The Ocean Decade in the perspective of the Global South

Abstract

Editor: Rubens M. Lopes The ocean is in the spotlight, and for good reason. Since the 1960’s, there has been a growing understanding of the importance of the ocean and for the need to implement actions to promote sustainable development (on the ocean and based on the ocean). More recently, important milestones were set. Aside from the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention, 1972), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL, 1973), and the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1982), the first worldwide and integrated movement that raised specific attention to the ocean sustainability was the Agenda 21, launched at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (UNGA, 1992). From its 42 chapters, Chapter 17 [Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use, and development of their living resources] raised concerns relating to the various emerging threats that ocean health and sustainable use are facing. After ten years, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development carried out in Johannesburg, South Africa, a highly structured global mechanism was proposed to regularly review the environmental, economic, and social aspects of the world’s ocean and to strengthen the regular scientific assessment of the state of the marine environment, to enhance the scientific basis for policymaking (UNGA, 2002). The “Regular process for global reporting and assessment of the state of the marine environment, including socio-economic aspects” was operationalized under the structure of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNGA, 2003). Two cycles of the Regular Process have already been concluded, creating World Ocean Assessments I and II (UN, 2017; UN, 2021). The World Ocean Assessments are based on the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005). They seek to deepen the information on the ocean that is being compiled and to critically analyze the outcomes of other processes such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and Global Environmental Outlook of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP/GEO). Given the ecosystem approach and considering the reliance of people on nature, ocean issues also emerged in the climate (IPCC, 2019) and biodiversity (CBD, 2011) Conference of Parties. In parallel to the World Ocean Assessment cycles, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, created momentum for important actions relating to the ocean. Also called Rio +20, it evidenced the central role of the ocean in sustainable development in its final document, “The future we want” (UNGA, 2012). A concerted effort of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at UNESCO led to the preparation of the background document to Rio +20, “A blueprint for ocean and coastal sustainability” (IOC/UNESCO, 2011), which leveraged ocean issues on discussion at the conference and beyond. The relevance of the ocean to humankind was emphasized in the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, which announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (UNGA, 2015). © 2021 The authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Ocean and Coastal Research http://doi.org/10.1590/2675-2824069.22002at Editorial