By GEO BON and MBON Secretariat

June 11, 2021

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) was officially launched on 1 June 2021 through a High-Level event hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany in partnership with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The Ocean Decade will see an outstanding alliance of stakeholders (UN agencies, governments, science, industry, NGOs, civil society, philanthropy, media, arts and humanities) working together towards its vision “The Science We Need For The Ocean We Want”.

To kickstart the Ocean Decade and to celebrate World Ocean’s Day, UN announced the first set of endorsed transformative Decade Actions. Among them, Marine Life 2030: A Global Integrated Marine Biodiversity Information Management and Forecasting System for Sustainable Development and Conservation. Led by the Smithsonian Institution, the programme gathers a long list of partners from around the world and has a strong participation from the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON).

Short summary: “Marine Life 2030 will establish the globally coordinated system to deliver actionable, transdisciplinary knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. Within a decade, Marine Life 2030 will unite existing and frontier technologies and partners into a global, interoperable network and community of practice advancing observation and forecasting of marine life. This network of networks will link technical, management and policy stakeholders to build and exchange capacity for advancing society’s grand challenges of managing activities for a healthy and resilient ocean and the vibrant and healthy society that depends on it.”

Read here for more details about this project from the MBON Secretariat. For more MBON news, follow this link.

The UN Ocean Decade starts with good news for the GEO BON community

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