The next United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) will take place in June 2025 in Nice, France, leaving less than 2 years to ensure it concludes with a transformative, positive and actionable outcome for the ocean, its ecosystems and marine biodiversity. In order to support these efforts, The Varda Group launches “Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean”, in cooperation with the Ocean & Climate Platform and in partnership with TBA21-Academy, Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy, the Tara Ocean Foundation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, MedPAN and Ocean Born Foundation. This initiative, building on the paper ‘Let’s be Nice to the Ocean: Thinking Outside the Box before the Third UN Ocean Conference’, examines possibilities to make ocean protection the norm rather than the exception, and opens space for collective reflection.
The paper ‘Let’s be Nice to the Ocean: Thinking Outside the Box before the Third UN Ocean Conference – Making Ocean Protection the Norm rather than the Exception. Modalities, Opportunities and Risks,’ is the culmination of three years of thinking outside the box by an inter- and trans-disciplinary community of experts. It builds on ‘innovative and actionable ideas, principles, and frameworks that can support a lifeline to the ocean during the Anthropocene’, explains its lead author Rémi Parmentier (The Varda Group). Key proposals of the paper focus on:
- The Protection Principle
- Blue Finance
- Zero Discharge targets
- Ministries of the Ocean
- Reformed governance of migratory and straddling biodiversity
To read the details, click on the image below:
Beyond this paper, “Let’s be Nice to the Ocean” will also evolve as a digital platform – a place for collective reflection. Indeed, civil society organisations are invited to send their new and actionable ideas and proposals for the Nice Conference to #BeNiceToTheOcean by email to letsbenicetotheocean@gmail.com. For more information, click here.
This call for proposals is in line with the mandate given by the Governments of France and Costa Rica, co-hosts of UNOC 3, to Rémi Parmentier (The Varda Group) and Loreley Picourt (Ocean & Climate Platform) to co-facilitate the input and participation of civil society, including non-governmental organisations, in Nice. It is also pursuant to the survey “All the Voices of the Ocean” launched last April, to which all civil society organisations working on ocean issues around the world were invited to participate in. The outcomes of the survey were unveiled within the Synthesis Report and the Executive Summary in September 2023. To learn more about the survey, click here.
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