Our future ocean

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  • Webinar

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The ocean is integral to planetary and human sustenance.  It has a crucial role to play in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as well as currently in the recovery from the COVID-19 global pandemic particularly through strategies for growing the blue economy. But the health of the ocean itself is under severe threat with increasing pressures from human activities.  Its potential therefore hangs in the balance.

On the occasion of the 2021 World Oceans Day: The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods, this virtual dialogue will address the urgency of progressing an integrated and inclusive ocean action agenda in the next decade. Reflecting on the findings of the Second World Ocean Assessment and the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, it will address the challenges to achieving integrated management of the ocean and look to opportunities to foster multi-stakeholder, and multi-scalar coordination and collaboration including within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science (2021-2030).

Speakers

Dr Karen Evans is a Team Leader and principal research scientist with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere based in Hobart, Tasmania. She leads and is involved in research focused on improving scientific understanding and developing better tools for assessing the state of marine ecosystems and delivering information that can help guide the sustainable management of marine species and ecosystems. Karen’s expertise and reputation has seen her contribute to numerous initiatives, working groups and task teams nationally and internationally including national and regional management organisations and agencies as well as the United Nations. She currently leads the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research project’s regional programme ‘Climate Impacts on Top Predators’ (CLIOTOP) and is part of teams guiding the third United Nations World Ocean Assessment and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, as well as developing a global set of measurable indicators of the biology and ecology of the ocean for the Global Ocean Observing System.

Professor Joeli Veitayaki, is currenlty in Samoa and was until March 2021 the Acting Director at the School of Marine Studies, University of South Pacific(USP). He was also Director for the International Ocean Institute Pacific Islands based at the USP and is Co-Chair of the Korea-South Pacific Ocean Forum. He is a trained teacher who did his Bachelor of Arts in Education and Masters of Arts studies at USP. He obtained his PhD in Environment Management and Development from the National Centre of Development Studies (NCDS) at the Australian National University. Apart from teaching, Joeli conducts research in different parts of Fiji and the Pacific Island Countries with partners from USP and abroad to promote the sustainable use and management of marine resources.