Starting at the Source to Save the Ocean: Coordinated Action to Achieve SDG 14

The health of the ocean and its benefits to society are at risk, largely due to activities taking place far from its shores. Fragmented governance and working in silos impede efforts to address the heavy burden land-based and upstream activities are putting on the ocean. This leads to the devastating impacts that land-based sources of pollution have on the ocean’s ecosystems and the valuable services they provide such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and a thriving blue economy.

Those responsible for the health of the ocean are often not the decision makers of activities that threaten its well-being. While being recipients of a vast array of ocean services, land-based stakeholders often do not account for the potential downstream implications of their activities, nor do they recognize their reliance on the ocean, so they are not incentivized to invest or participate in measures that reduce pressure on marine ecosystems.

In this session, high-level experts will share their lessons learned in breaking down the silos that separate terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and ocean actors and in taking coordinated action that benefits the entire source-to-sea system. Barriers to cross-sectoral policymaking and finance will be discussed as well as challenges to science-based understanding of source-to-sea linkages that can support these. Additionally, the diverse group of experts will address how source-to-sea can accelerate achieving SDG14 by taking advantage of its connections with other SDGs. The aim to mainstream source-to-sea system thinking in governance and management frameworks to restore and protect the ocean.