Plan for ocean economy by 2025

Jo-Maré Duddy - Namibia is willing to be part of the first group of countries to develop sustainable ocean plans by 2025.
Speaking the launch of the Transformations Document on Sustainable Ocean Economy this morning, Pres Hage Geingob said “as our understanding grows of the significance of the oceans to life on this planet, so too do our responsibilities to value and protect this immense natural environment”.
In 2018, 14 countries, including Namibia, agreed to work together to devise a mechanism to protect the ocean in order to continue to derive maximum benefit from it.
These countries formed a high-level panel for a sustainable ocean economy to devise plans and identify pragmatic solutions across policy, governance, technology and finance, and ultimately to develop an action agenda for transitioning to a sustainable ocean economy.
“The aim is to deliver a sustainable ocean economy, where effective protection, sustainable production and equitable prosperity go hand-in-hand,” Geingob said.
“The transformations document sets out a 100% vision for good ocean management, and a headline commitment to establish and enact Sustainable Ocean Plans by 2025,” he added.
CRITICAL AREAS
Each country is expected to identify and implement critical areas and their corresponding themes, Geingob explained.
“Given our current policies and considering our technical and financial capacities, Namibia has decided to choose three critical areas and their corresponding themes due to existing policies and programmes implemented by various ministries,” the president said.
These are ocean wealth, ocean health and ocean equity.
Ocean wealth includes sustainable ocean food, sustainable ocean transport, sustainable ocean energy, sustainable ocean tourism and precautionary approach to seabed mining, Geingob said.
Under ocean health, Namibia commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect and restore marine and coastal ecosystems and reduce ocean pollution.
Geingob said ocean equity entails a sustainable ocean economy which “puts people at its centre, works for everyone, enables human rights, facilitates the equitable distribution of ocean wealth, and ensures equality of opportunity for all”.
‘UNIQUELY POSITIONED’
Given her natural endowments, Namibia is uniquely positioned to leverage her oceanic assets to benefit her people and the globe at large, Geingob said.
He added: “We are determined to develop a green and blue economy that will ensure that our natural resources are at the centre stage of our drive to deliver economic prosperity.
“As we consider the unparalleled value that oceans and the blue economy offer humanity, we must also be keenly aware of the biggest threats that humans pose to the oceans, and our responsibility to act quickly and collectively to redress them. This duality is the core of the blue economy concept.”
“Let us therefore continue to work hand in hand, to ensure healthier oceans, to safeguard global food security and to cede to future generations, a sustainable and vibrant ocean economy,” Geingob concluded.