For the next 15 years, the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will command international attention. Achieving the 17 global goals and 169 related targets requires, inter alia, careful assessment and practical suggestions on implementing this transformative agenda on a global scale on an urgent basis. In this direction, UNCTAD’s 2016 Trade and Environment Review brings together a collection of independent articles by leading experts providing succinct diagnosis and novel suggestions on the implementation of SDG 14 which seeks to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources”.
Oceans contribute to food security, nutrition and to ending hunger, fostering culture and identity, supporting agriculture, mitigating the effects of climate change, providing educational opportunities and safeguarding sacred sites. The conservation of oceans and sustainability of marine resources and ecosystem is thus essential to the very basis for human wellbeing in coastal communities and beyond. Oceans are of major importance to coastal States, especially LDCs and SIDS. For all SIDS, for example, their marine territory is several times large than their land area signifying the potential huge marine resources available to them from the oceans.
The TER 2016 is structured into three complementary parts that examine issues pertinent to the promotion of sustainable use of living marine resources mainly fish in healthy oceans and seas. It focuses on trade in fish within the context of the oceans economy, often also referred to as the blue economy, in terms of challenges and opportunities for the global community in implementing Agenda 2030 and specifically SDG 14.
