Lisa Place
The Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) wrapped up in Nice with a burst of political will and over 800 voluntary commitments for ocean protection. At its close, states adopted the Nice Ocean Action Plan and the political declaration “Our Ocean, Our Future: United for Urgent Action.” Yet amid the applause, a deeper question surfaced: when will we recognize the ocean not as a resource, but as a living, rights-bearing entity?
Any successes at UNOC3?
- 30×30: Protection or Paper Promise?
The 30×30 target, ideally leading to the protection of 30% of marine areas by 2030, was once again championed. But with only 2.8% of the ocean currently under effective protection, the gulf between rhetoric and reality remains too drastically wide. Without enforcement, adequate resourcing, or recognition of marine ecosystems as legal subjects, protection risks becoming a technocratic checkbox exercise.
- BBNJ: A Step Toward Ocean Justice
The High Seas Treaty (BBNJ) is close to entering into force, with 51 of the 60 needed ratifications secured. This agreement offers hope for equitable governance of the ocean commons. Yet it remains far from breaking the colonial patterns of resource extraction and embracing an ethic of care, custodianship, and legal personhood for oceanic life.
- Finance, Conservation, and Who Decides?
The EU’s €1 billion commitment and new MPAs were presented as breakthroughs, but who shapes these visions of sustainability? Without respecting the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and without challenging extractive finance models, “blue economy” projects risk becoming new frontiers of ocean grabbing.
- Voices from the Frontlines
Small Island Developing States and Indigenous leaders made powerful interventions, grounding the conference in lived experience. Notably, Mauritius called for the Rights of Nature to be constitutionally enshrined and announced a plan to secure the Chagos Archipelago ecologically. Here at GARN, we reaffirm that ocean justice is intersectional and interspecies.
What Remains Unsaid?
The Nice declaration celebrated action; yet remained silent on critical eco-justice issues. One will find there remains a glaring disconnect between the ambitions discussed and the deeper transformation our ocean urgently needs. No commitment was made to end destructive industrial fishing practices that continue to ravage marine ecosystems and undermine the rights of marine life to exist, thrive, and regenerate. Marine species, many of whom are sentient, migratory beings, were not acknowledged as climate allies or living participants in Earth’s systems, but rather treated as passive resources. Equally troubling is the absence of a moratorium on deep-sea mining, despite overwhelming scientific warnings about its irreversible ecological harms and its affront to the sanctity of one of the planet’s last untouched biomes. Underwater noise pollution, a major disruptor of the ocean’s acoustic ecology, was only superficially addressed. Indeed, the launch of a 37-country coalition to tackle ocean noise is a welcome gesture, but remains voluntary and non-binding. It is a far cry from the kind of enforceable governance our marine kin, and the web of life they support, so desperately require.
What Would Ocean-Centered Governance Look Like?
If the ocean were a legal subject, what would it ask of us? Not charity, but respect. Not management, but kinship. Recognizing the Rights of the Ocean means reimagining law and policy around reciprocity, limits, and interdependence. It means moving beyond market logic and techno-fixes to honor the intrinsic value of marine life, from whales to plankton, and the spiritual, cultural, and ecological bonds that coastal peoples have long upheld.
Next Steps and Deeper Shifts
The High Seas Treaty may enter into force by 2026. The Global Plastics Treaty negotiations resume in August. UNOC3 showed us that momentum exists. But the tide won’t truly turn until we stop speaking for the ocean and start listening to it: as a living being with its own voice, rights, and dignity.
