June 26, 2025
Island Conservation joins Ocean Action 2030 at UNOC
The United Nations Ocean Conference was an opportunity for incredible collaborations and coalitions. Joining Ocean Action 2030 was one of many incredible partnerships we forged!
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Under the co-presidency of France and Costa Rica, the Third United Nations Ocean Conference, in Nice, France, is a significant international convening of UN member states, their heads of state and government, international agencies, local authorities, civil society, the private sector and international donors, focused on “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean” in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14). UNOC 3’s expressed ambition is to produce an ambitious ‘Nice Ocean Action Plan’ articulated around three main priorities: Working towards completion of multilateral processes linked to the ocean; mobilizing finance resources for SDG 14 and supporting the development of a sustainable blue economy; strengthening and better disseminating knowledge linked to marine sciences to enhance policy making.
Just as COP 21 in 2015 was a landmark moment for climate justice, ten years after the Paris Agreement, UNOC 3 has the potential to be a seminal moment for ocean justice. UNOC 3 has a critical role to play in both raising ambition and, as a priority, translating that ambition into the level of funding required to take the holistic, integrated action that is urgently needed to understand, protect, preserve, regenerate and sustainably manage the global ocean, its biodiversity and invaluable resources.
As studies continue to show the alarming decline in ocean health and continuing unsustainable practices and uses of the ocean, together with the huge cost to biodiversity, human and community wellbeing and reduced ecosystem services, UNOC 3 is an opportunity for the global community to be both visionary and truly accountable. To fulfil the promise of SDG 14, states, businesses, international organizations, civil society actors and all other stakeholders must deliver on existing ocean commitments and not simply make new pledges for the future. This in turn contributes directly to a healthy, regenerated ocean, which is the planet’s primary life support system, the cornerstone of a regenerative and equitable blue economy and a fundamental contributor to addressing multiple challenges including climate change, biodiversity, food security, human health, wellbeing and resilience among others. UNOC 3 is where we can imagine and make real the ocean we want for a nature-positive, sustainable future for people and planet.
Island Conservation’s mission is to restore islands for nature and people worldwide. We envision a world filled with vibrant biodiversity, resilient oceans, and thriving island communities.
Islands are marine and terrestrial biodiversity hotspots, sheltering and nurturing invaluable native species of flora and fauna on land and in their surrounding marine areas. They are also home to rich, diverse and vibrant indigenous and local communities who are often the traditional custodians of nature and from whom much can be learned. However, they are also on the front lines of the cross-cutting negative impacts of declining ocean health, climate change, alien invasive species and unsustainable practices, whilst contributing very little to these global phenomena.
Island Conservation is attending UNOC 3 to demonstrate the holistic benefits of island restoration – from ridge to reef and beyond – for ecosystems and biodiversity, together with ocean health, climate resilience, community wellbeing and inclusive sustainable development. We are convinced that islands are part of the ocean solution.
Holistically restoring islands, accelerating recovery of ecosystems, removing alien invasive species and working with communities to harness the multiple benefits conservation provides contributes directly to protecting and preserving the unique natural capital found on islands, many of which are also recognised biodiversity hotspots. There are around 600,000 islands around the planet and, from an ocean literacy and a broader nature literacy standpoint, UNOC 3 provides a platform to share with the international community how each restored, sustainably managed island can, with careful conservation and sustainable management measures that holistically leverage the land-sea nexus, help connect seascapes from the deep sea and high seas to near-shore and coastal zones, strengthen the ecological integrity of marine protected areas worldwide and become critical bricks to help build a worldwide Great Blue Wall and a nature positive future. Island-ocean restoration can help meet national, regional and international biodiversity, ocean, climate and sustainability targets, together with enhancing the lives and livelihoods of communities who live on islands or for whom islands and their ocean ecosystems are a source of food security, economic development, cultural integrity and identity.
In that context, Island Conservation will be promoting three primary initiatives at UNOC 3:
Island Conservation hopes to deepen existing partnerships, develop new relationships and use UNOC 3 as a pivotal moment for action into the future.
We also urge participants to recognise that, while vulnerable, islands are hotspots of resilience that can generate real solutions for the ocean, biodiversity, climate and people. We hope therefore that UNOC 3 will be a launching pad for a UN Decade of Island Resilience and a catalyst for island-based ocean action.
We call for participants to implement the many previous commitments that have already been made and not yet delivered on, and to adopt ambitious but tangible recommendations and decisions, together with funding, that recognise the importance of the ocean as the single greatest life support system for our planet. UNOC 3 in Nice can be an accelerator for ocean justice, a turning point for regenerating and restoring the ocean and the place where countries, international organisations, civil society and other stakeholders all came together and charted a clear course to a sustainable ocean future.
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