Summit commits to concrete actions to turn around ocean health and secure food security for millions of people
25 April 2014, The Hague – A summit that brought together more than 600 ocean stakeholders – including 80 ministers from across the world, ocean science experts, business leaders, philanthropists and heads of international organizations – committed to a set of concrete actions responding to the urgency for restoring productive, resilient oceans that drive broad-based blue growth and deliver food security.
A joint initiative of the Government of the Netherlands, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank, the Global Oceans Action Summit for Blue Growth and Food Security found unprecedented convergence around the urgent steps needed to tackle the key threats to the world’s oceans: climate change, overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.
Actions focused specifically on improving governance, enhancing sustainable financing, building partnerships for action and sharing knowledge on successful solution implementation.
The summit called for:
- A stand-alone Sustainable Development Goal on oceans as part of the post-2015 Development Framework
- Much stronger recognition of the escalating impacts from climate change on oceans and ensuring ocean health is incorporated into the international processes and events heading towards the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference of parties in Paris
- Eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity and instead incentivizing approaches that improve conservation, build sustainable fisheries and end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
- Strengthening the mandate of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and their financing and accelerating ratification of agreed mechanisms for improved fisheries practices, better conservation and less pollution, including the Port State Measures Agreement
- Investing in small and medium scale fisheries and local communities as vital stewards for blue growth and support to sustainable supply chains
- Building on existing partnerships like the Global Partnership for Oceans, the Global Island Partnership and 50in10 to build global momentum and scale up successes
- Sharing of knowledge, experiences and solutions through information and communications technology that can enforce and monitor in real time and connect communities globally
The Chair of the summit, Sharon Dijksma, Minister for Agriculture of the Netherlands, said: “This week the world community has shown courage and boldness in The Hague to move ahead and take action on ocean health and food security. What’s needed now is decisive action from the international community to put solutions into practice.”
Árni M. Mathiesen, FAO Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture, said: “This summit has put an accent on action and the route to navigate on oceans, fisheries management and aquaculture is much clearer than before.”
World Bank representative Valerie Hickey said: “This summit has presented the way forward for a new type of growth – blue growth which is sustainable, equitable and takes the value of the ocean’s ecosystem services into account. Together, we can restore ocean health at the speed and scale necessary to drive broad-based blue growth, secure food security and turn down the heat on climate change. We have the set of actions needed – let’s move on them now.”
More than 10 new commitments for cross-boundary partnering announced at the summit included:
- Mauritius, the Seychelles and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to start work on a certification scheme for specific fish species in the Indian Ocean.
- Rockefeller Foundation and the Netherlands pledging funding support to WorldFish and FAO to produce a Roadmap for the Future of Fish.
- A tripartite collaboration programme between the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in Indonesia, the Netherlands Government and Wageningen University for enhancing the availability and accessibility of safe fish products and reduction of food waste.
- The International Sustainability Unit of the Prince of Wales’ Charitable Foundation launched the development of financing guidelines for fishery recovery.
