VICTORIA, Seychelles, March 23 (IPS) – When the eleventh Our Ocean Convention opens in Mombasa and Kilifi, Kenya, from June 16-18, 2026, it is going to 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 World South extra broadly – the stakes couldn’t be larger: the guarantees and commitments made there’ll assist determine whether or not the ocean turns into a supply of justice and resilience, or deepens current inequalities.
And the newest report by the UN, signifies that Planet Earth is being pushed past its limits. Each key local weather indicator is flashing pink 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 neighborhood tasks. But, for a lot of communities within the World South, the truth at sea has usually 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 stream upwards to these with capital and expertise.
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 worldwide instance for the World 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 in the present day’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 information 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 complete 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 through The Nature Conservancy) that decreased our borrowing prices from 6.5% to 2.8% whereas funding fisheries governance, marine safety and blue economic system tasks by 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 drive on the seventeenth January this 12 months having reached 60 ratifications in 2025.
The Treaty gives, for the primary time, a framework to create marine protected areas and regulate doubtlessly dangerous actions in areas past nationwide jurisdiction, which cowl practically half the planet and play vital roles in local weather regulation and biodiversity. For African and different growing international locations, the way in which this settlement is carried out will check whether or not “widespread 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 impression assessments, area-based administration instruments, capacity-building and benefit-sharing will form who will get to determine what occurs on the excessive seas, and who beneficial properties or loses from rising ocean industries. With out sturdy establishments, enough financing and significant participation from the World South, there’s a threat that highly effective states and companies will dominate decision-making, reproducing on the ocean the identical patterns of inequality seen on land.
The talk over deep-sea mining makes these issues concrete. Proponents argue that mining polymetallic nodules and different deep-sea deposits might provide minerals wanted for the power transition.
However scientific assessments warn that such operations could trigger long-lasting harm to seafloor habitats, disrupt carbon cycles and threaten species we have now barely begun to check. Small-scale fishers, coastal communities and Indigenous peoples fear that the prices will probably be borne by these least chargeable for local weather change and least in a position to adapt.
In recent times, a broad coalition of states, scientists, civil society teams and youth actions has known 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 World South, it’s also a justice subject: the world can’t 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. Lately, 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 our SMSP and blue bonds.
Kenya has framed the 2026 convention below the theme “Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future”, with a give attention to jobs, fairness and wholesome oceans. This framing resonates throughout the World 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 international locations might push for 3 outcomes :
First, insist that BBNJ implementation be guided by fairness: sturdy funding for capacity-building and expertise switch, clear environmental assessments, and benefit-sharing that reaches frontline communities.
Second, unite behind a precautionary moratorium on deep-sea mining till unbiased science reveals it might proceed with out irreversible hurt and sturdy 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 help for youth, girls 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 chance, like coastal cities throughout the World South. Internet hosting Africa’s first Our Ocean Convention gives an opportunity to centre views of those that stay with the ocean day by day.
The check of Our Ocean 2026 will probably be whether or not it shifts energy in the direction of these most affected and dedicated to stewardship. For Africa, SIDS and the World South, Mombasa is a second to say: the ocean shouldn’t be 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 worldwide advocate for the blue economic system, ocean conservation and local weather resilience.
IPS UN Bureau
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