A NICE OCEAN CONFERENCE

It’s oft-noted that more than two thirds of our planet (71%) is covered by water — and more than 96% of that water is in the ocean.

Yet we’ve mapped more of outer space than we have our ocean system.

And there are few laws to govern this gargantuan area — once one moves beyond a nation’s territorial borders out to open sea, laws are as murky as the deep.

Further, SDG14 — Life Below Water — is the least funded of all of the SDGs.

The three challenges above are the issues that were most front and center during the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), held last week in Nice, France.

And Blue Planet Alliance and our partners were ever-present throughout the week, at official side events inside the conference’s Blue Zone in Nice: at the open-to-the-public Green Zone, also in Nice; and at events around the French southern coast, from Villefranche-sur-Mer to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to the Principality of Monaco.

While the UNOC conference officially began on Monday, June 9, other smaller but important events — such as the One Ocean Science Conference (June 3-6, in Nice) and the Blue Economy Finance Forum (June 7-8, in Monaco) — were scheduled to coincide with the larger convening.

The latter wrapped up on World Ocean Day, culminating in a boat parade from Monaco back to Nice, where BPA was a sponsor of a conference-eve reception, “Sea of Stars,” hosted by our partner Oceanic Global, an evening intended to “​​shed light on the ocean’s magic.” 

On World Ocean Day, we also attended the premiere of a documentary, “Guardians of the Ocean,” presented by Tiaki Moana at La Citadelle in Villefranche-sur-Mer. The film — also attended by Taivini Teai, French Polynesia’s Minister for the Primary Sector, Research, and Food — showcased two youth’s intent “to disrupt conventional ocean conservation by championing community and indigenous leadership to drive bold action beyond 30x30.” And on June 7, BPA supported an event at the Neo Art and Culture Lab in Nice, produced by our partners Rise Up — a “Blue Hour” networking event. The Neo gallery space was a central location for our team throughout the week, and featured photographs of various BPA-affiliated projects, including the Youth for the SDGs program, which we jointly produce with our partner Peace Boat US.

That pre-conference weekend, our Executive Director and Caribbean Director also participated in the Paillon River cleanup, joining global and local partners in a vibrant display of community action during World Ocean Day celebrations. The event concluded with the creation of a sea-creature sculpture made from collected waste, highlighting the importance of reducing marine pollution through collective effort.

On Monday, we returned to the Neo Gallery for an event produced by another partner, the UK’s Lancaster University, titled “Ocean Justice: Championing Fair and Inclusive Blue Economy.” Among the speakers were Peace Boat founder Yoshioka Tatsuya and Executive Director of Peace Boat US Emilie McGlone. Closing remarks were delivered by another BPA partner, Proteus Ocean Group founder Fabien Cousteau, who noted that “In my grandfather’s [renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau] generation, we thought we had to fight nature to survive. Now we realize we must protect it.”

Later, we explored the Green Zone, meeting with leaders of other islands — particularly those comprising overseas French Departments — and NGOs from around the world.

Our flagship day for the week was Tuesday, when we co-produced one major side event in the Blue Zone, and participated in two others.

First, our partners Peace Boat US assembled a dynamic panel, “Mobilizing Youth for Ocean and Climate Action: Harnessing Citizen Science and Capacity-Building.” Our Caribbean Director, Kneyone Murray, was one of the panelists, addressing the importance of giving youth a voice at global conferences like this.

Later, at an event co-hosted by the governments of the Maldives and Latvia — “Leveraging Partnerships to Advance Ocean-Based Economies in Small Island Developing States” — our Executive Director Francois Rogers was a panelist, who detailed the workings of the Blue Planet Alliance Fellowship Program (in which the Maldives had just participated in May).

And the day concluded with “Together, We Rise,” an event Blue Planet Alliance produced with the UNOC3-overseeing department UN DESA (Department of Economic and Social Affairs). “Together, We Rise” emphasized the power of partnerships, and featured a keynote from the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean H.E. Peter Thomson; a fireside chat between Palau’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hon. Ilana Seid and BPA Senior Advisor Lance Gould; and a panel featuring BPA’s Kneyone Murray, Peace Boat US’s Emilie McGlone, Sea Turtle Conservation Curaçao’s Field Director Ard Vreugdenhil, and Women and Climate Executive Director Michelle Li (all of which are BPA MOU partners), moderated by Gould. The event opened with remarks from UN DESA’s Chief of the SIDS Unit Sai Navoti.

The highlights of the event were two award presentations to H.E. Surangel Whipps, Jr., President of the Republic of Palau, and Ambassador Thomson, each of whom received the BPA SDG14 Award from Rogers for their visionary leadership in protecting the global oceanic system.

Another partner of ours was front and center on Wednesday, as Greening the Islands hosted a panel featuring high-level government representation from Curaçao (Vanessa Tore, Director of Foreign Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Economic Development of Curaçao), the Seychelles (Hon. Flavien Joubert, Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment), and Saint Kitts and Nevis (Hon. Dr. Joyelle Clarke, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment, Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment), as well as BPA’s own Francois Rogers. Tore noted, “We can no longer be passive victims of climate change but instead active seekers of solutions.” And all three islands are among the 37 islands that have also previously participated in the BPA Fellowship Program.

Back to the Green Zone we went on Thursday, where BPA’s Lance Gould paired up with BPA partner the Mobile Film Festival in a screening of 20 films from 20 years of the festival — the world’s most democratic film festival, in which each film is one minute long and shot on a cellphone (so entrants with big budgets cannot overpower those without — the best stories win). Powerful 60-second films from Brazil, France, Benin, Morocco, Iran, and Vietnam were among the winning films, which collectively over two decades have racked up more than 145 million views.

Throughout the conference’s five days, we had a chance to meet with old friends and new, and continue to build up the coalition that we founded a few years ago, with the intent of ending the use of carbon-based fuel, one country at a time. We’re starting with islands because they are the least responsible for — and the most vulnerable to — the negative impacts of climate change.

The most encouraging sign we saw was an edging closer to the ratification of the High Seas Treaty, a.k.a. The BBNJ (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions). Adopted by the UN in June 2023, the treaty requires 60 nations to ratify it before it can enter into force. As of the conclusion of UNOC3, 50 countries had ratified it, and another 19 have promised to do so before the end of the year.

As we said in our event at UNOC3, "Together, We Rise.”