Planning Concrete Deliverables for the UN Decade of Ocean Science

Planning Concrete Deliverables for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Sustainable Development that supports Ocean Science Ocean Science that supports Sustainable Development The start of a living planning document for the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (Decade) Initial authors: Mark E. Capron1*, Jim R. Stewart1*, Antoine de Ramon N’Yeurt2*, Rajesh Prasad2, Chinthaka Hewavitharane2, Mohammed Hasan1*, Don Piper1*, Graham Harris1*, Martin Sherman1*, … (1 OceanForesters.org, Ventura, California, USA; 2 University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji; * U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, MARINER Program experience) May 2020 DRAFT of 22 May 2020 back to Contents [email protected] 1 Contents 1. Background 2. Planning the Decade with local surveys 3. Overview of Concrete Deliverables for Sustainable Development with Ocean Science 4. Details of Ocean Science and Technologies to Accomplish the Deliverables 4.1 Food systems 4.1a Seafood 4.1b Terrestrial food 4.1c Marine Protected areas 4.2 Human and solid waste resource recovery systems 4.2a Nutrients and energy 4.2b Infectious disease monitoring 4.2c Solid waste products 4.3 Sustainable and restorative energy systems 4.3a Traditional renewable energy 4.3b Systems producing sequestration-ready CO2 4.3c Sustainable ocean biomass-for-energy 4.3d Combined systems 4.3e CO2 sequestration systems 4.4 Floating land systems 4.5 Other systems 5. Features of funding Decade programs and projects 6. Your additions to this document References DRAFT of 22 May 2020 back to Contents [email protected] 2 1. Background The United Nations has proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Decade) to be held from 2021 to 2030. One reason for the Decade: “More inclusive approaches of designing and conducting marine scientific research could also support a sustainable Blue Economy, breaking the business model and sharing the responsibility of protecting oceans by complementing the policy and management actions protecting the ocean by encouraging better stewardship of our ocean resources.” Planning for the Decade includes meetings “to identify concrete deliverables and partnerships to meet the Decade's six societal objectives..” The Paris meeting was canceled due to COVID-19. The six societal objectives: • A clean ocean whereby sources of pollution are identified, quantified and reduced and pollutants removed from the ocean • A healthy and resilient ocean whereby marine ecosystems are mapped and protected, multiple impacts, including climate change, are measured and reduced, and provision of ocean ecosystem services is maintained • A predicted ocean whereby society has the capacity to understand current and future ocean conditions, forecast their change and impact on human wellbeing and livelihoods • A safe ocean whereby human communities are protected from ocean hazards and where the safety of operations at sea and on the coast is ensured • A sustainably harvested and productive ocean ensuring the provision of food supply and alternative livelihoods • A transparent and accessible ocean whereby all nations, stakeholders and citizens have access to ocean data and information, technologies and have the capacities to inform their decisions “Because all people have a stake in ocean health, all must be invited to participate actively to identify needs for ocean science and its products and services.” Many ocean scientists are members of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), which has published a new Strategic Plan with goals that complement the Decade’s objectives. AGU’s strategic goals: 1. Goal 1: Catalyze discovery and solutions to scientific and societal challenges. 2. Goal 2: Promote and exemplify an inclusive scientific culture. 3. Goal 3: Partner broadly with other organizations and sectors to effectively address scientific and societal challenges. Collectively This document, “Concrete Deliverables…”, could be an early AGU tactical plan. 2. Planning the Decade with local surveys COVID-19 has disrupted in-person planning for the Decade but given UNESCO an opportunity to involve billions of people in planning the Decade. That is, many more people can participate DRAFT of 22 May 2020 back to Contents [email protected] 3 in on-line planning. This document sketches a way to first inform billions of people of the Decade with a participatory exercise. Then use the results of the exercise to inform stakeholders and matchmake developing communities, researchers, and funding agencies. The exercise is a simple one-question survey asking, “What are your priorities for the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development?” During the survey, people rank possible concrete deliverables for importance to them. Find the current link to the survey and other updates at the Forum in the discussion titled “Planning Concrete Deliverables for the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development.” Reasons for a survey include: • Education – People learn by doing. (Doing the survey.) The goal is to survey several million people, at least half the people from developing countries. The survey is likely to be on smart phones and in native languages. • Reaching all relevant stakeholders – People share information (and surveys) that might be of interest to other people. • Giving people a voice – People have a place to suggest opportunities and innovative ways to achieve sustainable development goals. • Matchmaking – Funding agencies and developed country researchers can see developing communities’ top priorities. Developing communities can find other communities with similar priorities. Starting in June 2020, anyone can add possible deliverables or make comments on this document, at either of two locations: • At the end of the survey, there are boxes for “other deliverables” and “comments”. • Reply to the “Planning Concrete Deliverables …” post in the Forum. OceanForesters will collect the information from either Survey or Forum and add it to the next version of this document. In the future, if there is substantial interest and resources become available, another non-profit and/or UNESCO might make this a “living document”. Living documents provide transparency for the planning, the execution, the results, and the lessons learned. Due to the global scope, the actual planning document(s) might transition to a wiki, perhaps on Wikipedia. A wiki living document can be a good way to organize and then record highlights from virtual and in-person meetings. The survey and this document are both works-in-progress. Please speak-your-mind with comments about the survey choices and “Other” new deliverables. Developing community people who select their new ways of living, working, and learning (aka Sustainable Development), will make it work. They will be “invested” in adapting the science to fit their resources. That is, when communities are involved in the planning, they find ways to make the development successful. “Help” not planned by the community can be detrimental. See Saini, A. and Singh S.J., “The Aid Tsunami” Scientific American April 2020 for an example of adverse “help.” DRAFT of 22 May 2020 back to Contents [email protected] 4 3. Overview of Concrete Deliverables for Sustainable Development with Ocean Science The six societal objectives are interrelated, making any “concrete deliverables” interrelated and in need of a Global Systems Approach. By way of example, tools for planning with a Systems Approach can be found at the Rockefeller Food System Vision Prize: https://www.foodsystemvisionprize.org/resources. The systems outlined below are examples of planning possible concrete deliverables for the Decade with a Global Systems Approach. 3.1 Food systems – The corresponding survey items are (wording may change as the survey is improved): ___ Nations share and manage fishing and some no-fishing areas in ways that feed a billion people for 100 years. Tropical oceans will have less fish, with more fish elsewhere. ___ Build new ways of fishing for every town, even where the ocean is too warm. Feed 10 billion people for 500 years. Local peoples manage large no-fishing areas. 3.1a Seafood – Built-reef total ecosystem aquaculture with nutrient recycling can provide immediate multi- species seafood and platforms for science as well as producing food. Distributed globally, seafood reefs can sustainably and economically produce a billion tonnes/yr of seafood, 300 grams/person/day for 8 billion people. (The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates current seafood production (including aquaculture and wild-caught) near 170 million tonnes/yr.) Developing countries might earn income from developed countries initially by exporting seafood. Developing countries might earn income from developed countries by accommodating refugees and migrants as temporarily or permanent guest workers on their built-reef ecosystems. 3.1b – Terrestrial food – Aquatic-based organic fertilizers can replace chemical fertilizers. 3.1c – Marine protected areas – Scaling built-reef total ecosystem aquaculture allows more marine protected areas. 3.2 Human and solid waste resource recovery systems – The corresponding survey items are (wording may change as the survey is improved): ___ Build ways to pay people to collect and make things from stuff that is a problem: sewage to safe fertilizer; trash (especially plastic) into buildings, furniture, and fuel. 3.2a Nutrients and energy – Human and livestock waste collection

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