Open Letter calls for urgent action to protect the world’s oceans
The health of the ocean is in peril, with potentially devastating consequences for the planet. In an Open Letter on World Oceans Day, 8 June, high-level source-to-sea supporters call for decisions-makers across sectors to reduce their own negative impact on the ocean and join the fight by signing on to the letter.
The air we breathe, the food we eat and the climate on which our survival depends all rely on a healthy ocean. The ocean supports entire communities and industries, sustains hundreds of millions of jobs and helps drive the modern global economy. The ocean is the source of life and a treasure trove for biodiversity. But we are in the midst of an environmental crisis that puts the ocean in great peril.
Protecting and restoring ocean health starts far upstream. Much of the pressure on marine ecosystems emanate on land. Enormous amounts of human and agricultural waste, wastewater and runoff wash into rivers and wetlands and from there into the ocean.
We call for leaders across sectors, organizations, and nations to take up the fight and sign on to this Open Letter that commits to coordinated action to protect and restore ocean health building stronger linkages between ocean impacts and their sources on land and along waterways – from their source to the sea.
Starting at the source to save the sea
This policy brief illustrates the importance of upstream and in-land management and governance on the impacts of ocean health.
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