Int'l body will also help muster US$1.5b in five years to protect marine areas
Lynn Kan Business Times 25 Feb 12;
THE World Bank will put together a new global coalition - and help muster US$1.5 billion in five years - to rescue the world's oceans from the threats of overfishing, climate change, and pollution they now face.
Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, said the Global Partnership for Oceans starts with US$300 million that will give 'technical assistance to key governance reforms that can create the necessary incentives for long-term investment, as well as to help operate marine protected areas'.
Another US$1.2 billion will be sought from stakeholders in the Partnership like governments, international civil society, the scientific community and private sector companies.
An international alliance like the Global Partnership for Oceans was needed, said Mr Zoellick, because the scale of ensuring the sustainability of oceans 'is such that singular efforts are simply not enough'.
'To make our oceans healthy and productive again, we need greater cooperative and integrated action around the globe, so that our efforts add up to more than the sum of their parts,' he said at the two-day World Oceans Summit at the Capella Singapore.
The world's oceans, which cover over 70 per cent of the world's surface, provide 15 per cent of the world's protein consumption. About 350 million jobs are also connected to the oceans through fishing, aquaculture, coastal and marine tourism and research. 'When we devalue our natural capital, it is often the poor who feel the greatest harm. Oceans provide a wealth of goods and services that make a tremendous contribution to overcoming poverty, creating opportunity, and spurring economic growth,' explained Mr Zoellick.
The Global Partnership for Oceans will hold its first meeting in Washington, DC in April.
Already, it counts state-level and international organisations like Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, the UN Environment Programme, and the Prince of Wales Charities who have signed up to it.
Private sector actors like the Darden Restaurants and the National Fisheries Institute have also signalled their support.
Mr Zoellick yesterday tabled some ambitious targets for the coalition to achieve in the next 10 years.
One of them is to rebuild ocean fisheries, of which 85 per cent have been exploited or depleted, threatening the stocks of the world's top 10 fish species.
The partnership also aims to turn around fisheries which have been running at a net economic loss of US$5 billion a year to a scenario where they create net benefits of between US$20 billion and US$30 billion.
'We need to turn this around, by allocating and enforcing the rights of fisheries and reforming subsidies,' Mr Zoellick said.
The coalition will also double the 2 per cent of the ocean's surface that are marine protected areas to about 5 per cent. In comparison, 12 per cent of the land's surface is protected.
'There is much more to do. Meeting these goals will take significant steps towards reversing the dangerous, centuries-old deterioration of ocean and coastal ecosystems,' added Mr Zoellick. 'This is a critical start.'
World Bank leads drive to save oceans
Global partnership to tackle problems such as marine degradation
Yasmine Yahya Straits Times 25 Feb 12;
WORLD Bank president Robert Zoellick sent out an SOS yesterday - to Save Our Seas.
To this end, he launched a new international initiative to save the world's oceans.
The Global Partnership for Oceans will bring together governments, international organisations, civil society groups and the private sector, he said.
They will pool knowledge and resources to confront problems such as over-fishing, marine degradation and habitat loss.
For a start, Mr Zoellick said, the partnership will commit at least US$300 million (S$380 million) to fund governance reforms that will create incentives for long-term investment in oceans, and to help operate marine protected areas.
The partnership hopes to raise another US$1.2 billion over the next five years to support other projects.
The World Bank itself is investing a separate US$1.6 billion in coastal zone management, fisheries and marine protected areas.
He was speaking on the final day of the World Ocean Summit organised by The Economist magazine. The three-day conference at the Capella Singapore Resort in Sentosa saw business and environmental leaders discussing issues related to oceans.
He outlined several main targets for the partnership in the next 10 years.
These include rebuilding the world's depleted fish stocks, protecting at least 5 per cent of the world's ocean surface, and increasing the supply of fish from sustainable aquaculture.
'About 85 per cent of ocean fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted,' he noted.
'We need to do much better, not only to help secure a reliable source of food, but also to take the pressure off ocean fish stocks.'
A statement from the World Bank said that a number of developed and developing countries have pledged support for the partnership. Several organisations have done the same, including the National Geographic Society, the World Ocean Council, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Conservation International. Further discussions will be held to define the new initiative's specific agenda, the statement added.
The head of the UNDP's water and ocean governance programme, Mr Andrew Hudson, noted in a statement: 'Almost all the challenges facing ocean sustainability stem from governance and market failures.'
Conservation International chief executive Peter Seligmann said that as the world's population grows to nine billion people by 2050, demand for food and other resources will double.
'It is in the enlightened self-interest of all nations and all communities to wisely steward our oceans. Collaboration is essential,' he said.
One of the private-sector groups that have pledged commitment to the partnership is Darden Restaurants, which is well-known for its Red Lobster chain of restaurants in the United States.
Its vice-president of seafood purchasing, Mr Roger Bing, said: 'Like so many, we depend on the natural resources the oceans provide, and investing in their health helps ensure the long-term viability of those resources.'
Environmental sustainability has long been a central feature of the World Bank's global strategy. It is involved in a range of projects, from conserving forests to boosting global tiger populations.
World Bank issues SOS for oceans, backs alliance
David Fogarty Reuters Yahoo News 24 Feb 12;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The World Bank announced on Friday a global alliance to better manage and protect the world's oceans, which are under threat from over-fishing, pollution and climate change.
Oceans are the lifeblood of the planet and the global economy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told a conference on ocean conservation in Singapore. Yet the seas have become overexploited, coastlines badly degraded and reefs under threat from pollution and rising temperatures.
"We need a new SOS: Save Our Seas," Zoellick said in announcing the alliance.
The partnership would bring together countries, scientific centers, non-governmental groups, international organizations, foundations and the private sector, he said.
The World Bank could help guide the effort by bringing together existing global ocean conservation programs and support efforts to mobilize finance and develop market-mechanisms to place a value on the benefits that oceans provide.
Millions of people rely on oceans for jobs and food and that dependence will grow as the world's population heads for 9 billion people, underscoring the need to better manage the seas.
Zoellick said the alliance was initially committed to mobilizing at least $300 million in finance.
"Working with governments, the scientific community, civil society organizations, and the private sector, we aim to leverage as much as $1.2 billion to support healthy and sustainable oceans."
FISH STOCKS
A key focus was understanding the full value of the oceans' wealth and ecosystem services. Oceans are the top source of oxygen, help regulate the climate, while mangroves, reefs and wetlands are critical to protecting increasingly populous coastal areas against hazards such as storms -- benefits that are largely taken for granted.
"Whatever the resource, it is impossible to evolve a plan to manage and grow the resource without knowing its value," he said.
Another aim was to rebuild at least half the world's fish stocks identified as depleted. About 85 percent of ocean fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.
"We should increase the annual net benefits of fisheries to between $20 billion and $30 billion. We estimate that global fisheries currently run a net economic loss of about $5 billion per year," he said.
Participants at the conference spoke of the long-term dividends from ocean conservation and better management of its resources. But that needed economists, bankers and board rooms to place a value on the oceans' "natural capital".
"The key to the success of this partnership will be new market mechanisms that value natural capital and can attract private finance," Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told Reuters.
He pointed to the value in preserving carbon-rich mangrove forests and sea grassbeds and the possibility of earning carbon offsets for projects that conserve these areas.
"The oceans' stock is in trouble. We have diminished its asset value to a huge degree and poor asset management is poor economics," Stephen Palumbi, director of the Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, told the conference.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
World Bank urges global action to save oceans
AFP Yahoo News 25 Feb 12;
The World Bank on Friday said the world's oceans were at risk and called for a coalition of governments, NGOs and other groups to protect them, aiming to raise $1.5 billion in five years.
"The world’s oceans are in danger," from over-fishing, marine degradation and loss of habitat, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said. "Send out the S-O-S: We need to Save Our Seas."
About 85 percent of ocean fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, including most of the stocks of the top 10 species, he told the World Oceans Summit in Singapore.
"The facts don't lie and the statistics are we are not doing enough, we are not accomplishing enough and the oceans continue to get sick and die," he said.
Zoellick said there were already "considerable resources devoted" to restoring the planet's oceans, but a huge, coordinated global effort was needed.
He proposed several targets for the Global Partnership for Oceans to achieve in the next 10 years, including rebuilding at least half of the world's fish stocks.
Marine protected areas should be more than doubled, he said, noting that less than two percent of the ocean's surface is protected compared to around 12 percent of land.
On the economic side alone the implications are enormous if little is done, he told the gathering.
In developing countries, one billion people depend on fish and seafood for their primary source of protein and over half a billion rely on fishing as a means of livelihood, Zoellick said.
For developing countries, including many island and coastal nations, fish represent the single most traded food product, and for many Pacific Island states fish make up 80 percent of total exports.
Zoellick described the initiative as a "new approach".
The coalition "will bring together countries, scientific centres, NGOs, international organisations, foundations and the private sector to pool knowledge, experience, expertise, and investment around a set of agreed upon goals," he said.
As a starting point, the partnership is committing to raise at least $300 million in "catalytic finance", meaning funds that would be used for technical assistance for key governance reforms, he said.
Another $1.2 billion would be raised "to support healthy and sustainable oceans," he added.
"This would total $1.5 billion in new commitments over five years," he said, adding that the World Bank would convene the first meeting of the partnership in Washington in April.
Environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) lauded the initiative.
"WWF welcomes the renewed interest in the Bank in marine conservation activities. I think this is an important step forward to help all of us advance the marine conservation agenda," said Jason Clay, senior vice president of market transformation for the WWF.
He told AFP the proposal would help to reform global fisheries to make them more sustainable, raise the visibility of marine protected areas and promote ocean conservation to governments and the public.
Addressing the conference on Thursday, Kiribati President Anote Tong called for a change in the way humanity treated oceans.
"We must cease to behave as if we live in a cowboy economy, with unlimited new territory to be conquered," he said.
People must "learn to treat our oceans something like a spaceship where every effort has to be made to recycle materials, reduce waste and pollution and manage resources sustainably," he added.
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