If we have learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic it is that we are all inextricably connected with each other and the natural world. Without greater balance and cooperation we cannot survive as a species.
Human wellbeing is at the heart of what we do. Our work, to protect the ocean is driven by the reality that humankind needs a healthy planet that can sustain life, for the sake of our homes, health, livelihoods and food.
Many have taken the rupture to our lives caused by Covid-19 to think about this and about how we can rebuild better, learning from the pandemic to achieve a greater balance and to protect the fundamentals which make life on Earth possible.
Doing so is a necessity.
We do not have the luxury of choosing between paths which damage the natural world and those which do not. If we continue to harm nature at the rate we have been, our world will not be able to sustain human wellbeing – from jobs to food security and health.
We have been given a stark warning. Once we emerge and start to rebuild, we need to do so in a way that protects the fundamentals that all human beings rely upon, foremost among these being a planet capable of sustaining human life.
Governments will be put under pressure to drop environmental protections to make it easier for industry to operate; to privilege short term economics and job increases over other considerations. These will be presented as a choice – choose humans over nature - but it is not a real choice. For the good of humankind, we must achieve balance with the natural world, a coexistence which ultimately enables us to thrive.
If we do not achieve that balance, take action to do better now, the rupture in our lives will get bigger, we will face other, escalating global disasters.
We ask governments to protect human wellbeing and to make decisions which keep a functioning blue planet beneath our feet.
Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
Ecology Action Centre
Global Fishing Watch
Global Ocean Trust
Greenovation Hub
High Seas Alliance
Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense
International Programme on the State of the Ocean
Marine CoLABoration
Marine Conservation Institute
Marine Conservation Society
Oceans North
Our Fish
Seas at Risk
Shark Project International
Turkish Marine Research Foundation
One Ocean
