Focus on Arts and Ecology

7 June 2025 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The ocean has power. It’s not just the power of waves and tides. In its size, complexity, and centrality to our global ecosystem, the ocean has power to define our future. That power requires us to make the ocean a major focus of any meaningful plans for our world.

But that power is also something we can harness in the urgent battles we face on land – battles over pollution and climate change, but also over human rights, science, and isolationism.

We are members of the ocean community – non-governmental organizations (NGOs), scientists, fisherfolk, coastal communities, nature lovers, industry leaders, and many others around the world. And we demand a better future. 

On the eve of the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), we pledge our unified support for a healthy ocean and our unified opposition to the growth of environmental destruction. We are calling on the world’s governments, businesses, and institutions – and on ourselves – to start work on the future we outline below, and more fully at the Ocean of Possibilities project. Be sure that the world – and the ocean – is watching. 

This is not just about the ocean. International commitment to a healthy ocean can and should be a powerful catalyst for the realignment needed in our broader political, financial, and societal systems. Nor is this just about the future. We are already paying the price for decades of delayed action. This is a vision for the future, but one that we must start building now. 

We envision:

• A world that values the holistic well–being of both nature and people: The irresponsible and unrestrained pursuit of profit by a minority has perpetuated systems of abuse and overexploitation, both of people and the ocean. In the future – the one we must start on now – we have made preservation of the life, health, and dignity of both nature and humanity a cornerstone of society and the law. This shift can begin now with governments adopting the Ocean Protection Principle, making ocean protection the norm rather than the exception. Instead of measuring economic progress through metrics like Maximum Sustainable Yield or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), policymakers should look to more holistic measures of an ecosystem’s health and of the population’s social, cultural, mental, and physical well-being. The rights of nature and of people must be held as inviolable, with tangible investments made in building equity for all peoples. 
• Societies committed to science and verifiable fact: Our public discourse has been deeply harmed by a proliferation of lies and misinformation. In our envisioned future, leaders adhere to a foundational norm that decision making should be guided by science, evidence, and verifiable fact. Once again, the ocean is the ideal stage for immediate and bold beginnings. We must reinvest in science and education. Nations across the globe should develop ocean research and innovation hubs to encourage the next generation of scientists and blue industries. We should support global partnerships on ocean data, making information from all sources transparent and accessible. To purge misinformation from our public debate, we should reform education and launch public campaigns to raise scientific and cultural literacy about the ocean. And across all of these efforts, we must shift our preconceptions around science to include the knowledge accumulated by Indigenous and local communities, because there is no one who understands the ocean better than those who have lived with it for generations. 
• A multilateral world that balances sovereignty with cooperation: While local sovereignty and cultures must be respected, we envision a world that has rejected isolationist and “winner takes all” approaches to global problems, a world where national governments partner with non-state actors to add boldness to their planning and accountability to their actions. We want a world that understands that when the seas are rising, our home is only as safe as our neighbors’. Nations should immediately implement, with transparency and accountability, their current pledges to sustainable development, emissions reduction, and other international commitments. Only then can nations collaborate with credibility on a new, bolder plan for the years ahead. Finance ministers of different nations should collaborate on new models for ocean resource management. And countries should boldly imagine new kinds of international governance, creating forums like Social-Ecological Councils – collective, multi-level decision-making bodies that are defined by the boundaries of ecosystems instead of political borders. 
• Financial systems built around equity and sustainability: It is well understood that more investment is needed in equity and conservation. But more money is the beginning of what’s needed, not an end in itself. The world we envision has rebuilt and reordered its financial system around principles of social justice, solidarity, and sustainability. A global financing institution dedicated to funding sustainable ocean action can serve as a powerful demonstration of how such new systems can work. Nations should redirect taxpayer funds away from ecologically harmful subsidies and toward research, conservation, and regenerative industry. And we can take back the future of money from the specter of cryptocurrency with a compelling alternative – new “biocurrencies,” with value based on the long-term health of ecosystems. 

This is the future we envision. This is the future we demand.

Signatories:

1. Dona Bertarelli (Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy)
2. Loreley Picourt (Ocean & Climate Platform)
3. Joachim Claudet (CNRS)
4. Alfredo Giron (Friends of Ocean Action)
5. Hon. Jane Lubchenco (Oregon State University)
6. Carlos Correa (Former Minister of Environment, Colombia)
7. David Obura (CORDIO East Africa)
8. ‘Aulani Wilhelm (Nia Tero)
9. Karen Sack (ORRAA)
10. Kristian Teleki (Fauna & Flora International)
11. Pascal Lamy (Europe Jacques Delors)
12. Maria Damanaki (Former EU marine Commissioner)
13. Minna Epps (IUCN)
14. Diva Amon (Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, UCSB)
15. Isabelle Autissier (WWF France)
16. Natalie Andersen (IPSO)
17. Tatiana Antonelli Abella (Goumbook – MENA Oceans Initiative)
18. Lucy Babey (ORCA)
19. Pierre Bahurel (Mercator Ocean International)
20. Sandrine Bélier (Humanité et Biodiversité)
21. Ignace Beguin Billecocq (Mangrove Breakthrough)
22. Maximiliano Bello (Blue Marine Foundation)
23. Rym Benzina (La Saison Bleue)
24. Simon Bernard (Plastic Odyssey)
25. Allain Bougrain Dubourg (LPO)
26. Richard Brisius (The Ocean Race)
27. Arnaud Brival (The Sea People / Orang Laut)
28. Kate Brown (Global Island Partnership)
29. João Canning-Clode (MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre)
30. Gauthier Carle (Ocean & Climate Platform)
31. Antidia Citores (Green Marine Europe)
32. Daniel Crockett (Blue Marine Foundation)
33. Laurent Debas (Planète Mer)
34. Cameron Diver (Island Conservation)
35. Bruno Dumontet (Expédition MED)
36. Loyiso Dunga (Parley South Africa – The Seeds of Good Hope)
37. Nicolas Fournier (Oceana)
38. Françoise Gaill (IPOS)
39. Didier Gascuel (Institut Agro)
40. Antoine Gatet (France Nature Environnement)
41. Alexis Grosskopf (OceanHub Africa)
42. Shaha Hashim (Maldives Resilient Reefs)
43. Rebecca Hubbard (High Seas Alliance)
44. Sophie Hulme (Communications Inc Limited)
45. Suzanne Johnson (UN Global Compact)
46. Jean François Julliard (Greenpeace France)
47. Stacy Jupiter (Wildlife Conservation Society)
48. Peggy Kalas (Oceano Azul Foundation)
49. Alexandre Laschine (Fondation de la Mer)
50. Marina Levy (IRD)
51. Céline Liret (Océanopolis)
52. Tony Long (Global Fishing Watch)
53. Cédric Marteau (LPO)
54. Elodie Martinie Cousty (CESE)
55. Fabrice Messal (Mercator Ocean International)
56. Sébastien Moncorps (Comité français de l’UICN)
57. Bruno Monteferri (Kuyapanakuy Collective)
58. Eric Morbo (Surfrider Foundation Europe)
59. Lance Morgan (Marine Conservation Institute)
60. Gonzalo Muñoz (Ambition Loop)
61. Gabriel Muswali (EARFISH)
62. Josheena Naggea (Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions)
63. Imogen Napper (IUCN ESARO)
64. Mathilde Ollivier (Sénatrice des Français établis hors de France)
65. Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (IUCN WCPA High Seas Specialist Group)
66. Jimmy Pahun (Assemblée nationale)
67. Anne Park (Sustainable Ocean Alliance)
68. Rémi Parmentier (The Varda Group, Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean)
69. Laura Pereira (Global Change Institute)
70. Antoine Petit (CNRS)
71. Marie-Céline Piednoir (Positive Ripple Consultancy)
72. Isabelle Poitou (Association MerTerre)
73. Geneviève Pons (Europe Jacques Delors)
74. Angelique Pouponneau
75. Maïssa Rababy (OnlyOne)
76. Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy (IPLC Champion, IUCN)
77. Kilaparti Ramakrishna (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
78. Patricia Ricard (Institut Océanographique Paul Ricard)
79. Rocky Sanchez Tirona (Rare)
80. François Sarano (Longitude 181)
81. Thomas Sberna (IUCN)
82. Alain Schuhl (CNRS)
83. Hélène Soubelet (Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité)
84. Ana Spalding
85. Francis Staub (Blue Pangolin Consulting)
86. Rashid Sumaila (University of British Columbia)
87. Hugo Tagholm (Oceana UK)
88. Ronald Tardiff (1000 Ocean Startups)
89. Torsten Thiele (Global Ocean Trust)
90. Tobias Troll (Seas at Risk)
91. Nigel Topping (Ambition Loop)
92. Romain Troublé (Tara Ocean Foundation)
93. Arthur Tuda (WIOMSA)
94. Sandy Tudhope (Edinburgh Ocean Leaders)
95. Jhorace Tupas (ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity)
96. Jessie Turner (International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification)
97. Alexander Turra (UNESCO Chair for Ocean Sustainability, University of São Paulo)
98. Mirella von Lindenfels (Communications Inc Limited)
99. Meriwether Wilson (University of Edinburgh)
100. Ilena Zanella (Misión Tiburón)
101. Jessica Arnull (University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh Ocean Leaders)
102. Travis Aten (Communications Inc Limited)
103. Philippe Bensimon (T2A Expedition)
104. Victor Brun (Ocean & Climate Platform)
105. Brittney Francis (Communications INC)

And more…

Institutions are provided for purposes of identification only. Their inclusion does not imply endorsement of the Call for Action by the institution.

(Sources: International Institute for Sustainable Development)