IUCN- Planet at the Crossroads. - Mission Blue

September 3, 2016

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The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 kicked off two days ago in Honolulu and we can’t imagine a more auspicious occasion! Less than one week after President Obama announced the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument around the Hawaiian atolls as the world’s largest marine protected area, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) convenes its conference on the monument’s doorstep for the first time anywhere in the United States.

In a recent response to President Obama’s announcement of the expanded Hawaiian monument, Mission Blue Founder and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle remarked:

Americans on this centennial anniversary are encouraged to “find your park” and enjoy these wonders that are the collective conscious of our nation. But with President Obama’s expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument from 50 to 200 miles out from the Northern Hawaiian Islands, now the world’s largest marine protected area, history will remember this anniversary and next century as the “blue centennial”—the time when the national park idea was brought to the ocean. It couldn’t come too soon. 

© Christian Vizl
© Christian Vizl

Dr. Earle is participating in numerous sessions throughout the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 (or Congress for short), which runs through September 10th, with the aim of keeping ocean issues in the spotlight during high-level policy discussions. The Congress marks the first global conservation summit since the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations in 2015. Bringing together nearly 10,000 delegates—including leaders in policy, business, science and nongovernmental organizations such as Mission Blue—the main goal of the Congress is to identify next steps for implementing these historic agreements.

Mission Blue is proud to announce its recent acceptance as an IUCN member organization. Together with over 1,300 member states and government agencies, NGOs, scientific and academic institutions and business associations, Mission Blue looks forward to having a seat at the table at this year’s Members’ Assembly during the Congress and future high level meetings, with the goal of achieving policy solutions for ocean conservation.

The National Geographic Society (NGS) is helping IUCN amplify the goal of the 2016 Congress to draw attention to pressing conservation issues and proposed solutions to them. As part of the NGS/IUCN creative content partnership, the Society has created a series of short videos highlighting the crucial conservation and development issues considered by IUCN Members at this year’s Congress, including the video below featuring Dr. Earle.

 
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2 thoughts on “IUCN- Planet at the Crossroads.

  1. Hello to whom this may concern, I want to Help Our Oceans!!! I’m a Pastry Chef & I wish to help feed a crew on any Ocean going research vessel if I can. I would Love to be part of a crew helping to better Our Oceans. Here is my email address can someone Please get back to me so I send my resume to the right person to look over. I Thank You Very Much….

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