Celine Kahn of the Ocean Azul Foundation opened the session at the Basecamp

Our ocean underpins human prosperity and wellbeing. Without a healthy ocean we will not have a healthy planet, and yet, globally and collectively we are not making the progress necessary to reverse current declines in ocean health, whether it’s biodiversity loss, rising sea levels as a result of still increasing greenhouse gas emissions or shocking levels of plastic pollution.

We have the solutions to hand, including globally agreed targets, but policy makers must deliver operational plan to achieve these targets and ensure that the action be effective and sustainable. It is therefore essential that chronically under-represented local views and community voices are an integral part of implementation plans. In an online consultation process, labelled COOL2025 preceding UNOC3, three organisations have set up a platform to exchange experiences and views to filter out the most pressing messages towards governments meeting in Nice. The document produced through this process is a collective statement of priorities from locally-led and community-based ocean advocates for UNOC3 and beyond. The Oceano Azul Foundation, Fauna & Flora and Rise Up For The Ocean offered the much appreciated logistical support for this consultation.

89 civil society organizations from 28 countries – Albania, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Fiji, France, Germany, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the USA – took part, united in their call for more ambitious and equitable global action for the ocean.

COOL2025 also strengthened the capacities of smaller organisations to prepare adequately for an effective participation in the UN Ocean Conference.

A packed audience at the BaseCamp for civil society in the public Green Zone of UNOC3 had flocked in on Tuesday, 10 June 2025, to hear the Policy Statement.

Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris read out the statement on Blue Economy and Financing

The Policy Statement covers the following areas: protecting 30×30, Blue Economy and Financing, Climate Change, Marine Pollution, Ocean Governance, Ocean Literacy, Protected Species, Small-Scale Fisheries, Youth, The Role of Civil Society

Recognising the unique opportunity of UNOC3 and that the proposed final declaration for governments’ approval states that “Indigenous Peoples and local communities are fully and meaningfully empowered and included in ocean-related decision making as appropriate”, the Policy Statement produced out of this initial consultation outlines the collectively developed key messages from locally-led civil society organisations.

Andreas Kraemer, Board member of the Oceano Azul Foundation

They should guide ocean deliberations and decisions at the UN Conference. We call on governments, businesses and civil society to use our Policy Statement and deliver concrete actions for people and ocean.

In his concluding remarks Andreas Kraemer, Member of the Board of Directors of the Oceano Azul Foundation underscored the value of the Policy Statement. He hailed the achievement that it had been scheduled for presentation to the government representatives working on the final Nice Declaration in their restricted Blue Zone.

As time is of the essence in political processes he congratulated all participants of this collective effort for achieving consensus in a short time span. He also urged the audience to maintain the pressure and strengthen collaboration within and across countries to maintain the pressure for concrete results.