The Decade for oceans and humanity
Anna Törnroos,
Assistant Professor (tenure track),
Faculty of Science and Engineering,
Åbo Akademi University,
Finland
1st of January 2021 marks the start of a crucial 10-year period for oceans and humanity. It is The Decade for several reasons. Most importantly because the end of it, 2030, has been identified by scientists as a timeline for preventing catastrophic climate change. The same period is also identified as critical for stopping the rapid destruction of biodiversity by humans, that is, the sixth mass destruction of life on earth. An Earth that is blue, its surface covered to 71 percent of water, about 97 percent of which is in the oceans, seas and bays. Bodies of water harbouring the largest ecosystems on the planet that we humans live off and around, but that we do not safeguard enough for our future existence. 2021 also marks the Year of Science and communication of it to the surrounding society, which is important in an era of false and fake news.
These are also the reasons why the Unite Nations (UN) have decided to proclaim The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and The Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The goal is to strengthen management, restoration and protection of our oceans and coasts for the benefit of humanity and nature. These profoundly important recognitions by the UN comes at a time when scientific facts are clear on the impacts of climate change on the physical changes of the oceans featuring for instance unprecedented declines in sea ice, warming of the oceans, sea-level rise and decline in oxygen as well as profound but context-dependent impacts on the marine ecosystem and its services, stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Likewise, the Intergovernmental Science- Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) outlines the deterioration of nature and its impacts on people and societies. These global proclamations and scientific statements recognise the cross-cutting role that ocean science, spanning e.g. marine biology, physical-geological- and chemical oceanography, has for reaching and implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the Aichi targets on biodiversity post 2020 that are the foundations of The Decade.
For the Baltic Sea and its protection, it is not only these actions and goals that signifies the recently started Decade. The deadlines set by the EU Water Framework and the Marine Strategy Framework directive to achieve good status of the marine environment passed without satisfactory results. The coming decade includes the absolute deadline in 2027 and, thus, a need to be even more ambitious in respect to reaching the target. The flagship that can make this happen and that is navigating the science-policy actions in our region, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM), is also updating the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) this year. The plan will need to tackle the “old” and still existing wicked problems related to eutrophication, overexploitation and chemical pollution, but also new ones such as climate change, acidification as well as plastic and noise pollution and their interlinkages and effects on the old ones.
A key question and challenge that remains though, is how to downscale and implement the goals and activities of The Decade of the Oceans to the regional level of The Baltic Sea, and the national coastal waters. The refined BSAP and the ecosystem-based management approach, which recognises humans as an intrinsic part of the ecosystem, are both important pieces, but are they enough?
An answer can be found in the reviews and constructive critiques of e.g. IPBES as well as HELCOM, but also calls within the scientific community that emphasise the need to develop a clear approach to stakeholder engagement and co-design and co-production of assessments and implementation plans to ensure inclusion of a diversity of socio-ecological data and local knowledge. These needs can only be fulfilled if also ocean science and scientists progress towards greater inter- and transdisciplinary joint collaborations, working with the social sciences, humanities, engineering sciences as well as the private business sector, the public sector, NGOs and citizens. This requires and entails a level of common language in terms of terminology and concepts, and methodologies for working together. Encompassing and developing this type expertise and knowledge is the core vision within the strategic research profile The Sea at Åbo Akademi University, which aims to find solutions to so called wicked problems of the oceans, and particularly in and around the Baltic and Nordic Seas.
Email: anna.m.tornroos@abo.fi
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