Concrete action to reverse or mitigate environmental damage done to the world’s oceans must be initiated immediately before it is too late, a United Nations ocean expert has warned.
Speaking at the launch of a new UN Development Programme (UNDP) report held in Washington, D.C, Andrew Hudson, the head of UNDP’s Water & Ocean Governance Programme and UN-Oceans Coordinator, noted that continuing ocean degradation threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, primarily in the world’s least developed countries.
“Oceans are an integral part of life on earth, regulating our climate and producing oxygen for the planet, yet they are under serious threat due to pollution, over-exploitation, habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change,” Mr. Hudson told reporters. “We need to improve the way we manage the oceans, before the damage is irreversible.”
The report – entitled Catalysing Ocean Finance and co-authored with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) – indicates how sustainable ocean management could become a legacy of today’s global leaders if ocean planning and policy instruments are scaled up.
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