic stresses on the health of the ocean ecosystem; For 99% of habitable marine areas, we lack the basic biodiversity knowledge we require for effective management; 103 million square miles of the deep sea exist in perpetual darkness and up to a million marine species could still be unknown to science; Only 3 humans have explored the deepest known point of the ocean,” UN has many reasons and goes on with them but even more interesting they are calling for all sectors, government and people to get involved with the 2021 Ocean movement.
“For the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to be successful, a definite set of themes and programmes will need to be determined, on the basis of agreed criteria and indicators of progress. Partnerships will lead the way to the establishment of funding mechanisms and the execution of activities,” they call out.
“The ocean is a new frontier – it covers 71 percent of the globe [but] we have explored less than 5 per cent. The Decade will ensure greater coordination of research,” said Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, urging all stakeholders to join the endeavour.
“[We are] proud to be at the forefront of this effort,” she added.
