Headline: Potsdam Ocean Governance Workshop

For more information please contact Sebastian Unger.

Details for participants can be found on a protected page.

Whilst there is global consensus that the sustainable use of resources in the ocean and coasts is essential for achieving global sustainability, the health and productivity of marine ecosystems continue to decline. The 2014 Potsdam Ocean Governance Workshop will bring together outstanding scientists and representatives from governments, international organisations and civil society to explore possible new entry points to ocean sustainability.

A number of critical policy processes are now approaching their conclusion: In the framework of the post-2015 development agenda, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) will be agreed – one of which will probably address ocean and coasts. The global community will also decide on the need for a new legal instrument (an UNCLOS Implementing Agreement) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (“High Seas”), covering almost half of the Earth’s surface. Meanwhile, new industrial activities progress inexorably towards an uncertain outcome.

In this context, the aim of this workshop is to provide a transdisciplinary platform to advance creative thinking and to put forward governance options that could feed directly into these processes. Following the first Potsdam Ocean Governance Workshop in 2013, this year’s dialogue will be oriented around three thematic working groups that will focus on opportunities to ocean sustainability at three different scales:

  • A Sustainable Development Goal for Ocean and Coasts: From global goal framing towards indicators and targets for implementation
  • Governing the High Seas: Linking global governance and regional implementation;
  • Ocean sustainability through transparency: The potentially transformative role of transparency in the governance of human activities such as fisheries and deep sea bed mining.

The workshop will be hosted by Professor Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, and organised in collaboration with the Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, GEOMAR / University of Kiel, the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

By invitation only.

Programme: