Due to increasing numbers and wasteful practices, the ocean continues to be vulnerable to harm by human activities, as any other environmental realm, likely more influenced by the severity and scale of several threats.

Unfortunately, the health of the ocean and marine life is so often taken for granted despite environmentalists’ repeated calls for marine conservation to address the threats to coastal and marine ecosystems and fisheries.

However, recent developments provide some optimism.  

With the agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) preparing to enter into force, the tenth Our Ocean Conference in Busan, South Korea, in late April, convened at a critical juncture.

It is built towards the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), to be hosted by France and Costa Rica in Nice next week, June 9-13, 2025.

UNOC3 is expected to accelerate action to conserve and sustainably use the ocean and its resources for sustainable development and identify further ways and means to support the implementation of SDG 14 (life below water or the Ocean Goal).

The tenth Our Ocean Conference (a global call to action to protect the ocean) took stock of commitments to sustainable action made over the last decade and shared examples of such commitments.  

Our Ocean Conference focuses on addressing the key ocean issues of our time, including climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and pollution.

The conference held in Busan brought together 60 countries and non-state stakeholders who made 277 new commitments to sustainable ocean action, amounting to Ksh1.18 trillion.

This is in addition to the Ksh20.82 trillion mobilised since the launch of the Our Ocean Conference in 2024.

Action plan

An assessment developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) as the Our Ocean secretariat reveals that between 2014 and 2024, the Our Ocean Conference generated 2,618 commitments.  

As of January 2025, approximately 1,130 commitments had been delivered (43 per cent), 1,005 were in progress (38 per cent) and 463 (18 per cent) had not commenced.  

Conference host South Korea announced the ‘Korea Blue Action Plan’ that sought to mobilise “voluntary, measurable, and impactful actions” across six areas – marine protected areas (MPAs), sustainable blue economies, climate change, maritime security, sustainable fisheries, and marine pollution.  

The plan comprised 76 ambitious actions for sustainable oceans. Prominent themes that emerged during discussions include promoting “digital oceans”, with an emphasis on exploring how digital technology is driving new ocean actions and on the need for international cooperation to accelerate these advancements.

Parties to the Our Ocean Conference concurred on developing a sustainable blue economy as a key priority for the global ocean community and prioritising investment in research and development (R&D).

Members also agreed on supporting green shipping and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) under the ocean-climate nexus, expanding capacity building and MPAs, and addressing marine pollution.

Commitments from the Our Ocean Conference are among the measures deliberated upon for marine conservation to address the continued threats to coastal and marine ecosystems and fisheries.  

Marine conservation is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources in a clearly defined geographical space.

This is achieved through legal or other effective means to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values, as marine biodiversity loss is taking place at an increasingly fast pace, demanding conservation and protective measures.

When effectively enforced and managed to protect, maintain and restore threatened coastal and marine ecosystems and fisheries, these measures deliver windfall biodiversity while creating value aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 14 (life below water or the Ocean Goal)

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bali, Colombia, called for much higher ambitions by governments to achieve the goal of establishing at least 190,000 small marine protected areas (MPAs) in coastal regions alone and an additional 300 large MPAs in remote offshore areas globally by 2030.

Only five years are left to deliver the biodiversity target that over 192 CBD member states, including Kenya, committed to an international agreement binding nations to reach the global target of protecting 30 per cent of our ocean by 2030 (30×30), which world leaders agreed to at COP15 in Montreal, Canada in December 2022.

Kenya’s coastline is richly endowed with biodiversity and natural resources, including fisheries dominated by fringing coral reefs and seagrass beds, with broad stretches of beaches, rocky shores, and sheltered bays.  

Bali’s ‘Nature Summit’ expressed concern that despite the proven benefits of coastal MPAs to nature and people, MPAs aren’t being established and scaled at the pace required to achieve the global target due to three main obstacles – lack of awareness, inadequate governance, and the wrong business models.  

A study released last October by Dynamic Planet and National Geographic Pristine Seas for the first time quantified the number of MPAs needed to reach the global target of protecting 30 per cent of our ocean by 2030 (30×30).  

Kenya has already established a fairly unified network of MPAs covering less than seven per cent of coastal ecosystems.

The marine conservation and protected areas consist of Kisite Mpunguti, Kiunga, Malindi, Mombasa and Watamu marine national parks and reserves.

Enhancing knowledge

Despite the proven benefits of coastal MPAs to nature and people, experts say MPAs aren’t being established and scaled at the pace required to achieve the global target due to three main obstacles – lack of awareness, inadequate governance, and the wrong business models.  

Biological diversity in the ocean is much greater than biodiversity on land – a staggering concept, considering the abundance and variety of life on land – yet much more is known about terrestrial biodiversity.

The ocean is not as accessible, which accounts for part of the problem, but in addition, only in recent years has interest in marine biodiversity increased, likely due to the critically low population of key marine species.

Threats to biological diversity in the ocean abound as commercially targeted species are overfished and fishing methods remain indiscriminate against non-targeted species.

The use of cyanide and dynamite to harvest reef fish is threatening those communities at an alarming rate.

Research shows that marine protected areas that ban fishing are the most effective mechanism to replenish marine life and deliver countless benefits to people, the economy and the climate.

In Marine Conservation Biology, published by the Marine Conservation Institute, leading experts from around the world offer penetrating insights on the nature of marine biodiversity, what threatens it, and what humans can and must do to recover the biological integrity of the world’s estuaries, coastal seas, and the ocean.

With 2024 officially the hottest year on record, global warming is having two major impacts on the ocean – sea level rise from the melting of ice sheets and glaciers at record levels and the overall acidification of the ocean, whose possible worldwide impacts include a complete breakdown of most marine food webs.

To reverse this trend, experts urge humans must cut down on fossil fuels and reduce plastic production and pollution, which are the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and contamination of the marine ecosystem.