The World Ocean Summit 2015

The third World Ocean Summit will be held in Lisbon, on June 5th 2015. Pierre-Yves Cousteau, IUCN marine program officer, will represent IUCN project. The conference will focus on « the blue economy ». This emerging concept is based on reconciling the notions of economic growth and environmental protection. The global ocean, like the other ecosystems, is regarded as a source of goods and services to manage sustainably.

Much economic activity in the ocean remains based on unsustainable over-exploitation or pollution. A trend that could be countered thanks to the World Ocean Summit initiative. Indeed, during the second instance, the notion of sustainable ocean economy was clarified and the governance frameworks required to enable it was considered. The third summit represents the next step where hundreds of global leaders, business, governments and the international ocean community, will gather and explore realistic solutions. An answer to this question could be outlined : how can we make the transition from a conventional ocean economy to a new ‘blue’ economy?