SDG 14 as an Entry to Delivery of other Sustainable Development Goals - Session 3: Supporting SDG Delivery Paper 1

SDG 14 offers a great opportunity to advance ocean sustainability in the WIO to address current and emerging threats.It is underpinned by targets addressing conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, seas and marine resources, including coastal zones, and targets referring to capacity building and ocean governance. SDG 14 recognises the role of the ocean for economic, social and ecological development and the need to address the most urgent and pressing issues affecting coastal and marine ecosystems including pollution from land-based sources, ocean acidification, overfishing e.t.c. (See Annex 1)

At the same time, SDG 14 has important interactions with other goals (Schmidt et. al 2017) and its implementation will assist in achieving a number of other goals. These interactions highlight the possible synergies among the SDGs into one conceptual framework for action (Nilsson et al 2016) where attainment of SDG 14 will also increase the return on investment for reaching the other goals especially those related to poverty alleviation, food security, sustainable blue economy/ocean economy and climate change.

SDG 14 is a critical enabler of poverty alleviation, and environmentally sustainable economic growth and social well-being (‘blue growth’), particularly in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the region. Sustained incomes and economic benefits from fisheries, aquaculture and tourism sectors depend heavily on the health of oceans and coasts (Schmidt et. al 2017). Strengthening the resilience of oceans and coasts through conservation and protection of coastal wetlands, will help reduce shock exposure and enhance the resilience of poor coastal populations to extreme climate-related events. Technology transfer and research capacity building in aquaculture can help enhance and income generation for artisanal fishers. Further, creating marine protected areas (MPAs) can provide fishery benefits and remove pressure from key fishing areas such as spawning grounds and nurseries, and enable fish stocks in adjacent areas to rebound and conserve marine biodiversity.

Thus, the implementation of SDG 14 as the framework blue/ocean economy in the WIO can improve the health and productivity of ocean ecosystems, reverse the current cycle of decline, and enable the achievement of other SDGs. Better ocean governance, valuation of WIO ocean assets, developing national blue economy strategies, and developing capacity for marine spatial planning and other areabased management tools to reduce conflicts among uses, can ensure financial sustainability, ecosystem integrity and prosperity, and promote long-term national growth and employment in WIO countries.