SOS: The international community calls for a new phase in the fight against land-based pollution

HIBAPRESS-RABAT- UNOC3

The time has come for the international community to move to a new phase in the fight against land-based pollution. To this end, the international community is calling for the launch of a coalition of like-minded countries interested in reinvigorating, supporting and/or creating new global and/or regional mechanisms to combat land-based pollution.

This is also the case for coastal and maritime tourism, one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, which has significant impacts on nature and the well-being of communities. However, tourism remains largely outside the scope of international discussions on the Ocean.

Organized jointly by France, a leading tourist destination, and Costa Rica, known for its nature-based tourism model, UNOC3 could serve as a launching platform to strengthen the place of sustainable tourism in the governance framework of the ocean. This is what the report Let’s be Nice to the Ocean: Civil Society Approaches to Ocean Protection towards the Third UN Ocean Conference (Varda Group, 2024), to which Iddri contributed, in collaboration with Eco-Union, recommends.

The coming months will therefore be punctuated by important international events for the Ocean. In each relevant forum, all available levers must be used to strengthen measures for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.

In parallel and to this end, it will be particularly important to strengthen synergies between the different agendas at the intergovernmental level, as well as within national policies.