Thailand joins fight to save oceans by hosting kick-off conference on ‘UN Decade of Ocean Science’ next week
Thailand is ready to host the first kick-off regional conference for the “United Nations Decade of Ocean Science” on November 25-26, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Warawut Silpa-archa said on Thursday.
Representatives from 24 countries will be attending the event.
“Hosting the conference will help strengthen Thailand’s role as a regional leader in ocean conservation and in realising the UN’s decade actions,” he said. “I have told the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources to coordinate with United Nations’ Decade Coordination Office, which is responsible for organising the virtual conference.”
The conference is being held in response to the United Nations General Assembly’s proclamation of 2021-2030 as the “UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”. The UN Decade of Ocean Science was officially inaugurated on June 1 at a high-level online conference in Berlin.
Sopon Thongdee, director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, said Thailand will display its capacity to take leadership in the Western Pacific region and steer all partners towards implementing the UN’s decade actions.
“Thailand possesses policy readiness to meet this task, with its 20-year national strategy, various master plans, and national reform plan all reflecting on the conservation of ocean resources,” he said.
Registration is now open for the “UN Ocean Decade Kickoff Conference for the Western Pacific and its Adjacent Areas”, which will be held online via https://www.ioc-westpac.org/decade-kickoff-conference/ on November 25-26.
The forum will be hosted by Alex Rendell, co-founder of the Environmental Education Centre Thailand and Channel 3 news anchor Cholaphansa “Hunny” Narula. Those interested can keep updated via hashtags #oceandecade and #iocwestpac.