For A Healthy and Sustainable Ocean
2022/7/1 16:56:00 本站

Initiated by

China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation

June 29, 2022

Lisbon, Portugal


Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods.

Globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at $3 trillion per year or about 5 per cent of global GDP. Marine fisheries directly or indirectly employ over 200 million people.

Coral reef ecosystems are the most sensitive on the planet to climate change.  Species are being lost even as the conference is taking place, not just to increasing temperatures but to human pollution and waste.

Coastal waters are deteriorating due to pollution and eutrophication. Without concerted efforts, coastal eutrophication is expected to increase in 20 percent of large marine ecosystems by 2050. Roughly 80per cent of marine and coastal pollution originates on land – including agricultural run-off, pesticides, plastics and untreated sewage.

Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year.

Around 680 million people live in low-lying coastal zones – that is expected to increase to a billion by 2050.

Sustainable and climate-resilient transport, including maritime transport, is key to sustainable development. Around 80 per cent of the volume of international trade in goods is carried by sea, and the percentage is even higher for most developing countries.

Careful management of this vital global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future. However, there is a continuous deterioration of coastal waters owing to pollution, global warming, and ocean acidification is having an adverse effect on the functioning of ecosystems and biodiversity. This is also negatively impacting small scale fisheries.

Depleting terrestrial deposits and rising demand for metals are stimulating interest in the deep sea - the area of the ocean below 200 m - with commercial mining of mineral deposits imminent. Environmental impact assessments, effective regulation and mitigation strategies are needed to limit the impacts of deep-sea mining.

Deep-ocean sediment (DOS) ecosystems cover more than half of Earth’s surface and remain one of the least explored ecosystems on the planet. Nutrient recycling for the healthy functioning of ocean ecosystems and carbon sequestration for the regulation of Earth’s climate over geological time scales. The DOS appears to be much more diverse than oceanic waters and is composed of communities of mostly unknown eukaryotes. The DOS as one of Earth’s richest modern ecosystems and fossil archives. They underline the need for concerted international efforts to further understand DOS biodiversity and its ecological role in planetary biogeochemical cycles.

Saving our ocean must be enhanced as a priority. Marine biodiversity is critical to the health of people and our planet. Marine protected areas need to be effectively managed and well-resourced and regulations need to be put in place to reduce overfishing, marine pollution and ocean acidification. Human-based Solutions and Communities-based conservations like BCON (Biodiversity Conservation in Our Neighbourhoods) are necessary for all social sectors. The bringing together of Other SDGs - quality dducation, affordable clean energy, climate action, life on land, will be a mark of collaborative civilisation.

We must avoid the mantra of ‘Decisions about us, without us’. Above all, youth must have a place at the table; it is their world and all the rest of us can do is pledge our support. It is only by collaboration and cooperation between people and organisations that we will achieve our sustainable development goals to maintain our oceans by 2030.

Editor: Daisy

Contact the editors: v10@cbcgdf.org;  +8617319454776

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