How to create a healthy ocean that benefits everyone

Restoring ocean health is not just about verdant mangrove forests, thriving fish stocks and pristine blue waters, although these are all vitally important in their own right. Enabling people everywhere to thrive, and ensuring we leave a liveable planet for generations to come, are the prime drivers of all we are doing today to restore the ocean’s health. If we do not address the main causes of the decline in the ocean’s health – as a matter of utmost urgency – we will be adding them to the effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, to the great degradation of this planet.

We are still on course towards global warming of around 3 degrees Celsius before the end of this century. That is a destination of fire, famine, plague and war; in short, an unliveable world. I describe this course as the highway to hell, and for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, without further obfuscation, we must divert from it onto the road that’ll take us to the security of 1.5 degrees.

For a future of equitable, sustainable development in which people thrive in harmony with nature, we have to stop the decline in the ocean’s health. Looking forward, we can do that by seizing the raft of opportunities ahead. In that vein, the World Economic Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda has just released a guiding statement for our work in 2023, aimed at ambitious and specific ocean action. I have signed it in my capacity as Co-Chair of the Friends of Ocean Action, the community of ocean leaders from a broad range of sectors dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean’s resources.

The Ocean Action Agenda statement – in the ongoing Blue Thread series – acknowledges heartening progress across key areas that we highlighted a year ago in the statement No Healthy Planet Without a Healthy Ocean as major opportunities (and responsibilities) for the global community to seize upon. These range from the unanimous agreement and draft resolution to negotiate a global treaty to control plastic pollution at the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly, to the World Trade Organization’s historic deal to phase out the harmful fisheries subsidies currently funding overfishing.

The new statement goes on to set out key opportunities to catalyze ambitious ocean action, all linked closely to the targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal for the ocean, SDG14. I emphasise that in 2015, these targets were universally committed to by all nations at the UN General Assembly. We are therefore beyond ‘ifs and buts’, and must press on with ‘whens and hows.’ More action is needed across all fronts, for example:

In my home country of Fiji, we have an expression signifying relentless grit and dedication to causes that matter. The expression is Tabu Soro, essentially meaning never give up. We must accept that the world will only improve through the dedication and creativity of those who care and are willing to stand up, defend and take the necessary action for good. On this we should never surrender!

Around the world, there is an increasing recognition of the indivisibility of humanity’s hope of meeting the existential challenges of the climate crisis and our communal responsibility to ensure the ocean’s wellbeing.

There can be no healthy planet – and no healthy people – without a healthy ocean, and I challenge all across the globe, whatever our walks of life, or community or experience, to do what we can to ensure we bequeath a healthy ocean to sustain those who will follow in our footsteps.