The 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3): Island Conservation Position Paper

Background 

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.  

Why is Island Conservation attending UNOC 3? 

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.  

What is Island Conservation is promoting or contributing to at UNOC 3? 

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: 

• The Island-Ocean Connection Challenge: heralded as the ‘world’s boldest island-ocean recovery project’, the IOCC is a global initiative, co-funded by Island Conservation, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Re:wild, to begin restoring at least 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030. At UNOC3 we will be announcing a new cohort of islands that are formally joining the IOCC together with major pledges by countries and partners to support the Challenge and its multiple benefits for biodiversity, the ocean, climate resilience and sustainable community livelihoods. 

• The call for a United Nations Decade of Island Resilience: Island Conservation is leading the call to establish a UN Decade of Island Resilience as a new convening framework and a platform for ambitious partnerships and concrete action to truly harness the potential of holistic island restoration for nature, oceans and people worldwide. Our objective is that this serves to promote heightened ambition, financing and action for holistic island restoration to restore resilience, including removal of alien invasive species, protection and rewilding of native biodiversity, authentic community engagement, and partnerships between organisations, governments, and Indigenous and Local communities. Building on the UN Decades of Ocean Science and Ecosystem Restoration, the Decade of Island Resilience will also catalyse science-based action in and around islands across the planet to preserve, protect and restore biodiversity, address the ongoing effects of climate change and reverse the decline in ocean health, together with advancing global sustainable development goals under the 2030 agenda and beyond. 

• Amplifying Island Voices: Island Conservation will convene a side-event specifically focused on stories of resilience as lived by and told by islanders. We are bringing together a stellar panel from islands around the world to share their experiences, highlighting the interconnectedness of islands and the ocean and how collaboratively restoring islands can support ocean health and sustainable development. 

In addition, Island Conservation supports, among others, the following initiatives led by partners: 

• The Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean initiative and its call to make ocean protection the norm rather than the exception. Island Conservation supports ‘the protection principle’ through which the burden of proof is not placed on those seeking conservation and sustainable management measures, but rather on those who wish to pursue extractive or polluting activities. 

• Efforts by the Ocean & Climate Platform, CNRS and Friends of Ocean action to drive greater, more innovative action for the ocean and strong outcomes from UNOC 3 than can help fulfil the future vision of ‘the ocean we want’. 

• Recognition of ocean rights and the vision of an ethical relationship between humanity and the Ocean, as developed by Michelle Bender and other experts, supported by Ocean Vision Legal, the Gallifrey Foundation, the Ocean Race and the Earth Law Center.  

• The initiative to establish an International Platform for Ocean Sustainability, as a means enhance ocean literacy and, through science and knowledge (including indigenous and local knowledge), generate options and solutions to help countries bridge the gap between ocean-related commitments and their implementation. 

What outcomes are we seeking? 

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.