PEMSEA Shares Experience in Responsible Ocean Governance

Lisbon, Portugal — Dr. Mario Soares, former President of Portugal, in his capacity as the former President of the World Independent Commission on the Oceans, convened on 12-13 December 2008 a commemorative meeting of the 10th anniversary of the 1998 report of the Commission.The Lisbon Declaration of 1998 states "If the ocean is to be governed in a democratic spirit, we must overcome the limitation of the present legal and institutional framework, in order to permit it to respond to changing conditions."Ten years since the "International Year of the Ocean" in 1998, various environmental and socioeconomic as well as geopolitical events have provided greater urgency and created new challenges to ocean governance. These challenges call for innovative approaches to address responsible ocean governance.Dr. Chua Thia-Eng, Chair of the East Asian Seas Partnership Council, PEMSEA, in his statement shared the issues and experiences of the East Asian Region on ocean governance. Dr. Chua also mentioned that the Partnership Council will table the Lisbon Statement for consideration at its next meeting and for transmission to the third Ministerial conference during the East Asian Seas Congress in 2009.The Commemorative Session was convened with a view to contributing to the 2009 World Ocean Conference in Manado, Indonesia, as well as to the 2012 Yaeso EXPO in RO Korea. Hopefully, these events may lead towards the greater involvement of civil society, paving the way to enhancing the consideration of the ocean by the Commission on Sustainable Development in 2014.The meeting website also contains further information of interest. Related information about the event can be found here.Press Release: An Urgent Call for Ocean Governance in the XXI CenturyLack of political will was identified as one of the main causes of an increasingly deteriorating state of many ocean resources and ecosystems putting at risk essential ecological and socio-economic services the oceas provide to society, concluded he participant in the Commemorative Session of the tenth Anniversary of the Lisbon Declaration, yesterday December 12 in Lisbon. The urgent appeal issued in Lisbon in 1998 for improving Ocean Governance was "like a message in a bottle, thrown to the sea, that nobody picked up", declared Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares from Brazil and former member of the Independent World Commission of the Oceans participating in the event.Ten years ago the Lisbon Declaration was issued at the end of three years of work by the Independent World Commission on the Ocean chaired by the former President of Potugal Dr. M