Four FRDC initiatives have been officially endorsed by the United Nations Ocean Decade, a bold 10-year campaign to advance and address pressing challenges in world oceans.
FRDC Capability and Capacity Manager Sally Roberts, says this prestigious distinction highlights the vital role FRDC plays in promoting sustainable fisheries and ocean health.
“I was thrilled to hear that two of our projects were endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade,” Sally states.
“This endorsement recognises the outstanding quality of these initiatives and their potential to contribute significantly to the Decade’s bold goals.”
The endorsed projects are:
-
Creating Capability, Capacity and Culture Change program to build capability and capacity across the fishing and aquaculture community, equipping current and future ocean professionals with essential skills and knowledge.
-
The Circular Economy Program: Developed alongside the Bega Circular Economy Cooperative Centre, this program champions ‘circular’ solutions for a sustainable future in fisheries and aquaculture.
-
Climate resilience for fishing and aquaculture – a diverse set of initiatives to address critical challenges happening across fisheries, aquaculture and environmental sustainability.
-
The CSIRO-led ‘Healthcheck’ activates sustainability reporting.
The projects were selected under the United Nations Ocean Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 framework.
Acting General Manager Strategy and Innovation, Jen Marshall, who is leading the Circular Economy Program, confirmed the UN Ocean Decade endorsement process is highly competitive, and achieving this recognition is “testament to the dedication and expertise of the teams working behind the programs.”
“The application process was incredibly thorough,” said Jen. “This endorsement validates the central role these projects play in achieving the Ocean Decade’s vision of ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’.”
Program leaders, Jen and Sally are gearing up to engage with the Ocean Decade Programme and fulfill designated endorsement criteria. This includes co-designing solutions, actively involving users across the ocean science value chain and ensuring open and accessible data management.
Jen believes it will be exciting to engage with diverse communities across the globe to help share knowledge and build a community of practice.
“FRDC, alongside the global research community, aims to establish best practices for the next decade,” she explained.
“Learning from an international community will empower us to enhance our own activities and hopefully contribute to other countries’ ocean endeavours.”
These programs also align with Ocean Decade Australia, which since 2020, has been consulting and connecting stakeholders through information and resources, networking, knowledge and learning. This national dialogue has allowed Australia’s ocean stakeholders to discuss what success looks like and how it might be measured for a sustainable ocean future. Australia’s ocean stakeholders are diverse and from every sector and industry including fisheries, transport and logistics, philanthropy, energy, recreation, government, research, First Nations, youth, sport, accounting, banking, finance and investment.
You can find out more about the projects here: https://oceandecade.org/news/new-endorsed-actions-to-scale-up-impact-ocean-decade/
