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UNOC 2025 - STRENGTHENING OCEAN GOVERNANCE | 31

Purificació Canals, President of MedPAN, the Finally, the possibility of harnessing art and sporting
Mediterranean network of marine protected area achievement to encourage public engagement and
managers, noted the importance of creating reconnect more people to the ocean was also raised.
a permanent space in which managers and
stakeholders can work together to ensure marine In her closing remarks, renowned marine biologist
ecosystems are effectively protected. Dr Sylvia Earle, President of the Rolex-supported
initiative Mission Blue and National Geographic
Vincent Doumeizel, Senior Advisor on Oceans to Society Explorer-in-Residence, said, “our prosperity
the UN Global Compact, highlighted the potential depends on understanding where we fit in, and how
of seaweed to solve multiple crises, growing food we treat our blue planet.”
insecurity and environmental challenges. He called Addressing the question of how they planned to
for a “seaweed revolution” requiring investment and present their proposals at the plenary session of
appropriate regulations to make the industry viable in UNOC 2025, the moderators wrapped up the event
the long term. by presenting the roadmap for the Let’s Be Nice to
the Ocean initiative, which aims to foster concerted,
“We need a diversity of voices and perspectives”, innovative action to preserve a vital planetary
added Minna Epps (IUCN). She stressed the ecosystem.
importance of including everyone’s views in
conservation efforts, noting that organisations from
Asia and the Pacific were under-represented in the
civil society survey carried out by the Varda Group
and the Ocean & Climate Platform in 2023 at the
request of France and Costa Rica.

The participating specialists included Guillermo
Ortuño, a marine ecologist and contributor to the
Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean initiative. He called for
urgent action to adapt current regulations to the
realities of the ocean, in particular to protect migratory “Our prosperity depends on
species. Francis Staub, from the International Coral understanding where we fit in, and
Reef Initiative, stressed that much more needed to how we treat our blue planet.”
be done to protect coral reefs, with just under 40% Sylvia Earle, President of the Rolex-
of them located in protected and conserved marine supported initiative Mission Blue and
areas , recommending drawing on international National Geographic Society Explorer-
2
legal instruments. Another topic addressed during
the event was the protection of the Earth’s global in-Residence
systems and ‘special systems’.
2. Sources: Habitats Ocean+ Platform, 2023.