Istanbul, 20 October 2015 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other partners today announced a new initiative aimed at assisting nations and regional organizations in creating innovative regional strategies that will ensure delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals relevant to Oceans.
Launched at the UNEP Regional Seas Meeting in Istanbul, under the Partnership for Regional Oceans Governance (PROG), the initiative on the Oceans Sustainable Development Goals is a partnership between UNEP, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).
Sustainable Development Goal 14 calls for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources, while oceans and coasts are also represented in cross-cutting goals and objectives in climate, land resources, food, and others.
Making tangible progress to meet the goal will prove a complex task, as Oceans comprise a global system covered by many different national and international legal frameworks. The project aims to fill existing gaps in ocean management and governance to meet Goal 14 and other objectives relevant to Oceans.
Working at inter-, intra- and super-regional levels, the initiative under PROG will support the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda by:
- Identifying lessons learned and developing innovative approaches to regional ocean governance;
- Promoting regional exchange and, wherever requested, assisting in strengthening regional capacities and ocean governance structures;
- Fostering the role of regional ocean governance approaches at the global level through engaging in multi-stakeholder processes, and by partnering with key players including intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, research centres and think tanks.
The initiative will kick off with papers scoping the current state of play in regional oceans governance and the role oceans and coasts will play in the 2030 Agenda. The initiative then plans to support processes in selected pioneer regions aimed at meeting the relevant goals and monitoring their progress.
PROG was formulated by a group of policy research and international organizations, including UNEP.
NOTES TO EDITORS
More information on SDG 14, and facts and figures on Oceans, is available here.
Find out more about UNEP's Regional Seas Programme here.
