{"id":2377,"date":"2008-11-07T10:17:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T10:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport-congress\/2008\/11\/07\/woc-developing-a-business-community-for-sustainable-oceans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:37:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:37:50","slug":"woc-developing-a-business-community-for-sustainable-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/news\/americas-greenport\/woc-developing-a-business-community-for-sustainable-oceans\/","title":{"rendered":"WOC: developing a business community for sustainable oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>\u201cThe World Ocean Council efforts to bring together <\/span> the global \u2018ocean business <\/span> community\u2019 to develop leadership <\/span> and collaboration for ocean <\/span> sustainability and stewardship <\/span> are critical to the future of the <\/span> oceans.\u201d Mikulka said. <\/span> Participants from the shipping, oil and gas, fisheries, aquaculture, <\/span> mining, maritime salvage and <\/span> other ocean industries met on <\/span> 24\/25 June to indentify priorities <\/span> and strategies for the WOC to <\/span> create a global cross-sectoral <\/span> industry coalition on sustainable <\/span> seas. <\/span> Paul Holthus, WOC Executive Director highlighted, \u201cThe <\/span> extraordinary growth in ocean use <\/span> is resulting in cumulative impacts <\/span> to the marine environment at <\/span> a global scale, perhaps even <\/span> affecting the ocean\u2019s crucial <\/span> role in regulating climate. <\/span> Private sector leadership and collaboration on ocean <\/span> sustainability is essential to the <\/span> health and future of the global <\/span> marine ecosystem – and can lead <\/span> to business benefits for responsible <\/span> companies.\u201d <\/span> The ocean is becoming crowded, as more activity and <\/span> new kinds of ocean use compete, <\/span> leading to user conflicts and <\/span> negative impacts on ocean based <\/span> businesses. Tony Mason, <\/span> Secretary General, International <\/span> Chamber of Shipping, noted that <\/span> the global shipping industry \u201c\u2026 greatly welcomes the efforts of the <\/span> World Ocean Council to improve <\/span> dialogue and understanding <\/span> between those industrial sectors <\/span> whose livelihood depends on the <\/span> responsible and sustainable use of <\/span> the world\u2019s oceans.\u201d <\/span> The principle business driver for constructively addressing <\/span> sustainability is reducing risk <\/span> – especially the threat of losing <\/span> access to ocean space or resources <\/span> – stressed industry representatives. <\/span> The WOC will coordinate efforts to reduce risk and increase stable <\/span> and responsible ocean use by <\/span> facilitating industry engaging <\/span> in international ocean policy <\/span> processes and collaborating on <\/span> practical solutions. <\/span> Mike Boots, Director, Seafood Choices Alliance, stated, <\/span> \u201cCollective efforts to share <\/span> responsibility for the sustainable <\/span> management of the seas are <\/span> essential. The World Ocean Council is bringing together <\/span> multiple sectors of ocean users to <\/span> develop solutions that can lead <\/span>to lasting improvements in ocean <\/span> health.\u201d <\/span> Business representatives at <\/span> the meeting – including major oil <\/span> companies and global industry <\/span> organizations – recommended <\/span> that the WOC: be established <\/span> as an association of businesses <\/span> committed to ocean sustainability, <\/span> expand the number and kinds <\/span> of ocean industries involved, <\/span> monitor and report on key ocean <\/span> policy processes, coordinate <\/span> constructive industry participation <\/span> in policy developments, facilitate <\/span> collective industry engaging of <\/span> ocean stakeholders, develop cross sectoral <\/span> projects to address shared <\/span> marine environmental issues and <\/span> catalyze industry advocacy for <\/span> improved ocean science. <\/span> On June 25, the WOC also organized the first-ever industry <\/span> side event on sustainability at the <\/span> annual UN ocean consultations. <\/span> Industry representatives discussed their efforts to address marine <\/span> environmental issues with <\/span> governments, international <\/span> agencies, and NGOs. As <\/span> Carleen Lyden-Kluss, Executive <\/span> Director, North American <\/span> Marine Environment Protection <\/span> Association summarized, \u201cThe <\/span> World Ocean Council has <\/span> the opportunity to develop <\/span> a committed, collective and <\/span> objective effort from all ocean <\/span> industry sectors dependent on <\/span> the global ocean. Through this important new alliance, we will <\/span> be better positioned to promote <\/span> balanced sustainable development <\/span> of the seas that serves the both <\/span> the marine environment and <\/span> ocean industries.\u201d A copy of the New York <\/span> meeting report is available <\/span> from the WOC. Visit www. <\/span> oceancouncil.org, email: paul.holthus@oceancouncil.org or tel: +1 (808) 277 9008<\/p>\n

www.oceancouncil.org<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocean industries from around the world gathered at the United Nations in New York for the inaugural World Ocean Council (WOC) meeting to develop an \u201cunprecedented global alliance on sustainability\u201d. UN Global Compact Executive Director, Georg Kell, and UN Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea Director, Vaclav Mikulka, opened the workshop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-2377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2379,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377\/revisions\/2379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2377"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=2377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}