Ocean Governance and Strategic Partnerships

This guide presents a suite of ocean-based mitigation and adaptation options for governments to consider in developing new or updated NDCs. The options identified in this guide do not prescribe whether or not a country chooses its NDC as the vehicle for its Adaptation Communication, and can have equal relevance for countries as they consider their adaptation priorities and plans through other national and local adaptation planning processes such as National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

The first of YSLME's Information Series showcases recent studies and actions being undertaken to address key challenges in the Yellow Sea region.

As plastic waste flows into the world’s oceans at alarming rates, support for a global framework to tackle the ocean plastic crisis is rapidly growing.

Oceans and seas contribute approximately $3-6 trillion annually to the global economy in terms of the market value of goods and services including fisheries, energy, shipping, tourism, recreational, and mining sectors, as well as non-market ecosystem services such as climate regulation, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration.

As early as in 2005, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (the GEF) implemented a regional international waters project entitled Reducing Environmental Stress in the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME). Five Regional Working Groups consisting of Chinese and Korean experts conducted transboundary diagnostic analysis (TDA) of state of pollution, biodiversity and ecosystems, fisheries, socioeconomics and governance of the YSLME.

FAO estimates that 79 percent of fisheries are either fully exploited, overexploited or depleted, with only a small number having the chance to recover from depletion. Global marine capture fishery production has declined by 1.6 per cent from 2006 to 2011. During the same period, marine aquaculture production increased by 20.6 per cent. Overfishing and depletion of wild fishery stocks and increasing global demand for seafood from aquaculture determines that the role of mariculture in seafood supply will be critical in the years to come.

The BlueHealth Toolbox is for planners, designers and other decision-makers responsible for blue spaces. The tools provide the means to make comparable assessments of urban blue spaces before and after any proposed changes. Such changes can include a wide range of interventions, from physical alterations to the environment to advertising campaigns that influence how people interact with it. The tools provide evidence about the quality of blue environments, as well as information about how people and communities use, perceive and interact with blue spaces.

This paper examines the distribution of species and critical marine habitats across the world’s oceans; analyzes trends in drivers, pressures, impacts and response; and establishes thresholds for protecting biodiversity hotspots, and indicators to monitor change.

From this scientific base, it assesses the current legal framework and available tools for biodiversity protection, current gaps in ocean governance and management and the implications for achieving a sustainable ocean economy tailored to individual coastal states grouped by social indicators.

This paper examines the distribution of species and critical marine habitats across the world’s oceans; analyzes trends in drivers, pressures, impacts and response; and establishes thresholds for protecting biodiversity hotspots, and indicators to monitor change.

From this scientific base, it assesses the current legal framework and available tools for biodiversity protection, current gaps in ocean governance and management and the implications for achieving a sustainable ocean economy tailored to individual coastal states grouped by social indicators.