WSF SDG 14 Leader: Emma Bregonje, emma @ worldsustainabilityfund.nl
SDG 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources
Introduction - importance of water and oceans
97 % of the earth’s water is in the ocean and the ocean supplies almost all the water that falls on land as rain and snow. Of the small portion that is fresh water; about a third is in groundwater and a mere 0.3 % in accessible surface waters. Currently, 750 million people lack access to an improved water source and 2.5 billion lack access to basic sanitation. If current trends continue, there will still be 2.4 billion people without access to an improved sanitation facility in 2015, falling short of the MDG sanitation target by over half a billion people. The impacts of low access to drinking water and sanitation represent a substantial drag on socioeconomic development in many countries.
Source: http://www.undp.org/water/
Water and Ocean governance- UN divisions
The United Nationans Development Programme (UNDP) has a program for oceans and water. UNDP’s Water and Ocean Governance Programme applies such approaches at local, national, regional and global levels:
- UNDP assists countries to achieve equitable allocation, develop capacities and implement integrated water resources management through adaptive water governance to reduce poverty and vulnerability, sustain and enhance livelihoods and protect environmental resources.
- UNDP promotes and facilitates equitable access to water and sanitation services as a fundamental contribution to enhancing human development. UNDP works together with government, civil society, private sector and other development partners to bring about the necessary improvements in water governance to scale up water and sanitation services for the poor.
- UNDP plays an operational role in assisting countries to build cross-sectoral capacities and put in place effective and sound policies and institutions to manage and develop water and ocean resources in a sustainable way. UNDP contributes to the development and widespread delivery of training courses and tool kits through a variety of capacity building programmes.
UN- Oceans
This is an inter-agency mechanism that seeks to enhance the coordination, coherence and effectiveness of competent organizations of the United Nations system and the International Seabed Authority, in conformity with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the respective competences of each of its participating organizations and the mandates and priorities approved by their respective governing bodies.
UN Oceans was established to:
- Strengthen and promote coordination and coherence of United Nations system activities related to ocean and coastal areas;
- Regularly share ongoing and planned activities of participating organizations within the framework of relevant United Nations and other mandates with a view to identifying possible areas for collaboration and synergy;
- Facilitate, as appropriate, inputs by its participating organizations to the annual reports of the Secretary-General on oceans and the law of the sea and on sustainable fisheries to be submitted to the Secretariat;
- Facilitate inter-agency information exchange, including sharing of experiences, best practices, tools and methodologies and lessons learned in ocean-related matters.
World Oceans Day is June 8th
World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future. This site serves as the central coordinating platform for World Oceans Day, with free resources and ideas for everyone – no matter where you live – to help expand the reach and impact of World Oceans Day on June 8 and year round.This year, people all over our blue planet are celebrating with the theme “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet.” Organizations and individuals around the world are promoting prevention of plastic ocean pollution with events in their communities, special announcements, and everything in between!
http://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm
WWF- Keeping rivers flooding
Healthy freshwater ecosystems supply water for drinking, growing crops, manufacturing, energy and transport - as well as waste disposal, erosion control and natural protection from flooding. People are affected too. Over the last 50 years, the frequency of severe flooding and the damage caused have increased, partly because of damage to freshwater ecosystems. Unsafe water has had severe health and financial costs. Saltwater intrusion has spoiled land and water supplies.
If current consumption patterns continue, nearly half the world's population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025.
Source: http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/rivers_and_lakes/
WWF - Oceans protection
The world’s oceans, seas and coasts are under severe strain. The biggest threats right now are overfishing, climate change and pollution. Only 1.2% of our oceans are officially protected - something that urgently needs to change. Which is why that’s a key focus of our marine work.
‘Marine Protected Areas’ (MPAs) can help support wildlife, allow fish stocks to be replenished, and help increase the resilience of marine ecosystems and coastal communities to the impacts of climate change. Fish can be a sustainable, renewable resource - but only if it’s properly managed. A collapse in fish stocks through overfishing is devastating for the marine environment and the whole food chain, including us. Sadly, it’s already happened in a number of places:
- Four-fifths of the world’s main fish stocks are exploited to the limit or beyond sustainable levels.
- Every year millions of tonnes of ‘bycatch’, including 300,000 mammals, are caught accidentally in fishing equipment
- Estimates indicate that around 19% of coral reefs have been lost, 15% are seriously threatened in the short-term and a further 20% are under threat of loss by 2050.
Source: http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/oceans_and_coasts/
WSF-importance and assistance
Water-
For a healthy life, people are mostly depending on sweat water sources. When there is a lack of access to these sources, people can be very vulnerable and may be at risk of being ill or drying out. We drink water, but also use water for hygienic reasons. Lack of sufficient water can be a great danger for people’s health. Not only poor people are at risk for lacking access to water sources. Also the rich people can. Some areas in the world are very dry. Examples are South Africa or Australia. These countries can have very dry periods without any drop of rain at all.
For wetting their lands, they use irrigation systems etc.
WSF can assist countries where access to water is not as usual as we are used to. We can do this through country management. In poor countries where we have Country Management, we can try to assist by developing better sources with access to clean water. Also for remote and dry places, where poor people live in villages and so on. We can seek for collaboration with NGO’s to make good sanitation services and so on. Zero lack of access to water should be the main target here. Water is the main topic of surviving and no one should lack access to it.
Oceans-
Oceans are spread out on about 1/3 of our earth. People mostly depend on oceans by fishing.
We eat fish and proportionally, there is nothing wrong with that. But we don’t use water sources and fish proportionally. Most of the fish is highly threatened with extension. In WSF’s terms it would be a dream coming truth if only the amount of consumption would be the catch. But unfortunate, we are far from that. So much animals in the sea die for nothing. And so much water in the oceans gets polluted, which makes the ocean a dangerous and unhealthy place to live for many animals. This is acceptable. Countries must undertake very strict solutions to restrict this. And they have to look after them strictly. Because oceans are worldwide spread and not just belonging to a country, this must be done together and WSF can take part in this. We can intermediate between NGO’s like the WWF and Greenpeace and the UN. These institutions must strongly work together and WSF can facilitate this. This facilitation can be integrated in WSF’s country management.
We can also try to take part in World Oceans day of the UN Oceans division.