The most important meeting for the Ocean. The largest number of Heads of State and Governments came together for the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice (9-13th June), co-hosted by Costa Rica and France, with the theme “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the Ocean”. In total there were more than than 14,000 delegates and observers, representing a total of 175 states, with more than 100,000 participants in the area devoted to civil society.
The panel at one of BirdLife’s events at UNOC3, focused on connectivity and collaboration.
Panellists from L to R: Martin Harper, CEO of BirdLife International; Amy Fraenkel, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species; Maud Lelièvre, CEO of LPO, BirdLife’s Partner in France; Soledad Almonacid, Government of Chile; Jillian Dempster, Government of New Zealand; and Nina Mikander, Global Director of Policy and Business at BirdLife International.
The week saw momentum for addressing major issues, improving governance, and a range of financial commitments, including:
✅ Support for entry into force of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), with an additional 19 countries ratifying during the week. The total number of countries that have ratified is now 50 (plus the EU), with a further 10 countries needed for the Agreement to enter into force.
✅ Further support for a moratorium on Deep Sea Mining with 4 more countries joining the growing list of nations that now totals 37 countries calling for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining.
✅ An increase in global ocean protection from 8 to >10% with new area-based management initiatives announced, notably from French Polynesia, who announced protection for their entire EEZ creating the largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) at 5 million km2, as well as the full implementation of 9 MPAs in Samoa, and the largest indigenous-led MPA across the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea.
✅ Momentum to end destructive fishing practices: bottom trawling was a hot topic during the conference following David Attenborough’s film OCEAN, and there were various commitments, including from Greece banning trawling in all marine parks, Brunei with a moratorium on new bottom trawling licences, and the UK initiating a consultation to end bottom trawling in offshore MPAs.
✅ Renewed support for the Plastics Treaty: 95 countries voiced strong support for this Treaty during the conference, ahead of further negotiations in August. This Treaty will include measures that would target the entire life cycle of plastic, and it is hoped that final text will be submitted later this year.
Northern Gannet nesting on plastic (photo by Bethany Clark)
✅ Further support for the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement: 102 countries have now ratified, with just 8 more needed for it to enter into force. This Agreement will establish new multilateral rules that prohibit the most harmful forms of fisheries subsidies.
✅ Launch of new initiatives, including: the High Ambition for a Quiet Ocean a 37 country coalition led by Panama and Canada to reduce underwater noise; Ocean Tourism Pact aiming to shape a sustainable future for blue tourism; Global Coalition to Halt the Extinction of threatened sharks and rays launched and led by France; Climate resilient reefs, which is a pledge across 11 countries to implement national area-based conservation strategies for climate-resilient reefs.
✅ Financial commitments for the protection of the marine environment that came out of the Blue Economy and Finance Forum totalled EUR 7 Billion over the next 5 years.
BirdLife International CEO Martin Harper introducing one of the events hosted by BirdLife at UNOC3
During the conference BirdLife International promoted our collaborative work with seabird tracking data to inform conservation action, including highlighting the marine flyways framework, the designation of the North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Sea basin MPA and support for collaborative management, and approaches and collaborations to reduce seabird interactions in commercial fisheries: all evidence-based tools and approaches that can help close the ambition and implementation gap that are desperately needed to achieve the global goal of 30% protection of the Ocean by 2030.
Read more about UNOC and BirdLife’s involvement here: https://www.birdlife.org/news/2025/06/16/major-win-for-our-ocean-third-un-ocean-conference-closes-with-wave-of-commitments/
