SOS: Saving our seas by 2030

Stakeholders, including representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Philippine Coast Guard, the diplomatic corps, and experts, gathered at the Strengthening Collaboration for Sustainable Ocean Biodiversity Conservation hybrid forum organized by the Embassy of France in the Philippines and Stratbase ADR Institute (ADRi) on 16 October in anticipation of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) that will be held in Nice, France in June 2025.

H.E. Marie Fontanel, Ambassador of France to the Philippines opened the forum while DENR Undersecretary Ernesto D. Adobo, Jr. delivered the keynote message. 

The forum was conducted a week after the 2024 Taiwan International Ocean Conference that was participated in by 10 countries, including the Philippines, and with the author serving as a speaker on behalf of Stratbase ADRi.

It also coincided with the Philippines’ hosting of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference, which monitors, reviews and fosters cooperation on the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 at the regional level. 

With only a little over six months from the 3rd UNOC and barely six years for the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), as well the plans and frameworks under multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to come into fruition, the forum emphasized the need for collective and sustainable marine conservation efforts if we are to address the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Undoubtedly, 2030 will decide whether humanity has lived up to its commitments under the SDGs, the Sharm el Sheikh Implementation Plan, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Biodiversity Plan), the Sendai Framework, and the objectives of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, as well as on Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Considering the systemic nature and the extent of the environmental issues that the world is grappling with, the 2030 targets of these plans and frameworks are ambitious yet realistic. Equally importantly, they are interrelated.

The various MEAs and the corresponding 2030 commitments under them