@FAO.Alberto Conti

19 January 2016, Abu Dhabi - Oceans cover over three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, provide over half of the world’s oxygen and host between 50-80% of all life on Earth. The fish caught from oceans provide nutrition, livelihoods and food security to coastal populations and serve as an important driver for economic development, particularly in developing countries.

But climate change, environmental degradation, pollution, heightened levels of marine debris, and poor fisheries management practices are increasingly placing our oceans are at risk. These concerns and the pressure to find solutions to conserve our ocean environment led to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 dedicated to ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.’
At this year’s Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, held 16-23 January in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, ocean health is high on the sustainability agenda, with a special Blue Economy Summit held today and entitled “One Ocean, One Future”.
FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture Árni M. Mathiesen is taking part in today’s Blue Economy Summit, examining ways forward to ensure that Blue Economy and Blue Growth approaches provide a platform and strategic framework for achieving the objectives of the SDGs, particularly SDG 14. “ Blue Growth is the sustainable use of living, renewable resources of the oceans and the aquatic environment, and therefore a part of the Blue Economy. FAO’s Blue Growth Initiative recognizes the need for development and economic growth in developing countries, and combines this reality closely with the need to promote the conservation and sustainable management of our fisheries and aquaculture resources. Currently, the 70 % of the globe constituted by oceans is providing us with only 2 % of our food. There is clearly potential to increase our fisheries and aquaculture resources to feed and provide livelihoods to our growing population, but this must be done in a sustainable manner. We believe that the Blue Growth Initiative can help us to achieve these objectives.”
The Blue Growth Initiative is already an FAO regional priority for the organization’s member countries of the Near East and North Africa, and Asia and Pacific, complementing the many Blue Growth Initiatives of individual countries throughout the world. The FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa in Cairo, Egypt and the FAO Sub-regional Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council States and Yemen in Abu Dhabi carry out a wide range of fisheries and aquaculture projects in the region that work to support the broader Blue Growth Initiative.
According to Mehdi Drissi, FAO Representative in the United Arab Emirates and Sub-regional Coordinator, “There is tremendous potential for the United Arab Emirates and the other countries of the Gulf region to consolidate the fisheries sector along more sustainable lines and to develop a strong sustainable aquaculture sector. The region is also well placed to play an important role in coordinating South-South cooperation for Blue Growth with developing countries in the region as they develop or rehabilitate their fisheries and aquaculture sectors.”
A full day of presentations and roundtable discussions at the “One Ocean, One Future” Blue Economy Summit will include country examples of Blue Economy approaches in addresses by President James Alix Michel, Republic of Seychelles, President Tommy Ramegesan, Jr., Republic of Palau, and President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Iceland. Discussion sessions will address the Blue economy and climate change, measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the Blue economy and SDG14.
Follow-up discussion about how the Blue Growth Initiative can be fully integrated into development policies in the region will also take place at the upcoming FAO 33rd session of the Near East Regional Conference to be held in Lebanon in April 2016.

For further information:
• Brochure: Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
English: http://abudhabisustainabilityweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ADSW_brochure_2016_GENERAL_EN_FA1.pdf
Arabic: http://abudhabisustainabilityweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ADSW_brochure_2016_GENERAL_AR_FA.pdf
• Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week web site: http://abudhabisustainabilityweek.com/
• FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture web site: http://www.fao.org/fishery/en
• FAO Blue Growth blog: http://www.fao.org/blogs/blue-growth-blog/en/
• Achieving Blue Growth through implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/newsroom/docs/BlueGrowth_LR.pdf