Screen-capture of Global Partnership for Oceans website

In a keynote speech delivered at The Economist’s World Oceans Summit in Singapore on February 24, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said the Partnership would bring science, advocacy, the private sector and international public institutions together to advance mutually agreed goals for healthy and productive oceans.

“The world’s oceans are in danger,” says Zoellick.  “And the enormity of the challenge is bigger than one country or organization.  We need coordinated global action to restore our oceans to health.  Together we’ll build on the excellent work already being done to address the threats to oceans, identify workable solutions, and scale them up.”

All the organizations, countries and agencies supporting the Partnership, including Rare, are already involved in activities to protect the world’s oceans – which provide 15 percent of the animal protein consumed in the world, millions of jobs, and critical ecosystem services such as climate regulation and carbon storage. The key step is to mobilize around a set of shared goals. This focus will help coordinate activities and mobilize new financial support, working closely with countries, civil society and the private sector to reverse patterns of degradation and depletion.

“There are many viable solutions to much of what plagues the world’s oceans, “ says Rare CEO and President Brett Jenks. “The World Bank’s leadership of this new, global partnership creates a great opportunity to catalogue what’s working and promote customized replication all over the world.”

Further discussions will help define the new partnership’s specific agenda. These discussions will address improved governance systems around fishing, more marine protected areas, intensified efforts to attack the sources of ocean pollution and degradation as well as improved coastal management for resilience to weather and climate-related threats.