It was great to participate in the first Forum for the Ocean in Cancun, Mexico, as part of the 11th Festival of the Oceans of the Mexican Caribbean. I was a keynote speaker on the theme of “Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity”. Read about my experience and presentation below.
The other 5 themes included:
🌊Biodiversity and Ecology of Marine Ecosystems
🌊Marine Pollution by Plastics
🌊Fisheries and Food Security
🌊Climate Change and the Protection of the Ocean
🌊Policy Making for the Care of the Ocean
The conference was held at the Universidad del Caribe and organised by Delphinus.
The “Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity” track aimed at guiding society, policymakers and academia in working together to achieve an equitable and sustainable Blue Economy.
My speech focused on accelerating the SDGs by investing in marine natural capital. The full video is below:
My speech highlighted…
🌊 How marine natural capital is a cost-effective investment opportunity that ensures the economic value of ocean ecosystems is better appreciated (in addition to other sources of value such as social, cultural, individual etc).
🌊The climate-mitigation, adaptation and other benefits of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass and seaweed.
🌊Opportunities to invest in these ecosystems to take account of their economic, social and environmental value.
🌊Examples of community-led regeneration initiatives.
🌊The emergence of blue-carbon markets and how they can be one vehicle to advance the protection and restoration of marine ecosystems.
Photos from the event:
More on the Festival of the Oceans here.
More on the Forum for the Ocean here.