Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Oceans are the biggest ecosystems on planet earth, and they are essential to our survival. They cover 65% of the surface of the earth, generate nearly half of the air we breathe in and also 16% of animal protein, besides playing an important role in the global economy.

Over 3 billion people across the world depend on coastal and marine resources, generating many jobs in various industries such as tourism, biotechnology, fishing, and shipping. The ocean has a significant part to play in the worldwide development, and it can help fight poverty. However, marine ecosystems across the world are currently being threatened by our human activities. We must start protecting our oceans’ health if we are to prosper and survive.

Insights about Ocean Sustainability

Oceans, seas and coastal areas form an integrated and essential component of the Earth’s ecosystem and are critical to sustainable development. They cover more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface and contain 97% of the planet’s water. Oceans contribute to poverty eradication by creating sustainable livelihoods and decent work. 

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal resources for their livelihoods. In addition, oceans are crucial for global food security and human health. They are also the primary regulator of the global climate, an important sink for greenhouse gases and they provide us with water and the oxygen we breathe. Finally, oceans host huge reservoirs of biodiversity.

The importance of oceans for sustainable development is widely recognized by the international community and embodied in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and various decisions taken by the Commission on Sustainable Development. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment emphasizes that all humans depend on the Earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide. In the Rio+20 outcome document. 

The future we want, Member States called for “holistic and integrated approaches to sustainable development that will guide humanity to live in harmony with nature and lead to efforts to restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem”. In this context, they stressed, among others, the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and seas and of their resources for sustainable development, including through their contributions to poverty eradication, sustained economic growth, food security and creation of sustainable livelihoods and decent work. 

Accordingly, the submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August 2014 contained sustainable development goal (SDG) 14 which aims to “Conserve and sustainable use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Issues related to oceans and seas are addressed in the 10 targets under SDG 14, as well as many other related SDGs, under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the outcome document of the United Nations summit for the adoption of the posst-2015 development agenda in 2015.

In order for oceans, seas and marine resources to successfully contribute to human well-being, ecosystem integrity, with properly functioning biogeochemical and physical processes, is required. This does not require unperturbed systems, but systems that have not suffered serious or irreversible harm. 

Ecosystem integrity allows for the provision of so-called supporting ecosystem services which, in turn, are the bases of important regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services that are of crucial importance for humans. Whereas the benefits provided by oceans, seas and marine resources are important to all people, the poor, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable groups with a high dependency on natural resources and ecosystem services may have their well-being especially tied to these benefits. 

The link between oceans, seas and marine resources and human well-being is not one-sided. While an increase in human well-being is frequently generated at the cost of ecosystem integrity, it can also potentially reduce the negative anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment, for example due to a more sustainable use of resources, changes in production and consumption patterns and improved management and control of human activities. In order for this to happen, good governance and an enabling environment are however required.

How SDG 14 can conserve our oceans

There is optimism that with the latest dedicated goal of ocean conservation under the Sustainable Development Goals, companies will acknowledge the value and importance of our coastal areas and oceans. In the previous Millennium Development Goals, oceans were covered in the broader target of securing environmental sustainability. The new SDGs, however, give oceans the important dedicated attention with distinctive underlying targets. Goal 14 seeks the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, seas, and oceans.

Quantifying the ocean

One of the main challenges to ocean conservation faces is that estimating the true value of oceans and accounting for the exploitation costs is difficult. The WWF released a report about the Ocean Economy that estimates the financial worth of oceans is about $24 trillion. 

This high value of the ocean includes the direct outputs from the ocean like seafood, its contribution as an essential shipping medium, the worth of its vast coastline and also its capacity of absorbing nearly 30% of our total carbon emissions.

Nevertheless, this appraisal only based on current value of marketable services and goods; it does not consider the intangible worth of oceans, such as biodiversity, water filtration by wetlands and mangroves, as well as climate regulation. We must, therefore, move towards properly accounting the worth of our ecosystems, so as to deliberate the full benefits and costs in political and economic decision-making.

Key targets of SDG 14

The following targets were agreed upon by the UN member states to help guide decision making with regards to oceans:

Prevent and considerably reduce all kinds of marine pollution, including nutrient pollution and marine debris.

Sustainably protect and manage coastal and marine ecosystem to prevent considerable adverse effects, including through fortifying their resilience as well as taking restorative actions to attain productive and healthy oceans.

Address and minimise ocean acidification through increased scientific cooperation from all levels.

Effective regulation of harvesting and stopping overfishing, unregulated, unreported and illegal fishing and also detrimental fishing practices. Implement effective, science-based plans for restoring fish stocks within a short timeframe.

Conserve roughly 10% of marine and coastal areas, in agreement with international and national law and using the latest scientific information.

Prohibit certain types of fisheries subsidies that support overfishing and overcapacity, abolish subsidies that support unregulated and illegal fishing and desist from the introduction of such subsidies in future.

Increase the financial benefits to least developed nations and Small Island countries from using marine resources sustainably, including through better management of aquaculture, tourism, and fisheries.

Improve research capacity, scientific knowledge and share marine technology to not only enhance ocean health but also to improve the role of marine biodiversity in developing countries.

Ensure easy access for the small-scale fishers to markets and marine resources.

Improve the sustainable use and conservation of oceans through implementing the necessary international law, in agreement with the UNCLOS, which sets out the legal outline for these efforts.

Importance of inter-territorial collaborations to our oceans

Our oceans do not recognise political or international borders. Thus, we must deal with coastal and ocean issues internationally, using a collaborative strategy. Efforts by one country to prevent ocean pollution or control overfishing can have a very small effect if others are not contributing to the solution. 

For instance, an issue like the extensive garbage patch found in the Pacific Ocean, an area much bigger than Texas filled with plastic waste, is caused by several number of contributors internationally. The solution to such a problem will require simultaneous universal commitment.

Collaborative platforms are necessary to address ocean conservation. 

A good example is an initiative for sustainable shipping, which is a collaborative effort between the main players in the maritime industry that seeks to attain the vision of both a sustainable and profitable shipping industry. Collaborative efforts between leading companies in a certain industry will create an innovative space for related companies to start using a systematic strategy to resolving maritime challenges and also maximises impact.

Focus on solutions

It is critical for organisations to study this SDG 14 and identify the specific maritime issue that is most substantial to the company and emphasise on an exact solution. The various ocean issues, such as overfishing and acidification, require different strategies and businesses can maximise the impact through choosing solutions that are aligned closely with their expertise, supply chain or business model.

Existing business initiatives towards ocean conservation tend to emphasise on awareness raising, without offering a meaningful solution. For instance, the partnership between Adidas and Parley for the Oceans NGO illustrates the consumer-facing awareness raising approaches that businesses are taking. In this particular partnership, Adidas for example is designing shoes made from ocean waste. While this is commendable, it fails to clarify how the brand plans to stop actively footwear plastic from ending up dumped into the ocean.

In contrast, Project Ocean, a collaboration between Selfridges and ZSL, also seeks to raise awareness about ocean issues but reinforces the program with practical actions. For instance, they banned all water bottles and carrier bags made from plastic across all their department stores.

Also, the company has also removed all endangered species of fish from its menus. Even though these steps are arguably modest, they show just how organisations can move further than awareness raising to making real, tangible impacts.

Finally, global trends point to continued deterioration of coastal waters owing to pollution and eutrophication (excessive nutrients in water, frequently a result of run-off from land, which causes dense plant growth and the death of animal life from lack of oxygen). Of the 63 large marine ecosystems evaluated under the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme, 16 per cent of the ecosystems are in the “high” or “highest” risk categories for coastal eutrophication. They are located mainly in Western Europe, Southern and Eastern Asia, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Ocean acidification is closely linked to shifts in the carbonate chemistry of the waters, which can lead to a significant weakening of the shells and skeletons of many marine species (such as reef-building corals and shelled molluscs).Studies of marine acidity at Open Ocean and coastal sites around the world have indicated that current levels are often outside preindustrial bounds.

Overfishing reduces food production, impairs the functioning of ecosystems and reduces biodiversity. The proportion of world marine fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels has declined from 90 per cent in 1974 to 68.6 per cent in 2013. However, the trend has slowed and appears to have stabilized from 2008 to 2013.

Small-scale fisheries face numerous challenges. In response, about 70 per cent of the respondents to a survey representing 92 countries and the European Union have introduced or developed regulations, policies, laws, plans or strategies specifically targeting small-scale fisheries.

When effectively managed and well resourced, marine protected areas are important mechanisms for safeguarding ocean life. In 2017, protected areas cover 13.2 per cent of the marine environment under national jurisdiction (up to 200 nautical miles from shore), 0.25 per cent of the marine environment beyond national jurisdiction and 5.3 per cent of the total global ocean area.

Libraries support this goal by providing…….

1. Avenues for tracking the life cycle of products and materials in order to understand how they are disposed and which products could likely find their way into marine environments.

2. Records and disclose information on the chemical and material usage within products, packaging, and processing systems to facilitate closing the loop.

3. Sustainable system of sharing and circulating materials that reduce waste

4. Information that contributes to the development of waste management technologies that minimize the use of clean water.

In conclusion, it is about time governments, companies and citizens realised how valuable oceans are, both the intangible and tangible benefits. We must start taking action to enhance and protect our coastal areas and seas so that they can carry on enabling, supporting and improving our lives on earth. Goal 14 sets out to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. The increasingly adverse impacts of climate change (including ocean acidification), overfishing and marine pollution are jeopardizing recent gains in protecting portions of the world’s oceans.

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