Regional ACTION
Ocean Decade in the Regions
Regional dedicated structures will play a key role in guiding regional activities to support the development of programmes, projects and activities that will be endorsed as “Decade Actions”.
See below how the Ocean Decade is present across several ocean basins.
Western Tropical Atlantic Regional Planning Group (WTA IPG)
The WTA IPG was established in July 2020 to advance and coordinate strategic partnerships and actions for the Western Tropical Atlantic region, and benefits from the support of IOCARIBE as its official Secretariat. In 2020, WTA IPG developed a framework of major challenges and actions around each Decade outcomes and organized in 2021 a series of virtual workshops to support the elaboration of a regional action plan.
Click here to find out more about the WTA IPG.
Contact point:
Lorna Inniss
Email: l.inniss@unesco.org
Website: Western Tropical Atlantic Regional Workshop
Links of all past events that were broadcast on the IOCARIBE Facebook page (@IOCaribeOcean):
Sitioweb: WTA WG Webinar – Safe Ocean
Facebook: WTA WG Webinar – Safe Ocean
Sitioweb: WTA WG Webinar – A Transparent and Accessible Ocean
Facebook: WTA WG Webinar – A Transparent and Accessible Ocean
Sitioweb: WTA WG Webinar – Capacity Development
Facebook: WTA WG Webinar – Capacity Development
Sitioweb: WTA WG Webinar – Clean Ocean
Facebook: WTA WG Webinar – Clean Ocean
Arctic Taskforce
Led by the Danish Center for Marine Research, the Arctic Task Force has prepared a Decade Arctic Action Plan through a series of virtual working group meetings around the Ocean Decade seven societal outcomes and an online consultation (from March to April 2021) on the first version of the Action Plan. The Decade Arctic Action Plan identifies actions and priorities for the Arctic Ocean in the Ocean Decade and offers a Road Map towards implementation of Decade activities and networking opportunities among Arctic actors from science, governments, industry and NGOs.
The Decade Arctic Action Plan can be consulted here.
Contact point:
Danish Centre for Marine Research
Colin Stedmon and Christian Riisager-Simonsen
Email: dch@danskhavforskning.dk
Southern Ocean Process
The Southern Ocean community engaged in a stakeholder-oriented process (spanning from the scientific research community, to the business and industry sector, and governance and management bodies) to develop an Action Plan for the Southern Ocean. Coordinated by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Southern Ocean Task Force launched a series of workshops & meetings to identify key research priorities for the Southern Ocean – the first of which was held in February 2020 in San Diego (USA) in the context of the series of Ocean Decade regional planning workshops.
During the first semester of 2021, stakeholders worked in an open survey to provide input on the activities and contributions to be developed in the context of the Decade. Following the 2nd Workshop, the Task Force has reviewed and finalized the Southern Ocean Action Plan. Through this combined effort, synergies in priorities over the next decade, tangible Decade actions and deliverables were identified to achieve these priorities as a community.
Contact point:
Email: info@sodecade.org
Website: Southern Ocean United Nations Decade
The Southern Ocean Action Plan can be consulted here.
Pacific Regional Planning Group
The Pacific Regional Planning Group for the Ocean Decade was established as a result of the regional planning workshop for the Pacific that was held in Noumea in July 2019. The Planning Group is composed of members of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific and chaired by the Pacific Community Centre of Ocean Science (PCCOS) at the Pacific Community (SPC).
Building on the regional consultation, an integrated ocean management programme ‘Pacific solutions for a healthy blue Pacific Continent: Integrated Ocean Management to sustain livelihoods today and into the future’ was submitted in response to the first Call for Decade Actions. This programme will be implemented with overall coordination by the SPC Pacific Community Center for Ocean Sciences (PCCOS) and regional partners: the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC), the Fisheries Forum Agency (FFA), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), and the Pacific Community (SPC).
Contact point:
Jens Krüger
Email: jensk@spc.int
Website: The Pacific Community
Regional Planning Group for the Western Pacific
Contact point:
Wenxi Zhu
Email: w.zhu@unesco.org
Website: IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC)
Regional Planning Group for Africa
Contact point:
Julian Barbière (a.i.)
Email: j.barbiere@unesco.org
Website: Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission