Ocean Science Roadmap for UNESCO Marine World Heritage in the context of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030)

Abstract

Climate change is altering our planet and the effects are felt from the highest mountains to the deepest parts of the ocean. While the world seeks to hold warming to 1.5°C, it is vital that we take steps now to protect some of the Earth’s natural jewels and to preserve them for future generations. The UNESCO World Heritage List includes the world’s most iconic marine protected areas, recognised by the international community for their outstanding biodiversity, beauty, geology and natural habitats. Beginning with Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 1981, the List has since expanded to include a global network of 50 ocean places of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), from the tropics to the poles, each of which helps to secure the future of our marine ecosystems. Inclusion on the List is only the start of the work needed to protect these sites from warming seas and shifting weather. Indeed, some 70% of the marine World Heritage sites are currently under threat from climate change, according to the 2020 IUCN World Heritage Outlook. Under a business- as-usual emissions scenario, World Heritage Listed coral reef systems are expected to cease to exist by 2100. Action is necessary not just to protect these sites, but because between them they host over 20% of the world’s blue carbon ecosystems - representing critical carbon sinks - and serve as refuges for vulnerable and threatened species. Managers, scientists, and funders are enthusiastic and willing to help us achieve healthy oceans and marine World Heritage sites. But how? The 2021 UNESCO science assessment survey of marine World Heritage sites indicates that nearly 75% of sites lack knowledge on how to protect their OUV against the impacts from climate change. And about two thirds lack the tools to understand how climate change will impact their biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.We must find evidence-based solutions to address these questions and to help sites plan for the uncertain future. In 2017, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that 2021-2030 would serve as the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (or ‘Ocean Decade’). The Ocean Decade provides a global framework to harness science to sustainably manage the oceans. Marine World Heritage sites are identified as priority areas in the Implementation Plan of the Ocean Decade. The Decade offers a way to convene diverse actors to co-design and co-deliver knowledge that will address scientific questions about the vulnerable sites, to plan the right response and to put them on a path to a sustainable future.

Climate change is a complex challenge, and we must use the best and most up-to-date research and data to guide our actions. Collecting ocean science data and identifying trends are critical to local management teams. Without this baseline knowledge, including where iconic species live or trends in environmental and socio-economic variables, effective management decisions cannot be made in ways that will ensure sites’ protection 10 or 20 years from now. Yet despite their iconic status, many marine World Heritage sites lack essential capacity, technology and resources to generate and process data, including the baseline observations crucial to gather the evidence to plan future steps. For many sites, budgets have not risen while challenges grow exponentially. In response, UNESCO is launching a call for increased and strategic investment in the ocean science needed to safeguard marine World Heritage sites. The ocean is a vast place and there is much to do. Within the framework of the Ocean Decade, this roadmap aims to help provide focus, to ensure research is carried out and used in an efficient, effective and sustainable way. It identifies knowledge that site managers and scientists need to conserve marine World Heritage sites and foster resilient marine ecosystems, highlights the value of science-based decision making, and tackles some key obstacles including resources and capacity. This roadmap outlines key information to assess climate vulnerability, including on the use of targeted science to underpin conservation and management efforts. It also highlights current gaps in science capacity and infrastructure, including data collection and interpretation. Finally, it explores the technology and capacity required for action and the sustainable finance and resources needed to support the necessary research. Marine World Heritage sites face a critical moment in time and we must act now. By developing this roadmap within the framework of the Ocean Decade, we have the chance to generate ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’ and preserve marine World Heritage sites and their services for future generations. This roadmap seeks to offer that help, by showing managers, supporters, and funders how science and research can be more cost-effectively directed to some of the most pressing problems. Together we can steer a path to a resilient and sustainable future, for the next decade and beyond.