Feedbacks from 2019 World Ocean Day
World Ocean Day at the United-Nations
This year in New-York, World Ocean Day was celebrated at the United Nations headquarters. As part of 2019 theme “Gender and the Ocean” DOALOS presented a conference in partnership with Oceanic Global. During this conference, storytellers and speakers from all over the world joined to share their experience on increasing gender and ocean literacy in many various activities such as marine research, fisheries, labour at sea, policy-making… World Ocean Network joined forces with Friends of World Oceans Day organisations and was present at the UN event.
During the day, the 2019 photo contest winners were also announced in the UN hemicycle. You can discover all winners in each category here. When preparing World Ocean Day next year, look at the UN photo contest and all its categories. It is co-organised with World Ocean Network and generally announced in March.
World Ocean Day worldwide
In Cameroun, the association Les Bénévoles de l’Océan, new World Ocean Network member, organised a big event for World Ocean Day. After a march for the Ocean with both children and citizen, they organised a meeting with traditional leaders of the area to sign the Kibri Declaration urging political leaders to take action towards the protection of the Ocean. A very inspiring event engaging both civil society and policy makers!
© Les Bénévoles de l’Océan
In Mauritania WON member Clean Beach association team with rim Youth Climate Movement, BACoMab, GIZ and BiodiverCité NGO to celebrate World Ocean Day. During four days they set up a “biodiversity village” where each partner proposed activities to children under the common theme “an Ocean plastic-free”. A beach clean-up and stand-up show were also part of the celebration.
© Clean Beach
In North of France, Nausicaa organised many different types of events with local partners: a dance show in the exhibition, an award ceremony for the winners of a short film competition, a school art exhibition, etc. Mostly targeted towards children, many school took part to the celebration, presenting their year-long project on the Ocean: poems, games, drawings and sculpture.
© Nausicaa
To celebrate World Ocean Day in the ECSITE conference in Copenhagen, World Ocean Network organised a session convened by Francisco Franco del Amo (Aquarium Finisterrae and WON President) and Manuel Cira (Nausicaa and WON Director). “Climate talks: Back to Copenhagen” session was about reflecting on the heritage of COP15 in Copenhagen and how science centres can take stock of the new information regarding the evolution of climate. A special focus was put on current good practices in public engagement and with policymakers on Climate change, and the 60+ participants were willing to further exchange and collaborate on the subject.
