The world relies on the ocean to cover increasing needs for food, energy and transport. However, marine ecosystems are facing serious challenges from climate change, over-exploitation, loss of biodiversity and pollution. Now, more than ever, there is a pressing need to strike the balance between production and protection and better respond to the needs of all ocean users – both present and future.

Integrated Ocean Management enables a shift from the business as usual approach towards the management of our marine resources – fragmented, driven by individual sectors, unresponsive to social and ecological priorities – to a holistic, adaptive and multi-sectoral approach that integrates social, economic and ecological dimensions of development. Integrated Ocean Management puts ecosystems and knowledge at the centre of every decision-making process in order to achieve the sustainable management of our ocean. By balancing various human needs and ocean uses, Integrated Ocean Management safeguards ocean health, supports the growth in a sustainable ocean economy and ensures the long-term prosperity of society.

The paper’s authors and other experts will demonstrate how Integrated Ocean Management can deliver both ocean health and ocean wealth by highlighting experiences from five diverse regions that have all adopted this approach: Norway, the United States, China, the Coral Triangle and the Seychelles.

This event is part of a series of webinars featuring new scientific ‘Blue Papers', commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel).

Speakers

  • Ricardo Serrão Santos, Minister of the Sea and Sherpa for the Prime Minister on the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Portugal (Opening Remarks and Panelist)
  • Vidar Helgesen, Special Representative for the Ocean and Sherpa for the Prime Minister on the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Norway (Panelist)
  • Minhan Dai, Chair Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry, Xiamen University, China (Lead Author and Panelist)
  • Jan-Gunnar Winther, Director, Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic and Specialist Director, Norwegian Polar Institute (Lead Author and Panelist)
  • Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez, Professor, Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines (Contributing Author and Panelist)
  • Amy Trice, Director of Ocean Planning, Ocean Conservancy (Contributing Author and Panelist)
  • Craig Hanson, Vice President for Food, Forests, Water and the Ocean, World Resources Institute (Moderator)

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About the Ocean Panel and Blue Papers

The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) was established in September 2018 to catalyse bold, pragmatic solutions for realising a sustainable ocean economy, where protecting and restoring the ocean to health is essential for producing more from it, so that people can prosper equitably. A unique global initiative of 14 serving heads of state and government, representing 30 percent of the world’s coastlines, the Ocean Panel is working with government, business, financial institutions, the science community and civil society to develop a transformative action agenda that recognises the need for a new relationship between humanity and the ocean and the rapid transition to a sustainable ocean economy.

The Ocean Panel is strongly dedicated to knowledge and science in everything it does. In the spirit of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), building momentum towards the UN Decade of Ocean Science, and meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement, the Ocean Panel commissioned a series of 16 Blue Papers and two special reports – The Ocean as a Solution for Climate Change Report: 5 Opportunities for Action and Towards a Sustainable Ocean Economy Report – that will inform the Ocean Panel’s action agenda.