An Ocean for Life
Over the last few decades, marine environments have undergone widespread deterioration.
To help turn this tide, the Our Ocean Conference 2017 held in Malta (2-3 October) brought together world leaders looking to commit to actions to reduce marine pollution, manage aquatic resources sustainably, mitigate climate change, and set up marine sanctuaries.
International Maritime Organization (IMO) attended the conference and reaffirmed its commitments made at the UN Oceans Conference in New York in June 2017 to develop, maintain and implement a set of global regulations to ensure shipping's sustainable use of the oceans.
The event, which took place under the theme "An Ocean for Life, held discussions on four main issues: marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, and climate-related impacts on the ocean. This year's event also discussed the newly added topics of maritime security and the blue economy.
IMO joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a side-event, organized by the One Earth Foundation, which launched a newly developed "maritime security index". The index aims to measure and map a range of threats to maritime governance and the capacity of nations to counter these threats.