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	More than two billion people rely on melting glaciers and snow for fresh water by UN News, WMO, University of Zurich, agencies   The theme of World Water Day 2025 is ‘Glacier Preservation’; Protecting frozen water resources for the future   Glaciers are critical to life – their meltwater is essential for drinking water, agriculture, industry, clean energy production and healthy ecosystems. Rapidly melting glaciers are causing uncertainty to water flows, with profound impacts on people and the planet.   As the planet gets hotter, our frozen world is shrinking, making the water cycle more unpredictable. For billions of people, meltwater flows are changing, causing floods, droughts, landslides and sea level rise. Countless communities and ecosystems are at risk of devastation.   We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow down glacial retreat. And, we must manage meltwater more sustainably. Saving our glaciers is a survival strategy for people and the planet.   This World Water Day, we must work together to put glacier preservation at the core of our plans to tackle climate change and the global water crisis.   United Nations World Water Development Report 2025—Mountains and glaciers: Water towers, cites:   "Most of the world's glaciers, including those in mountains, are melting at an accelerated rate worldwide.. Combined with accelerating permafrost thaw, declining snow cover, and more erratic snowfall patterns... this will have significant and irreversible impacts on local, regional, and global hydrology, including water availability."   "Globally, up to two-thirds of irrigated agriculture may depend on mountain waters," the report states, "while the number of people in lowlands that strongly depend on water from mountains increased worldwide from around 0.6 billion in the 1960s to some 1.8 billion in the 2000s. An additional 1 billion people in the lowlands benefit from supportive mountain runoff contributions."   "Billions of people depend on the fresh water that flows from increasingly fragile mountain environments."   Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, glaciers lock up about 70 per cent of the world’s freshwater reserves. They are striking indicators of climate change as they typically remain about the same size in a stable climate. But, with rising temperatures and global warming triggered by human-induced climate change, they are melting at unprecedented speed, says Sulagna Mishra, a scientific officer at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).   Last year, glaciers in Scandinavia, the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and North Asia experienced the largest annual loss of overall mass on record. In the 500-mile-long Hindu Kush mountain range, located in the western Himalayas and stretching from Afghanistan to Pakistan, the livelihoods of more than 120 million farmers are under threat from glacial loss, said Ms. Mishra.   The mountain range has been dubbed the “third pole” because of the extraordinary water resources it holds, she noted. Despite these vast freshwater reserves, it may already be too late to save them for future generations.   Large masses of perennial ice are disappearing quickly, with five out of the past six years seeing the most rapid glacier retreat on record, according to WMO. The period from 2022 to 2024 also experienced the largest-ever three-year loss.   “We are seeing an unprecedented change in the glaciers,” which in many cases may be irreversible, said Ms. Mishra.   First UN World Day for Glaciers – A call to climate action in desperate times, by Irene Quaile, Senior Media Advisor for the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative:   There are more than 275,000 glaciers worldwide, covering approximately 700,000 km². Glaciers and ice sheets store about 70% of the global freshwater. More than two billion people rely on melting glaciers and snow for fresh water.   However, we are destroying the life-supporting ice at an ever-increasing rate by heating up the global climate. With projections showing that one-third of glacier sites could disappear by 2050, the UN has declared the World Day for Glaciers to raise awareness of the urgent need for global action to protect these vital ecosystems.   2025 has been declared the “International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation”. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UNESCO describe this as a “Global Call for Action to Save Earth’s Vital Ice”, at a “critical moment for Earth’s Cryosphere”. The preservation of these crucial resources is essential not only for environmental sustainability, but also for economic stability and safeguarding livelihoods, the WMO says.   The message of this special focus year was dramatically illustrated by a comprehensive analysis of the world’s glaciers published in Nature on 19 February 2025 by an international research community led by researchers of the University of Zurich (UZH). Looking back over the last two decades the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise, revealed that global glaciers are losing ice at an alarming rate, averaging 270 billion tonnes annually from 2000 to 2023, with a significant acceleration in recent years. Since 2000, mountain glaciers have actually lost more ice than the Greenland ice sheet, and more than twice that of the Antarctic ice sheet.   This made glaciers a major driver of sea-level rise during these two decades: about 18mm of sea level rise can be attributed to mountain glaciers since the year 2000, making glaciers currently the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise after expansion from the warming of the ocean.   In addition, glacier melt means the loss of essential freshwater resources in many regions. “To put this in perspective, the 273 billion [metric] tons of ice lost in one single year amounts to what the entire global population consumes in 30 years, assuming three liters per person and day,” states Michael Zemp, UZH professor at the Department of Geography, who led the study.   The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s latest State of the Global Climate Report published on March 19, 2025, confirms the findings:   “The period 2022-2024 represents the most negative three-year glacier mass balance on record. Seven of the ten most negative mass balance years since 1950 have occurred since 2016.   Glacier retreat increases short-term hazards, harms economies and ecosystems and long-term water security,” the UN weather and climate experts conclude. There can be no doubt as to the reason:   “The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, which was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 average.”   2025 – and we are only a quarter into it – has also been the year when our CO2 levels reached a “Grim Milestone for Earth’s Polar Regions”, crossing the 430 ppm mark “for the first time since records began, and likely for the first time in at least 3 million years”, as the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative puts it.   This “raises a red flag that today’s fossil fuel emissions are pushing the climate into greater and more deadly extremes,” the cryosphere experts write.   “Passing 430 ppm should be a wake-up call, especially given the accelerated response we are seeing of glaciers and ice sheets to current warming,” says Dr. James Kirkham, Chief Scientist of the Ambition on Melting Ice coalition of governments “, which includes both Germany and Peru.   The most ambitious mitigation measures outlined by the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report to slow and reverse climate change have CO2 levels peak at 430 ppm.   “Paired with the fact that 2024 was the hottest year since records began in 1880, rising above the 1.5°C for the first time, these pressing realities serve as a distress signal for the planet”, says ICCI, headed by former diplomat and cryosphere expert Pam Pearson.   “Breaking the 430 ppm level of CO2 in the atmosphere is a tragic threshold, but only underscores the need for a focus on immediate greenhouse gas emission cuts – keeping warming close to 1.5°C remains essential and achievable, but barely,” said Dr. Joeri Rogelj, IPCC lead author, of Imperial College London.”   The past year was the warmest year in the 175-year observational record. The State of the Global Climate 2024 report underlines the massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather and the long-term impacts of record ocean heat and sea-level rise.   “Today’s observations raise a clear signal that the Earth is responding to fossil fuel emissions faster and more intensely than anticipated”, writes the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.   “There’s no time like the present?” It could be “now or never”. Preserving our glaciers means halting runaway climate warming and the existential threats it poses to life on our planet as we know it.   http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/glacier-melt-will-unleash-avalanche-of-cascading-impacts http://www.un-glaciers.org/en/key-messages http://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2025/Glacier-loss.html http://iceblog.org/2025/03/20/first-un-world-day-for-glaciers-a-call-to-climate-action-in-desperate-times/ http://iccinet.org/statecryo24/ http://www.carbonbrief.org/glacier-melt-threatens-water-supplies-for-two-billion-people-un-warns http://www.unwater.org/publications/un-world-water-development-report-2025 http://www.un.org/en/observances/water-day Visit the related web page
	Ocean issues are human rights issues by UN News, Nature, IPCC, OHCHR, agencies   13 June 2025   The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) concluded today in Nice with an urgent call for governments to translate bold words into concrete action to protect the world’s oceans.   Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the summit brought together more than 15,000 participants, including 50 heads of state and government, civil society leaders, scientists, youth, and Indigenous communities to the 11-day event.   The Ocean Conference adopted a political declaration titled “Our ocean, our future: united for urgent action”, stressing that the ocean plays an essential role in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change.   “The ocean is fundamental to life on our planet and to our future, and we remain deeply alarmed by the global emergency it faces”, the Conference’s outcome document said, adding “Action is not advancing at the speed or scale required to meet Sustainable Development Goal 14: To Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development".   Underlining the importance of interlinkages between the ocean, climate and biodiversity, the declaration calls for greater global action to minimize the impact of climate change, expressing deep concern that the ability of the ocean and its ecosystems to act as a climate regulator and to support adaptation has been “weakened”.   It emphasized the importance of implementing UN agreements and frameworks, to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change and help to ensure the health, sustainable use and resilience of the ocean.   The declaration also affirms the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols, as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (adopted in 2022, committing nations to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 through ambitious conservation targets and sustainable biodiversity management). The high and rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution and its negative impacts on the environment raised ongoing alarm.   Ocean action must be based on the best available science and knowledge, including, where available, traditional knowledge, knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local knowledge systems, while recognizing and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, in conserving, restoring and sustainably using the ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development states the declaration.   Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 is one of the least funded Goals and accelerating ocean action globally requires significant additional and accessible finance.   “The signs of the ocean in distress are all around us”, said Peter Thomson, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Ocean. “The time of debating with the denialists is over”.   One key aim of the conference was to achieve progress on the High Seas Treaty—officially known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement.   With 51 ratifications confirmed (and dozens more countries promising to ratify by the end of the year) to reach the 60 needed for entry into force, the treaty promises to enable the creation of marine protected areas in international waters, a crucial tool to achieving the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030.   At the conference, French Polynesia pledged to create the world’s largest marine protected area, encompassing its entire exclusive economic zone – about five million square kilometers.   Former US special climate envoy John Kerry who was present in Nice, welcomed the developments saying: “We have a wide ranging group of countries that have come together to improve the marine protected areas”. The announcements this week, however, are “just building blocks,” he said. “We are not moving fast enough or at scale.”   Mr. Kerry said that it was impossible to "protect the ocean without confronting the biggest root cause bringing it to the breaking point: the pollution from fossil fuels pumped into the atmosphere".   2,000 scientists recommended to governments that all deep sea mining exploration be stopped whilst further research is carried out; with just 0.001% of the seabed being mapped.   The conference saw mounting support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, with four more nations joining the call, bringing the total to 37 – a step not included in the final declaration.   Environmental groups expressed frustration that the conference stopped short of stronger legally binding decisions, especially on deep-sea mining.   “We’ve heard lots of fine words here in Nice, but these need to turn into tangible action,” said Megan Randles, head of Greenpeace’s delegation. “Countries must be brave and make history by committing to a moratorium on deep-sea mining at next month’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting.”   Randles welcomed the ratification progress of the High Seas Treaty but said governments “missed the moment” to take firmer steps against industries threatening marine ecosystems.   Activists also stressed the importance of upcoming negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty, resuming in Geneva this August. Ninety-five governments signed the “Nice Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty,” but concerns remain that lobbying from oil and petrochemical interests could water down the deal.   “The world cannot afford a weak treaty dictated by fossil fuel obstructionists,” said John Hocevar, Oceans Campaign Director at Greenpeace USA. “Governments need to show that multilateralism still works for people and the planet, not the profits of a greedy few.”   The issue of plastic pollution is one that is particularly profound for the oceans, but in December talks on reducing the levels of production broke down. There are nearly 200 trillion pieces in the ocean and this is expected to triple by 2040 if no action is taken.   Both the physical plastic and the chemicals within them is life-threatening to marine animals, said Bethany Carney Almroth, Professor of Ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg.   "There are more than 16,000 chemicals that are present in plastics, and we know that more than 4,000 of those have hazardous properties, so they might be carcinogenic, or mutagenic, or reproductively toxic," she said.   Reducing fossil fuel production is also crucial if countries want to see a drop in planet-warming emissions and limit the worst impacts of climate change. The oceans are at the forefront of this - 90% of the additional heat put into the atmosphere by humans has been absorbed by the oceans, leading to increasingly destructive impacts. However, the conference did not see any new commitments on reducing emissions.   Small Island Developing States pushed for stronger language on loss and damage – harms inflicted by climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to, but were left disappointed.   Laurence Tubiana, CEO at the European Climate Foundation, said Nice showed global co-operation was still possible "but let's not confuse signatures with solutions". "No communique ever cooled a marine heatwave," she said.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164381 http://press.un.org/en/2025/sea2231.doc.htm http://highseasalliance.org/2025/06/13/international-ocean-conference-ends-with-high-seas-treaty-on-verge-of-entry-into-force/ http://ejfoundation.org/news-media/press-release-unilateral-deep-sea-mining-rejected-at-un-ocean-conference http://deep-sea-conservation.org/un-ocean-conference-shines-a-light-on-the-deep-sea-now-time-for-action/   http://www.ciel.org/news/at-un-ocean-conference-world-leaders-fail-to-protect-the-ocean-from-fossil-fuels/ http://www.oceancare.org/en/stories_and_news/oceancare-at-unoc3-offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-must-stop-now/ http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?14212941/un-ocean-conference-puts-wind-in-the-sails-of-ocean-action http://iucn.org/news/202506/iucn-welcomes-renewed-global-resolve-ocean-action-third-un-ocean-conference-closes http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/06/un-ocean-conference-closes-historic-commitments-activists-demand-action-beyond-words/ http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq69e4j6jz8o http://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250613-un-summit-celebrates-ocean-protections-but-drops-fossil-fuels   http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/06/a-wake-up-call-from-the-womb-indigenous-people-rally-for-a-binding-plastics-treaty/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/06/pacific-states-territories-gift-the-world-its-largest-conservation-project/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/06/oceans-at-risk-report-warns-global-fossil-fuel-expansion-threatens-marine-biodiversity/ http://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press-releases/environment-lawyers-heartened-by-yet-another-eu-ruling-on-bottom-trawling/ http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/global-climate-predictions-show-temperatures-expected-remain-or-near-record-levels-coming-5-years   9 June 2025   UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the Third United Nations Ocean Conference on Monday, delivering a blunt indictment of humanity’s fractured relationship with the sea.   “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource,” he told delegates gathered at the port of Nice. “But we are failing it.”   Oceans, he warned, are absorbing 90 per cent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and buckling under the strain: overfishing, rising temperatures, plastic pollution, acidification.   Coral reefs are dying. Fish stocks are collapsing. Rising seas, he said, could soon “submerge deltas, destroy crops, and swallow coastlines — threatening many islands’ survival.”   Over 120 countries are participating in the five-day gathering in France, known by the shorthand UNOC3, signaling a growing recognition that ocean health is inseparable from climate stability, food security, and global equity.   French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is co-hosting the summit alongside Costa Rica, appealled for regard for science, law, and multilateral resolve.   “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is for sale, any more than Antarctica or the high seas are for sale,” he declared. “If the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling.”   He insisted the fate of the seas could not be left to markets or opinion. “The first response is therefore multilateralism,” Mr. Macron said. “The climate, like biodiversity, is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of scientifically established facts.”   Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles issued a stark warning. “The ocean is speaking to us — with bleached coral reefs, with storms, with wounded mangroves,” he said. “There’s no time left for rhetoric. Now is the time to act.” Condemning decades of treating the ocean as a “global waste dump,” Mr. Chaves urged a shift from exploitation to stewardship.   The Costa Rican leader called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters until science can adequately assess the risks — a position already backed by 33 countries, he noted.   “The ocean is facing an unprecedented crisis due to climate change, plastic pollution, ecosystem loss, and the overuse of marine resources,” Li Junhua, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, who is also serving as Secretary-General of the event, told UN News.   The crisis isn’t a distant threat: it’s happening now. In April, global sea surface temperatures hit their second-highest levels ever for that month, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Meanwhile, the most extensive coral bleaching event in recorded history is underway — sweeping across the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and parts of the Pacific. More than a single event, it’s a planetary unraveling.   Coral reefs, which sustain a quarter of all marine species and underpin billions in tourism and fisheries, are vanishing before our eyes. Their collapse could unleash cascading effects on biodiversity, food security, and climate resilience.   And the damage runs deeper still. The ocean continues to absorb more than 90 per cent of excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions — a worldwide service that may be nearing its limits. “Challenges like plastic pollution, overfishing, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and warming are all linked to climate change,” Mr. Li warned.   Despite its vital role in regulating life on Earth — producing half of our oxygen and buffering against climate extremes — the ocean remains chronically underfunded. Sustainable Development Goal 14 , on ‘Life Below Water’, receives the least resources of the 17 global UN goals Member States agreed to meet by 2030.   The estimated cost to protect and restore marine ecosystems over the next five years is $175 billion annually. “But less than $10 billion was allocated between 2015 and 2019,” Mr. Li noted, signaling the need to move on ocean funding.   Up to 12 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year — the equivalent of a garbage truck every minute. Over 60 per cent of marine ecosystems are degraded or unsustainably used. Global fish stocks within safe biological limits have plunged from 90 per cent in the 1970s to just 62 per cent in 2021.   More than 3 billion people rely on marine biodiversity to survive. The summit aims to bolster efforts toward protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030.   Minna Epps, who runs the Ocean Program at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), spoke to UN News ahead of the Conference: How serious is the marine biodiversity crisis?   Minna Epps: We’re in really dire straits. If we don't protect and restore the Ocean this is going to have devastating consequences for all those services that we are dependent on. The entire climate is dependent on the Ocean as a climate regulator. However, we don't want the Ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide, because that's what makes it acidic, so we need to start by cutting emissions.   If you are in an airplane and you fly over a forest, you can see deforestation, that a habitat has been lost. The same thing is happening in the Ocean, but we can't really see it.   Another effect of climate change is marine heat waves, when water temperature increases over an extended period. A marine heat wave in Panama wiped out around 75 per cent of coral diversity. Coral reefs make up less than one per cent of the Ocean, but almost 25 per cent of marine species depend on them..   http://news.un.org/en/tags/un-ocean-conference http://sdgs.un.org/conferences/ocean2025 http://iucn.org/events/external-event/un-oceans-conference-2025 http://iucn.org/resources/policy-brief/iucns-messages-10-ocean-action-panels-unoc3 http://one-ocean-science-2025.org/oos2025-recommendations-en.pdf http://for-the-ocean.org/news/ocean-protection-gap-report/ http://www.fauna-flora.org/news/a-global-movement-to-protection-our-ocean/ http://seas-at-risk.org/press-releases/protect-the-ocean-protect-life-ocean-advocates-make-global-call-for-action-before-un-ocean-conference/   http://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2025/06/why-deep-seabed-mining-needs-a-moratorium http://e360.yale.edu/features/jeff-watters-interview http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?14136941/WWF-UN-Ocean-Conference-must-chart-a-course-to-deliver-on-2030-goals http://for-the-ocean.org/news/destructive-fishing-in-protected-areas-and-bottom-trawlings-economic-toll/ http://for-the-ocean.org/resources http://www.fauna-flora.org/explained/bottom-trawling-impact/ http://www.oceancare.org/en/stories_and_news/report-trawling/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/09062025/un-deep-sea-mining-bottom-trawling-moratorium/ http://stateoftheocean.org/seamountsproclamation/   http://www.oceancare.org/en/stories_and_news/over-200-ngos-call-for-urgent-action-on-offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-ahead-of-un-conference-in-nice/ http://www.ciel.org/news/ciel-experts-at-unoc3/ http://www.ciel.org/unoc3-time-for-a-fossil-free-ocean/ http://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2025/04/01/offshore-oil-gas-policies-threaten-ocean/ http://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/what-s-the-relationship-between-climate-change-and-the-ocean/   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/09/sea-acidity-ecosystems-ocean-acidification-planetary-health-scientists http://insideclimatenews.org/news/09062025/ocean-acidification-crosses-planetary-boundaries/ http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/ http://sdgs.un.org/publications/launch-second-world-ocean-assessment-woa-ii-volume-i-32884 http://stateoftheocean.org/theforgottenocean/#more-1680 http://stateoftheocean.org/new-report/ http://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/chapter-5/ http://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/ http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01665-0 http://council.science/news/science-based-priorities-for-the-ocean-we-need/   http://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/when-our-oceans-cant-breathe-a-sea-change-is-needed-commentary/ http://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2025/04/23/addressing-triple-planetary-crisis-ocean-2025/ http://riseupfortheocean.org/finance-for-ocean-resilience-bridging-the-gap-for-coastal-communities/ http://www.nature.com/immersive/d42859-025-00024-3/index.html http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01726-4 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X25001885 http://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-marine-life-provides-climate-benefits-worth-billions-of-dollars/ http://seas-at-risk.org/blue-manifesto/ http://riseupfortheocean.org/cop29-ocean-climate-action-at-a-crossroads/ http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/answering-10-pressing-questions-about-plastic-pollution   Mar. 2025   Ocean issues are human rights issues, says UN expert   Ocean degradation threatens communities and affects human rights worldwide, including the right to a healthy environment, a UN independent expert said today.   “The protection of marine ecosystems is part of States’ obligations to protect human rights,” said Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   In her report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur stressed that the degradation of the ocean threatens humanity and exacerbates inequalities and disproportionately affects marginalised populations.   “Knowing the interdependence and interconnectedness of humans and ecosystems with the ocean is essential to understanding the current impacts on this delicate balance, even for those living inland,” Puentes Riano said. She noted that these linkages include food systems, healthy ecosystems, a safe climate and the work of ocean defenders.   “The ocean is the largest biome on Earth, covering 70 per cent of its surface. One third of the human population (2.4 billion people) live within 100 km of an ocean coast,” she said.   “Despite over 600 agreements, marine ecosystems face pressing threats including climate change, overfishing, extractivism, pollution, and deep-sea mining,” the expert said. Weak governance and enforcement gaps; disproportionate impacts on Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, and coastal communities; escalating violence against ocean defenders, and insufficient accountability exacerbate these issues.   Puentes Riano called for a holistic, comprehensive, integrated and gender-responsive human rights and ecosystem-based approach to ocean governance. She said the inclusion of ancestral knowledge, the rights of present and future generations, and a long-term vision were crucial to solving the current triple planetary crises and addressing ocean challenges.   “We must mainstream the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment into ocean policies, strengthen international cooperation, and ensure that those most affected lead conservation efforts,” the Special Rapporteur said.   In her report, the expert outlined key recommendations for States, businesses and international organisations, including: strengthening legal protections for marine biodiversity and coastal communities; implementing stricter regulations on overfishing, pollution and offshore extractive industries; enforcing the precautionary principle, all while recognising the role of ocean defenders and indigenous knowledge in marine governance. The report also recommends for States to support developing countries in marine conservation.   “Without immediate action, we risk losing marine biodiversity, which in turn will impact the lives and human rights of millions of people who depend on the ocean,” Puentes Riano said. “We need a clear understanding that ocean issues are human rights issues, and we need to apply this to all ocean-related efforts.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/ocean-issues-are-human-rights-issues-says-un-expert http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5543-business-planetary-boundaries-and-right-clean-healthy-and http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment Visit the related web page
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