The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The governance of the ocean is not a novel concept; however, like climate change and energy, its transboundary nature and the involvement of several stakeholders complicate it. This inherent diversity of interests leads to regime complexities and challenges in developing comprehensive regulatory systems. While various laws and treaties ensure peaceful, …
Global production has been linear, following a production-consumption-disposal approach resulting in increasing demand and production of all products, especially plastics. With climate change, deteriorating air and water quality, and resource depletion concerns plaguing the planet, as well as a desire to shift towards more efficient production systems, a gradual change …
The ocean economy is worth between $3 trillion and $6 trillion and offers vast opportunities for developing countries to build resilience. But marine resources are under threat from climate change, pollution and overfishing. About 11 million tonnes of plastic flow into the ocean each year. Globally, 34% of fish stocks …
Into the Blue: Securing a Sustainable Future for Kelp Forests global synthesis report is the most comprehensive knowledge review on kelp to date, revealing the state of science on the world’s kelp forests and providing recommended actions to build the recovery of the world’s kelp forests. Aiming to improve our …
Today at the half-way point for the SDGs, UNEP is preparing to provide important intelligence on the progress we are making on the environmental dimension. The latest available data and estimates for 92 environment relevant SDG indicators tell us that the world is not on track to achieve the environmental …
Plastic waste negatively impacts ecosystems, public health, and local economies in Tanzania. For example, marine plastic and microplastic wastes contaminate beaches, sea grass areas and coral reef habitats, lower the quality of marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and endanger bird and marine wildlife through entanglement and the ingestion of plastics of …
The Blue Economy is one of the emerging strong pillars of socioeconomic and ecological development and growth across the world. It is one of the few resource-base whose exploitation can be conducted sustainably, and also whose ecological protection can generate economic value. In 2020, the United Nations Economic Commission for …
As a critical component of the global economy, the ocean and its ecosystems provide important goods and services and support numerous activities essential for economic development, such as capture fisheries, maritime transport and ports, coastal tourism, coastal protection, and energy. These sectors collectively contribute to the ocean economy, estimated to …
This book provides a cross-sectoral, multi-scale assessment of marine litter in Africa with a focus on plastics. From distribution, to impacts on environmental and human health, this book looks at what is known scientifically. It includes a policy analysis of the instruments that currently exist, and what is needed to …
Sustainable economic development based on the oceans and meeting the aspirations of individual countries, the African Union, economic actors and the African public has many different labels. The choice of either of the terms ‘blue’ or ‘ocean’ linked to ‘economy’ are used in different contexts, but the key attributes desired …
Billions of people in Asia and the Pacific depend on healthy oceans for their livelihoods, food security, health, and recreation. However, the impacts of climate change, marine pollution, overfishing, and unsustainable coastal development are increasingly threatening these ecosystems, jeopardizing the region’s small island nations and other developing coastal economies. Blue …
This volume aims to widen the discussion about the diversity of human-nature relationships and valuation methods and to stimulate new perspective that are needed to build a more sustainable future, especially in face of ongoing socio-environmental changes. Conceptual and empirical approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies have been used …
Increasingly, collective calls for participative, integrated and sustainable approaches to marine and coastal science and management are met with calls for gender inclusiveness, mainstreaming and sensitivity across the environment and development agendas. Yet, even as policymakers, environmental managers and development practitioners are made aware of why gender mainstreaming is important …
The marine capture fisheries production of Africa currently stands at 7 million tonnes. It has increased in recent years thanks to the strong resurgence of West African small pelagic catches and a return to normality in the Indian Ocean following the end of Somalian piracy. The marine fish supply is …
The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022 was introduced in Lok Sabha on April 1, 2022. The Bill seeks to give effect to the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. It also seeks to protect the …
A series of regional conventions and policies are playing an essential role in monitoring climate change and preparing for extreme weather events, preventing oil spills, reducing plastic and other waste, saving coral reefs, and providing overall ocean protection and restoration of marine ecosystems. These are the key findings of a …
Aquaculture production has very significantly increased in tonnage and value over the last decades. It is seen as a potential solution to replace the declining wild fishery stocks. This publication is a first attempt to examine aquaculture systems within the recent framework of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions …
Commissioned by WWF and conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, the report “Impacts of plastic pollution in the oceans on marine species, biodiversity and ecosystems'' notes that microplastic concentrations above a threshold level of 1.21 x 105 items per cubic metre have now …
Investors in 66% of listed companies are collectively at risk of losing US$8.4 trillion due to declining ocean health and climate change if business as usual continues. Even keeping global temperature rise to 2°C will result in losses of US$3.3 trillion, which highlights the importance of keeping global temperature rise …
The MPA Outlook, from the Nairobi Convention and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association, documents progress made by countries in the region towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 14.5 and provides lessons and opportunities to increase momentum for achieving post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework targets.
