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© Unsplash/Sylvain Cleymans

Improve scientific understanding, step-up financing for a sustainable Ocean

Closing the UN Ocean Conference on Friday, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Miguel de Serpa Soares, spelled out the challenges that still need to be addressed to ensure lasting protection and the restoration of our Ocean. 

Looking back on the week, Mr. Soares sat down with UN News’s Eleuterio Guevane. He started by laying out what the conference had achieved.

Audio Duration
4'32"
Mangroves in Kenya's town of Vanga, Kwale county are nursery grounds for fish.
UN/ Thelma Mwadzaya

With mangrove conservation, Kenya’s coastal communities plant seeds for sustainable ‘blue growth’

The southern ocean border of Kenya and Tanzania is dotted with thick hedges of mangroves – indispensable carbon sinks and spectacular ecosystems teeming with life – that appear to float dreamlike over creek beds and mudflats. These hardy trees and shrubs, and the communities that depend on them, are getting a major boost from UN-backed restoration plans that are also helping to reduce poverty and build economic resilience.

© Nicolas Hahn

We mustn’t wait 30 more years to protect oceans, say scientists in call for action

Each of us can do three things to help save our oceans: vote, promote solutions to existing problems such as pollution, and try to buy more sustainably.

Those are the key takeaways from Emanuel Gonçalves, marine ecologist, conservationist and chief scientist of the Oceano Azul Foundation, who’s come to take part in the UN Ocean Conference, in Lisbon.

UN News’s Ana Carmo started by asking him about the importance of including the high seas in marine protection.

Audio
6'34"