The Business Mirror, a business newspaper from the Philippines, published an article on “Climate change and marine biodiversity: Saving the ocean’s web of life“.  Ahmed Djoghlaf, former CBD executive secretary, is cited with a comment on the topic of this year’s Future Policy Award: “Ocean ecosystems harbor an incredible diversity of life. Policy-makers have a critical role to play in preserving this biodiversity, as poor management of marine and coastal environments is a main cause of biodiversity loss and degradation of these vital ecosystems.”

cited from Business Mirror

The article  is based on a recent study on the distribution of 11,000 marine species in relation to water temperature. The study reasons that the current human-induced climate change has huge consequences for our marine ecosystems as oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the global warming and are therefore particularly affected. In the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, a 0.05-0.1°C temperature anomaly proved to be already enough to significantly alter its biodiversity.

Experts of international organisations as well as international academics have nominated over 31 national and regional policies from 22 different countries and regions for the Future Policy Award on Oceans and Coasts. Not only the ecosystems these policies seek to address and manage are extremely diverse, but so are the policies themselves. This year the nominated polices range from national ocean policies, programmes for the establishment of marine protected areas and integrated coastal zone management plans to policies regulating fisheries, trade, marine litter and land-to-marine interactions. The WFC research team is currently screening the policies and assessing them against the Seven Future Just Principles .  We are conducting expert interviews with national representatives from governments, civil society and academia in order to measure the policies’ effective enforcement and impacts and prepare an evaluation report for our expert jury.

The final decision on the question which policies work best in protecting oceans will be made by this year’s expert jury. We are proud to welcome at the jury meeting: Ms. Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility;  Mr. Árni M. Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; Mr. Robert Calcagno, Director General of the Oceanographic Institute Albert 1st, Prince of Monaco Foundation, Monaco;  Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Director, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), Canada/Italy;  Dr. Carl Safina, President and Cofounder of the Blue Ocean Institute;  Jakob von Uexkull, Founder, World Future Council and Right Livelihood Award, Sweden/Germany; Dr. Tewolde Erban Gebre Egziabher, Director General, Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopia; Prof. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Founder, Navdanya, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India; Pauline Tangiora, Maori elder from the Rongomaiwahine tribe