A decisive year for ocean conservation

MELBOURNE: While the ocean’s health is perilously close to a tipping point, 2025 offered reasons for hope. In fact, over the next five years, we have an opportunity to pull back from the brink and ensure that the ocean continues to stabilise the climate, feed billions of people, and support the livelihoods of coastal communities. If we fail to seize this chance, the consequences will be dire for generations to come.

As a Fijian, I understand that the ocean’s irreversible degradation is not an abstract concern. Pacific Islanders live with the reality of rising sea levels claiming more of our coastline every year and contaminating the aquifers we use for agriculture and drinking water. Warming waters supercharge tropical cyclones and destroy the coral reefs that provide food security and coastal protection.

But, amid these challenges, and following years of incrementalism, international efforts to protect the ocean gained momentum in 2025, leading to some landmark decisions. Despite the strains being put on multilateralism, it is now widely acknowledged that the ocean’s health is at the heart of global stability, climate resilience, and economic prosperity.

In June, we witnessed how powerful this recognition is at the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in Nice. Some 15,000 people, including more than 60 heads of government and 100 ministers, participated in UNOC3, which also welcomed nearly 100,000 visitors. Attendees were united in demanding expanded marine protection, increased efforts to mitigate ocean pollution, high-seas regulation, and financial support for vulnerable coastal and island communities.

Another historic achievement was the ratification of the UN High Seas Treaty, which will enter into force in January. For the first time, humanity has a framework for protecting biodiversity in marine areas beyond national jurisdictions – half of the planet’s surface. Likewise, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO's) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies entered into force, prohibiting subsidies for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities, which have long undermined sustainable fisheries management and threatened marine ecosystems.

Moreover, ocean-based climate action featured more prominently in many of the updated nationally determined contributions that countries were required to submit this year under the Paris climate agreement. Governments are now embracing the powerful climate solutions that the ocean offers, from offshore renewable energy to low-carbon shipping and mangrove restoration.

But policymakers are not the only ones seeking to harness the ocean’s potential. In June, the world moved significantly closer to a regenerative and sustainable blue economy at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, a special meeting of UNOC3 held in Monaco. Understanding that healthy marine ecosystems underpin economic growth and resilience, private investors, public banks, and philanthropies committed to investing €8.7 billion ($10.2 billion) in a sustainable blue economy by 2030. Across the Global South, innovative finance models have started to channel capital to coastal protection, community-led conservation, and nature-based infrastructure.

In addition to these initiatives, the international community spent more time this year engaging with Indigenous peoples, artisanal fishers, and local stewards who have long protected marine ecosystems but rarely received recognition or financial support. This is crucial, because ocean-based climate solutions that ignore frontline communities are destined to fail.

My home country, Fiji, has helped lead the charge. At the international level, Fiji cohosted the first UN Ocean Conference, in 2017, with Sweden, and has spearheaded global action ever since. For example, in early December, the seventh session of the UN Environment Assembly adopted a Fiji-led resolution on safeguarding coral reefs. At home, Fiji has championed locally managed marine areas and promoted community stewardship, helping to shape best practices for both.

To ensure continued progress on ocean conservation and resilience, particularly in the lead-up to the fourth UN Ocean Conference, which will be held in South Korea in June 2028, co-hosted by South Korea and Chile, we must focus on three priorities.

First, governments must fully implement the High Seas Treaty. That means establishing marine protected areas (which will be essential to achieving the target set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of conserving 30% of seas by 2030), funding capacity-building, and creating robust and science-led environmental-impact assessments.

Second, the WTO must take decisive action to enforce the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. The world cannot afford another decade of industrial fleets overfishing the ocean. Sustainable fisheries are possible with management strategies grounded in science and focused on small-scale fishers and coastal communities.

Third, more finance must be made available quickly. Philanthropists alone cannot fund the multi-trillion-dollar blue economy. Public and private actors must align on investments that regenerate natural systems, reduce climate risks, and empower local communities. The need is particularly urgent for island countries, where the potent combination of climate vulnerability and debt distress threatens to undermine long-term resilience.

The ocean’s decline is not inevitable. It is our choice whether to deliver a healthier, more abundant ocean for future generations. Doing so will require informed leadership and science-backed interventions rooted in equity. The tide turned for the better in 2025. To keep it moving in the right direction, our dedication to the ocean’s resilience and regeneration must not falter in the new year.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2025.
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