News

The MSPglobal Initiative has just published five policy briefs highlighting the importance of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) for a sustainable governance of the ocean. These documents aim to help decision-makers and relevant stakeholders make coordinated decisions that allow for a more sustainable use and management of marine resources.

The Ocean Infohub (OIH) Project is pleased to announce the launch of their website to find useful information about OIH objectives and services. Published in February 2021, the OIH community is invited to discover the latest news and events of the project, as well as regions where the project is implemented and their official partners.

A recent analysis prepared by IOC-UNESCO explores tangible ways in which linkages between the Ocean Decade, with its vision of the ‘science we need for the ocean we want’, and the Ocean Panel, with its aims of ‘safeguarding the long-term health and resilience of the ocean’, can be leveraged and optimized.

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development celebrated the 2021 International Women’s Day (8 March), emphasizing the Decade’s ambitions to advance gender equity. This year’s global theme ‘Choose to challenge’ was testament to question and call out gender bias and inequality.

The UN chief urged countries to make sure they invest the funds necessary to prevent and manage disasters, in a solemn message of remembrance on Wednesday for the 18,400 people who died or are unaccounted for, due to the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan exactly ten years ago.

The Caribbean States and adjacent regions participated on 11 March in their annual tsunami preparedness exercise, set up under the aegis of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), as they commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, which caused a deadly and devastating surge on the north-eastern coast of the island of Honshu, leading to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The countries bordering the North-East Atlantic, the Mediterranean and adjacent seas were prepared from 8 to 10 March to a tsunami preparedness exercise, set up under the aegis of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO). The exercise marks the 10th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, which caused a deadly and devastating surge on the north-eastern coast of the island of Honshu, leading to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

There is only one ocean and its preservation is essential to the survival of humanity; this is the message that UNESCO and its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) would like to convey in an exclusive exhibition by photographer Alexis Rosenfeld, from 4 March 4 to 30 April in Paris Gare de Lyon, in partnership with SNCF Gares & Connexions. A virtual tour of this event is available online through the following link: www.1ocean.blue.

Between 12 -14 January 2021 the 2021 Meeting (Pre-committee) of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) Management Group took place online. 32 participants attended the event and reviewed progress of the IODE-XXV work plan, agreed on the agenda for the upcoming IODE-XXVI Committee meeting in April 2021 (online) and discussed the arrangements for the preparation of the First International Ocean Data Conference (Poland, November 2021).