“At Africa’s First Our Ocean Convention, a Check of International Will on Excessive Seas Safety and Deep-Sea Mining” — International Points
VICTORIA, Seychelles, March 23 (IPS) – When the eleventh Our Ocean Convention opens in Mombasa and Kilifi, Kenya, from June 16-18, 2026, it can mark the primary time this influential assembly has been held on African soil. For coastal and island nations throughout the continent and the broader Indian Ocean – and for the International South extra broadly – the stakes couldn’t be greater: the guarantees and commitments made there’ll assist resolve whether or not the ocean turns into a supply of justice and resilience, or deepens present inequalities.
And the latest report by the UN, signifies that Planet Earth is being pushed past its limits. Each key local weather indicator is flashing purple because it continues to overheat .
Since its launch in 2014, the Our Ocean Convention has generated a gentle stream of commitments on marine conservation, sustainable fisheries, local weather motion and air pollution management. Billions of {dollars} have been pledged for marine protected areas, surveillance, analysis and group tasks. But, for a lot of communities within the International South, the truth at sea has typically modified far lower than the rhetoric on land. Overfishing, climate-driven ecosystem shifts and air pollution proceed to undermine meals safety and livelihoods, whereas advantages from the “blue economic system” nonetheless are inclined to movement upwards to these with capital and know-how.
I do know this course of intimately. In 2018, on the Our Ocean Convention in Bali, Indonesia (October 29–30), I used to be honoured to be invited by renown Philanthropist, Dona Bertarelli, and named one of many founding Pew-Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Ambassadors, alongside John Kerry, former US Secretary of State, and David Cameron, former UK Prime Minister, Heraldo Munoz former Chilean minister of Overseas Affairs and Carlotta Leon.
Our central mission was to champion large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs).
Beneath my presidency of Seychelles (2004–2016), we set a world instance for the International South. At Rio+20 in 2012, we introduced our daring dedication to guard 30% of our 1.35 million km² Unique Financial Zone (EEZ) by 2020 – a full decade forward of at the moment’s world 30×30 targets. We launched the Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan (SMSP) course of in 2014, involving 265 stakeholder consultations and over 100 GIS knowledge layers, culminating in 410,000 km² (30% of our EEZ, an space bigger than Germany) designated as Marine Protected Areas in March 2020, with the total SMSP turning into legally binding throughout our whole EEZ on March 31, 2025. We additionally pioneered the world’s first sovereign blue bond in October 2018 – a US$15 million issuance (with $21.6 million debt-for-nature swap by way of The Nature Conservancy) that diminished our borrowing prices from 6.5% to 2.8% whereas funding fisheries governance, marine safety and blue economic system tasks by means of SeyCCAT and the Growth Financial institution of Seychelles.
Mombasa’s significance lies not solely in geography however in timing. The Excessive Seas Treaty – formally the BBNJ Settlement entered into power on the seventeenth January this 12 months having reached 60 ratifications in 2025.
The Treaty affords, for the primary time, a framework to create marine protected areas and regulate probably dangerous actions in areas past nationwide jurisdiction, which cowl almost half the planet and play vital roles in local weather regulation and biodiversity. For African and different growing nations, the best way this settlement is applied will take a look at whether or not “frequent heritage of humankind” can transfer from slogan to actuality.
Seychelles was among the many first African nations to ratify BBNJ, advocating for prime seas MPAs just like the Saya de Malha Financial institution.
The treaty’s provisions on environmental affect assessments, area-based administration instruments, capacity-building and benefit-sharing will form who will get to resolve what occurs on the excessive seas, and who features or loses from rising ocean industries. With out sturdy establishments, sufficient financing and significant participation from the International South, there’s a threat that highly effective states and firms will dominate decision-making, reproducing on the ocean the identical patterns of inequality seen on land.
The controversy over deep-sea mining makes these issues concrete. Proponents argue that mining polymetallic nodules and different deep-sea deposits may provide minerals wanted for the power transition.
However scientific assessments warn that such operations might trigger long-lasting injury to seafloor habitats, disrupt carbon cycles and threaten species we now have barely begun to check. Small-scale fishers, coastal communities and Indigenous peoples fear that the prices might be borne by these least answerable for local weather change and least in a position to adapt.
Lately, a broad coalition of states, scientists, civil society teams and youth actions has referred to as for a precautionary pause or moratorium on business deep-sea mining within the Space. This demand is rooted within the precautionary precept and in a imaginative and prescient of the ocean as a residing system, not only a stockpile of uncooked supplies. For a lot of within the International South, it’s also a justice situation: the world can not repeat, within the deep sea, an extractive mannequin that has left communities polluted and marginalised on land.
In Africa’s Indian Ocean, these debates are notably pressing. Not too long ago, I joined ocean Renown philanthropist and a robust advocate of Ocean Conservation , Dona Bertarelli in calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in Africa’s ocean, particularly within the Indian Ocean. Our message to governments is that precaution and long-term stewardship should come earlier than short-term revenue – a precept Seychelles has utilized by means of our SMSP and blue bonds.
Kenya has framed the 2026 convention beneath the theme “Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future”, with a give attention to jobs, fairness and wholesome oceans. This framing resonates throughout the International South, the place coastal and inland communities face converging crises of local weather change, biodiversity loss and financial insecurity.
For the convention to be a turning level, African and different growing nations may push for 3 outcomes :
First, insist that BBNJ implementation be guided by fairness: strong funding for capacity-building and know-how switch, clear environmental assessments, and benefit-sharing that reaches frontline communities.
Second, unite behind a precautionary moratorium on deep-sea mining till impartial science exhibits it could actually proceed with out irreversible hurt and strong world guidelines exist.
Third, demand commitments that enhance lives: safe markets for small-scale fishers, nature-based options like mangrove restoration, climate-resilient infrastructure, and assist for youth, ladies and Indigenous management. Seychelles proves this works – 30%+ EEZ safety with sustainable financing balancing ecology and fairness.
Mombasa sits on the intersection of vulnerability and risk, like coastal cities throughout the International South. Internet hosting Africa’s first Our Ocean Convention affords an opportunity to centre views of those that reside with the ocean every day.
The take a look at of Our Ocean 2026 might be whether or not it shifts energy in the direction of these most affected and dedicated to stewardship. For Africa, SIDS and the International South, Mombasa is a second to say: the ocean just isn’t a frontier to be mined, however a residing basis for our survival and dignity.
James Alix Michel is the previous President of Seychelles (2004–2016) and a world advocate for the blue economic system, ocean conservation and local weather resilience.
IPS UN Bureau
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