UN Ocean Conference Side Event: NEXUS

Hello everyone. Blue ocean and my blue suit. I would like to thank all of you for participating in this online event with such passion and interest.

Perhaps too many of us still hold to the idea of “free use of the oceans” which was advocated by Grotius in the seventeenth century. However, as you know, the ocean is in a global crisis. For more than thirty years, The Nippon Foundation has taken seriously the silent screams of our “Mother Ocean”, the source of all life, and has been working to protect the ocean. Our work has been diverse, from human capacity building, countermeasures against marine litter, and support towards Pacific Island countries.

As part of these efforts to protect our “Mother Ocean,” the Nereus Program took on the grand theme of “predicting the future of the oceans” in 2011. From then to 2019, the program produced remarkable results, including the nurturing of numerous research fellows and the publication of hundreds of academic papers. In the course of these efforts, it became clear that the social systems which had sustained the marine environment and ecosystems for generations/ through equitable ocean access and use, was also under a threat.

Alarmed with these insights, The Ocean Nexus Program was launched in 2019. More than three hundred like-minded researchers have already joined us to work toward the far-reaching goal of achieving a just and equitable ocean. Despite the ongoing pandemic, we are proud of the diverse network we helped to create and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of the participating researchers for their efforts.

I look forward to learning about all of the latest research results from The Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus program in this side event. Thank you very much.

＊This video message is available at The Nippon Foundation YouTube.