Our Oceans, Our Future
Partnering for the implementation of sustainable developments goal 14
Ocean Conference
JUNE 5-9, 2017
We, as Civil Society Organization, were honored to represent Mexico at the Ocean Conference, where we had the opportunity to share our contributions with the global leaders of more than 100 nations, for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Life below water. .
In the last 18 years, Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI)* has built key partnerships (with governments, fishers, academia, foundations, and other stakeholders) to move Mexican fisheries towards sustainability. It was very enriching to share our Voluntary Commitment and our lessons learned in walking the sustainability road at the “Partnership Dialogue 4: Making fisheries sustainable”. .
Given our contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Mexico, we had the opportunity to present our Political Statement to accelerate the implementation of SDG 14 at the “Plenary session” in the UN General Assembly Hall with well-known international organizations. .
Equator Prize Winners (Cooperativa Cozumel from Mexico and Cooperativa Tárcoles from Costa Rica) and COBI
One of our community partners, José Ángel de la Cruz Cantó Noh from the Cozumel Cooperative, Equator Prize winner, shared creative ways to asses SDG 14 and other international instruments such as the SSF Guidelines, at the side-event “Power of local action: sustainable fisheries for sustainable livelihoods”, where he encouraged all participants to foster multisector alliances for saving our oceans.
Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN and COBI
We came back to Mexico full of pride of seeing our national and local work contributing to global change. We came back ready to partner for and assess our contributions to SDG 14 and other SDGs, as we stated on the final side-event “The Role of the Oceans in Sustainability: Benefits of Achieving SDG 14 for all Sustainable Development Goals”, to which we were kindly invited by Nereus Program of The Nippon Foundation. .
At the end, we are ocean peoples. The ocean is a very important place for all. Todos somos Comunidad y Todos somos Biodiversidad..
María José Espinosa-Romero and Oscar Vélez-Ruiz Gaitán
Written by: María José Espinosa-Romero and Oscar Vélez-Ruiz Gaitán .
* Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) is a Mexican civil society organization and one of TBTI key partner organizations. COBI was founded in 1999 with the goal of saving marine ecosystems that are deteriorating due to unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.
