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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
The Hon. Fred Mitchell (left), Bahamas Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, is pictured with His Excellency Mr. Mohammed Bin Abdullah Bin Mutib Al Rumaihi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar at the 2016 Our Ocean conference currently being hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department. Mr. Mitchell is scheduled to address the conference at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Hon. Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, and the Hon. Kenred Dorsett, Minister of the Environment and Housing, are among the participants in the 2016 Our Ocean conference being hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department here in Washington, D.C., September 15 to 16.
The two-day conference focuses on the key ocean issues of our time – marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, and climate-related impacts on the ocean – and has attracted some 450 participants, including foreign ministers, environment and fisheries ministers, and other established and up-and-coming ocean leaders in government, science, industry, and civil society.
Minister Mitchell is scheduled to address the conference on Thursday at 4 p.m. as a member of the Global Leadership Panel, which will also include His Excellency Peter M. Christian, President of the Federated States of Micronesia; Her Excellency Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius; Her Excellency Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Panama; His Excellency Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka; and Her Excellency Beatrice Atallah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Madagascar.
The conference was opened by Secretary of State Kerry, who then welcomed President Barack Obama to deliver the keynote address. During his address, President Obama announced the designation of the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, protecting fragile deep-sea ecosystems off the coast of New England as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
"If we are to leave our children with the oceans like the ones that were left to us, then we will have to act and we're going to have to act boldly,” President Obama declared. “This is why the pledges and partnerships from all of you at the Our Oceans Conference is so vital."
Secretary Kerry noted in a previous statement that the "ocean conference this week will announce more than 120 significant ocean conservation projects, including almost $2 Billion in new pledges and commitments to protect more than two million square kilometers in new or expanded marine protected areas."
The overarching objective of the conference is “to inspire and empower a new generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, and civil society to identify solutions and commit to actions to protect and conserve our ocean and its resources,” according to the Our Ocean Conference website. “As with the previous Our Ocean conferences, the 2016 conference will be a visually engaging, inspiring, and interactive event with an unwavering emphasis on commitments for action by participants and other stakeholders around the globe.”
The Hon. Kenred Dorsett (right), Bahamas Minister of the Environment and Housing, engaged in discussion with another participant in the 2016 Our Ocean conference currently being hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department.
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The website noted that the Our Ocean conferences in Washington in 2014 and Chile in 2015 “created a tremendous wave of commitments on marine conservation, measured in billions of dollars and millions of square kilometers of the ocean protected – about twice the size of India.”
“With their focus on high level engagement, partnership, and action, these conferences set a new standard for success, while complementing other international efforts addressing threats to our ocean such as the ocean sustainable development goal,” this website said. “Implementation of the commitments made at the previous Our Ocean conferences will be the true test of their legacy.”
The website added that the hallmark of the 2016 Our Ocean conference “will again be new commitments for significant and meaningful action to protect the ocean – along with announcements on successful implementation of previous Our Ocean commitments – with a particular focus on the role of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in ocean conservation and sustainable use.”
The Hon. Fred Mitchell (right), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, and the Hon. Kenred Dorsett (left), Minister of the Environment and Housing, are pictured with Mr. Eric Carey, Executive Director of The Bahamas National Trust,
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