Call to Action

As people of faith and goodwill, unified in purpose, we commit to urgent, transformative action that restores right relationship with the ocean and with one another. We affirm the importance of centering human rights in all ocean governance and conservation, and support, in particular, the calls brought forward by Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, and coastal communities. 

We therefore call for the following:

1. Protect and restore at least 30% of our ocean by 2030 through effectively managed marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). This sacred commitment requires not just quantity but quality of protection, designations that truly safeguard marine ecosystems from harmful activities, including destructive fishing practices, offshore oil and gas activities, and other damaging industrial activities.

2. Support the moratorium on deep-sea mining. The ocean's depths must be protected from exploitation that could irreversibly damage ancient ecosystems. The international community should prioritize precautionary principles and preservation, only taking decisions to consider such potentially damaging activities when science and inclusive consultation can guide responsible deep ocean governance.

3. Ratify and implement the High Seas Treaty (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement) as soon as possible, providing the legal framework necessary to protect marine biodiversity and promote greater ocean equity in international waters, which constitute nearly two-thirds of the global ocean, store vast amounts of carbon, and hold vast biodiversity, but have remained largely unprotected.

4. Address marine pollution comprehensively, including plastic pollution, discharge of sewage and chemicals, underwater noise pollution, heavy metals, and nutrient runoff that threaten marine ecosystems and human health. We support the creation of a Global Plastics Treaty to tackle this crisis at its source. 

5. Recognize the ocean's vital role in regulating climate and support ocean-based climate solutions by ensuring coherence between the outcomes of the UNOC and the latest reports from the IPCC. We call for urgent action to address ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and sea level rise, while scaling up fair, equitable and rights-based blue carbon initiatives and nature-based solutions.