Prof. Alan Deidun, resident academic at the Department of Geosciences within the Faculty of Science and Ocean Ambassador for Malta, participated within the 2nd Ocean Forum on trade-related aspects of SDG 14 organised by UNCTAD and held at the Palais de Nations in Geneva. At such a high-profile meeting, Prof. Deidun also represented the International Ocean Institute (IOI), for whom he directs the Malta Training Centre.
During his intervention, Prof. Deidun gave an overview those present of the many threats posed to marine biodiversity as a result of the burgeoning trade in marine living resources (wild fisheries, aquaculture and the search for marine genetic resources).
Representatives from almost fifty countries were present at the meeting, besides environmental NGOs, private industry and a number of specialised agencies, including UNEP, UNECE, WTO, IMO and ACP. Malta is only one of five countries worldwide to have designated an Ocean Ambassador, with the other four countries being Norway, Sweden, France and Singapore.
Representatives from almost fifty countries were present at the meeting, besides environmental NGOs, private industry and a number of specialised agencies, including UNEP, UNECE, WTO, IMO and ACP. Malta is only one of five countries worldwide to have designated an Ocean Ambassador, with the other four countries being Norway, Sweden, France and Singapore.
Prof. Deidun even had the opportunity to hold talks with the UN Special Envoy for the Oceans Ambassador Peter Thomson, with whom he discussed the looming (in 2020) deadlines the UN faces for some of the SDG 14 objectives.
The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are a set of seventeen broad objectives covering sectors as diverse as poverty, hunger, access to clean water, gender equality, labour conditions, world peace, access to education, climate change and, through SDG 14, ‘life below water’ as well.
With specific reference to SDG 14, UN members have pledged to phase out harmful subsidies to industrial fishers as well as to curb overfishing by 2020, besides a slew of other objectives to be achieved by 2030. Ambassador Thomson updated Prof. Deidun about ongoing work on formulating a seabed mining protocol pursuant to mitigating deleterious impacts on vulnerable deep-sea communities as well as about the next World Ocean Conference scheduled to be held in Lisbon in 2020.
With specific reference to SDG 14, UN members have pledged to phase out harmful subsidies to industrial fishers as well as to curb overfishing by 2020, besides a slew of other objectives to be achieved by 2030. Ambassador Thomson updated Prof. Deidun about ongoing work on formulating a seabed mining protocol pursuant to mitigating deleterious impacts on vulnerable deep-sea communities as well as about the next World Ocean Conference scheduled to be held in Lisbon in 2020.
During the same meeting, Prof. Deidun also met up with the Commonwealth Secretariat, with whom he discussed the state of play of the Blue Charter, endorsed by the 53 Commonwealth members at the last CHOGM meeting held in London.