Japan’s National Ocean Day is a timely reminder of the challenges many countries around the world face in supporting and reviving their ocean economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI-SPF), The Nippon Foundation, and the Economist Group will jointly organize a series of three webinars entitled the “Blue Recovery Series.” The first webinar will be held on Thursday, July 23, 2020, on Japan’s National Ocean Day, from 17:0018:30 (JST), under the theme of “Ensuring a robust ‘blue’ recovery in Asia and the Pacific Promoting Blue Recovery from COVID-19 and Achieving a Sustainable Ocean.”
Tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, all important sectors in the region, have seen significant and in the case of tourism, precipitous declines in activity and widespread economic hardship. Reduced pressures on ocean ecosystems, on the other hand, have seen some natural recovery which in turn may help reinforce sustainable fisheries policies and pave the way for enhanced conservation measures, including for marine protected areas. The unexpected increase in the use of plastics during COVID-19 highlights the need for the urgent reduction of risks from marine plastics.
The first webinar in the series will explore what opportunities are offered by the economic pause to ignite a sustainable blue recovery and bolster policies for a sustainable ocean in Asia and the Pacific, and how practically these can be realized.