UN chief calls for efforts to improve human relationship with nature, ocean

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for efforts to transform mankind's relationship with nature and protect the ocean, the life support system of the planet.

In his video message to launch the second World Ocean Assessment report, the UN chief said that "we must transform our relationship with nature. This includes our relationship with the ocean, the life support system of our planet."

Noting the findings from the report "are alarming," the secretary-general said that "pressures from many human activities continue to degrade the ocean and destroy essential habitats - such as mangrove forests and coral reefs - hindering their capacity to help address climate change impacts."

"These pressures also come from human activities on land and coastal areas, which bring dangerous pollutants into the ocean, including plastic waste," said the top UN official.

The secretary-general also called attention to overfishing, ocean warming and acidification "that destroy biodiversity," as well as sea level rise that threatens the coastlines.

"The number of so-called 'dead zones' in the ocean has increased from more than 400 globally in 2008 to about 700 in 2019," the UN chief said, adding that "around 90 percent of mangrove, seagrass, and marsh plant species - as well as 31 percent of species of seabirds - are now threatened with extinction."

The secretary-general cited the report as saying that "many benefits that the ocean provides to humankind are increasingly being undermined by our actions."

He went on to say that "the experts attribute this to our general failure to achieve integrated sustainable management of coasts and the ocean."

Guterres urged all stakeholders to heed this and other warnings, noting that "better understanding of the ocean is essential."

He stressed that "ocean sustainability depends on us all working together - including through joint research, capacity development and the sharing of data, information and technology."

"The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which started this year, provides a global framework to act as one to achieve this goal," said Guterres. "The findings of this assessment underscore the urgency of ambitious outcomes in this year's UN biodiversity, climate and other high-level summits and events."

"Together, we can foster not only a green- but also a blue - recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and help ensure a long term resilient and sustainable relationship with the ocean," the secretary-general concluded.