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Ocean Champions for Healthy Oceans
Even though the world's oceans cover two thirds of the surface of our planet, they rarely get the attention they deserve. Perhaps we take the oceans and the services they provide us for granted because we - literally speaking - can't see what is going on under the surface? In my view, it is high time we placed healthy and productive oceans higher up the global agenda.

The world's oceans produce half of the oxygen we breathe, and they absorb about one third of our CO2 emissions. They are a source of food and they provide us with employment, energy and transport opportunities. Given that the world's population is expected to grow by two billon people over the next 30 years, the future share of food and other resources coming from the oceans will have to increase substantially to meet growing demand.

The world's oceans are of crucial importance for mankind, and yet they are under threat due to human activities. The current state of our oceans gives cause for great concern: three out of ten of the world's commercial fish stocks are overexploited and marine ecosystems are under severe pressure from global warming, ocean acidification and pollution.

This means that we are facing a double challenge. We have to halt the degradation of the world's marine ecosystems at the same time as we increase ocean productivity. Last year, world leaders agreed on a plan to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. Ensuring healthy and productive oceans is essential if we are to reach the sustainable development goals.

For this reason, I have accepted Secretary Kerry's invitation to become an ocean champion. I will use the Our Ocean Conference and other international arenas where I take part to promote sustainable use of ocean resources. You will hear me repeating the message that we must manage our oceans wisely, and that we must find a balance between sustainable use and conservation of living marine resources.

Now, there is nothing strange about a foreign minister from Norway being an advocate for healthy and productive oceans. The oceans have shaped Norway's development and they are part of the identity of most Norwegians. More than two thirds of the value of Norwegian exports come from ocean-related activities, and Norway's economy shows that sustainable ocean management can provide a strong platform for stable economic growth. I firmly believe that ensuring healthy and productive oceans is in my country's as well as in the global interest.

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©AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool

One of my biggest concerns is the impact of climate change on the marine environment. We have all heard how densely populated coastal areas, including coastal megacities and key agricultural regions, are being threatened by sea level rise. In the Arctic, glaciers are retreating and sea ice is melting at a record pace. But under the surface, invisible to the human eye, equally dramatic changes are taking place. Warmer water and ocean acidification are posing a silent threat to entire ecosystems.

In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that global climate change will alter ocean productivity and cause shifts in the distribution of marine species. We can expect to see invasions of new species at high latitudes and high rates of extinction in the tropics and in semi-enclosed seas. In addition, research shows that the absorption of huge amounts of CO2 by the oceans inhibits shell growth and may cause reproductive disorders in a range of marine animals. The environmental and economic consequences of this could be devastating.

Fortunately, with the Paris Agreement, we now have a global agreement in place for reducing CO2 emissions. Implementation of the Paris Agreement will be crucial for safeguarding the world's oceans.

The world's oceans are interdependent. Fish stocks know no borders and marine pollution travels long distances. Actors involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are part of international criminal networks that steal from our common resources. In other words: sustainable use of the oceans requires enhanced international cooperation and the implementation of common rules.

The world needs more ocean champions who are committed to sustainable ocean management. If we join forces, we will stand a far better chance of safeguarding our oceans for future generations.

Let's place the issue of healthy and productive oceans where it belongs - at the top of the global agenda. After all, it is the very life support system of our planet that is at stake.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Climate Action in Support of a Sustainable World

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Children fetch water during flooding in 2008 in Aweil, Sudan. UN Photo/Tim McKulka

There is only one possible future for humanity and that is a sustainable one. In 2015, the global community converged on this integrated vision for the future and set in motion the pathways to an economic and social transformation to achieve it.

The vision is articulated through the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The unity of purpose reflected in these momentous agreements will now need to leverage unprecedented scale and depth of universal action involving all actors at all levels in all regions of the world. The challenges will be enormous but the rewards of success will be even greater.

The plan requires a profound structural transformation that places at its very heart low-carbon economies and societies which are resilient to climate change.

Over the next 15 years, the objectives of these agreements - linking climate, sustainability and resilience - must see unprecedented reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions and unequalled efforts to build societies that can resist rising climate impacts.

The current rate of progress will not deliver success.

A priority requirement is a much more rapid and fundamental shift in the global patterns and incentives of investment away from unsustainable power generation, infrastructure, pollution and waste.

All action to address climate change is an inseparable and integrated part of the whole plan and the leadership and commitment of all governments remains central to success.

Climate action contributes directly to the greater human well-being that is captured in the seventeen sustainable development goals. It protect lives and livelihoods, improves public health, creates new industries and sustainable farming, cuts costs for governments, business and citizens and opens up new avenues of profitable investing.

Climate action is also absolutely necessary to avoid the existential crises that unchecked climate change would present to humanity.

Greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise in the atmosphere and global temperatures break record highs by the month.

To limit global warming to well below 2°C and as close to 1.5°C as possible to prevent dangerous tipping points in the climate system, global emissions must peak soon and be driven down drastically thereafter. A balance must be achieved in the second half of this century between global emissions and removals through sequestration into ecosystems or through other means.

The generations alive right now are at a unique crossroads. We are the first who can end poverty but the last who can act to avoid the dangerous climate change that could undermine the universal well-being that lies within our grasp.

Government Leadership a Foundation of Future Success

Success will undoubtedly require political leadership and momentum from the highest levels, but supported by a clearly presented and growing public understanding of the enormous social, health and economic benefits that will accrue to citizens everywhere.

Technology developments and smart finance are moving ever more rapidly towards theses transformational goals, but nowhere near fast enough.

The power to shift all this into higher gear still rests firmly with governments, both individually and collectively. Key to the transformation will be the way national governments integrate climate action and implementation of the sustainable development and risk management goals across sectors and ministries.

More climate-friendly, coordinated laws, policies and incentives are needed. All forms of unequal treatment favoring old growth and development models based on fossil fuels and high-carbon lifestyles and aspirations must be removed soon.

But while the transformation demands new technologies and redirected investment, it does not require an entirely new way of human inter-action only closer and deeper cooperation between the levers of change - namely governments working hand in glove with cities, regions, business and investors.

Meanwhile, the well understood economic incentives of risk and return and social goals of equity and justice remain completely relevant and deployable in the race to a low-carbon, resilient future.

Opening up the private sector appetite to fund the transformation directly is essential. Tens of trillions of dollars sit in banks and on corporate balance sheets at low, zero, even negative interest rates looking for bankable projects with real returns if the right incentives, sureties and certainties are provided by national governments, supported by the international community and its multilateral lenders.

Paris Climate Plans and Support Structures Offer Platform to Faster Progress

One of the most significant outcomes of Paris was that governments publicly accepted responsibility to lead climate action.

They presented a global set of national plans to take immediate action, pledging never to lower efforts over time and, whenever possible, to raise ambition.

They agreed to complete in good time the details of a transparent global regime which will account for, review and underpin greater action by all sides.

And they agreed to complete but also to strengthen adequate technology and financial support to nations, including the poorest and most vulnerable, so all countries can build their own clean energy, sustainable futures.

Because well-planned and supported climate action in its many forms almost always speeds up advances in sustainability and resilience, these plans have a multiplier effect for faster progress across the board.

To reach its full potential, governments will now engineer the ambitious design of the Paris Agreement into a well-oiled machine of these fully functioning working parts capable of accelerating climate action to meet the agreement's stated aims and goals.

Essential for International Institutions to Focus and Prioritize

Meanwhile, continued success under the UN climate regime will both strengthen and be strengthened by the other country-level initiatives across the global development, environmental, disaster risk, human rights and peace agendas.

Without decisive climate action all these other goals will be difficult if not impossible to achieve, but without serious and significant progress on development, environment disaster management, human rights and peace, combating climate change and building resilience will become harder and less certain.

This unified development agenda is therefore the core agenda for governments under the United Nations and the prime focus for UN agencies and other multilateral institutions which assist. No single process or agency can possibly adopt, or try to adopt, all aspects of the solution under its wing.

Leadership responsibility for different aspects of progress will be coordinated by those organizations best placed in resources and skills to effect change. Credit for progress will flow to the entire organization rather than to its individual parts.

The Will and Knowledge to Succeed

Achieving the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement are not a given. The world needs to understand the urgency and complexity of what the international community has embarked upon.

This is a multi-decadal effort to turn around two centuries of development based on fossil fuels and the mining of nature-based resources into an all-embracing sustainable path for every nation, man, woman and child.

But I am confident that world leaders and the enormous groundswell of support from cities, companies, investors and citizens can propel ambition further and faster in support of our shared vision of a climate-secure and sustainable future.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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A Movement to Understand Our Changing Ocean - Building Capacity in Africa to Monitor Ocean Acidification
The waves were strong that Saturday in Mauritius. Our small group of scientists was snorkeling out past the placid, turquoise waters of the coral-protected lagoon.

We had just wrapped up a week-long training workshop under the OceAn pH Research Integration and Collaboration in Africa (ApHRICA) Program. Eighteen scientists from nine countries had received classroom, lab, and field training in how to study and monitor ocean acidification and its effects.

Now, seven of us were being pushed about by these great ocean waves, looking down at the marvelous reef beneath us. The reef fish were being pushed too! The whole school of tropical reef fish slid back and forth with the ebb and flow of the waves.

As our bodies and the hundreds of fish moved in sync with the waves, I realized, "We're all in this together. We are all on this ride together."

When it comes to ocean acidification we truly are all in this together. Water knows no boundaries. Chemistry plays by its own set of rules. The ocean is becoming increasingly acidic as carbon dioxide we emit from burning fossil fuel dissolves into the ocean.

Ten years of expansion of the ocean acidification field and yet, there are entire regions where there is no scientific assessment of local ocean chemistry or how local species are being affected by these changes. In these regions, few, if any, scientists have received training in the theory and protocols for studying ocean acidification. This leaves coastal communities around the world with no way to understand or respond to the very real threat of ocean acidification.

In 2013, groups came together to address this problem: The XPRIZE Foundation launched the $2 million Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE to incentivize the development of a cost-effective and accurate ocean pH sensor. The U.S. Department of State highlighted ocean acidification at the first Our Ocean conference in 2014. The Ocean Foundation committed to raising $1 million for the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), to build capacity in regions with little or no data.

Through the ApHRICA program, we are trying to address a big information gap: Africa. The July workshop included attendees from Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa funded under the ApHRICA program, and attendees from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Algeria and Egypt funded by the International Atomic Energy Association's Ocean Acidification International Coordination Center (IAEA OA-ICC).

Participants watched James Beck, CEO of Sunburst Sensors, take apart and walk through the ins and outs of the XPRIZE winning iSAMI sensor. World famous ocean chemist Dr. Andrew Dickson, of Scripps Oceanographic Institute, demonstrated the precision needed to measure the carbonate chemistry of a water sample. And students got their hands wet with ocean acidification pioneering biologist Dr. Sam Dupont, of The University of Gothenburg, as he demonstrated how to set up laboratory experiments to study the biological effects.

Participants also saw the first ever deployment of the iSAMI sensor in African waters. A prototype iSAMI has been left for collaborative use by The University of Mauritius, the Mauritius Oceanographic Institute, and the Mauritius Ministry of Environment.

Over the next six months, Sunburst will finalize the development of the iSAMI. International ocean acidification experts will include the iSAMI in the first ever complete kit for ocean acidification monitoring and lab study. Four of these kits will be deployed by The Ocean Foundation to the ApHRICA countries: Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and South Africa.

The ApHRICA program is part of a larger effort: The workshop in Mauritius was the third in a series to build capacity in Africa, following a 2015 workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, and one held earlier this year in Mozambique. These workshop have built the foundation for a regional ocean acidification observing network, which allows African scientists to collaborate and build a self-sufficient research and training network that meets their region's needs.

We're all in this together. Despite this success in Africa, there is much more to do across the globe. The Ocean Foundation is committed to raising awareness and funds until there are no gaps in the GOA-ON, and strong, regional networks around the world can equip communities with what they need to address ocean acidification. Because when we are all in this together, we all have to work together.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The European Union Steps Up Commitments As Ocean Champion
More than ever before, we understand the many ways in which oceans shape our lives: as a source of food, jobs, medicine, energy, comfort - right to the very air we breathe.

Yet if anything, the threats to our oceans have grown. Climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, pollution - these pressures know no borders, and they are expected to increase. Our previous indifference has come back to haunt us. Now the world needs to act, together, to nurse our oceans back to health.

That is why a vast coalition of ocean champions is coming together in Washington this week, for the third edition of the Our Ocean conference.

Set up by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, these conferences allow us to share ideas and experiences, to find out what is working and where more needs to be done.

But what makes them stand out is their focus on concrete commitments for action. Delegates are expected to set out how they plan to make our oceans healthier - and, crucially, report back on their progress.

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In the European Union, I am proud to say we are well on track. We are making good progress to achieve good environmental status of our waters by 2020. We are halfway to our goal of setting aside 10 percent of our oceans and seas as marine protected areas by 2020. And we are on target to have maritime spatial planning for all EU waters by 2021.

The European Union is also delivering on its commitment to make global fishing more sustainable: in the last 12 months, we have tightened rules for EU fishing vessels above 15 metres, proposed rules to better monitor and control our fishing fleet, and continued to use a budget of 675 million euros - roughly 760 million dollars - to help countries in Africa and Asia fight illegal fishing and develop sustainable fisheries of their own.

But we can do more.

First, we want to share our experiences - and learn from others in return. So we are launching a transatlantic "twinning" project on marine protected areas with countries in Africa, North and South America. Next year, we will co-organise an international conference to work on global guidance on maritime spatial planning.

Second, we want to step up our fight against marine pollution. In December, we proposed ambitious waste targets that address marine litter "upstream", to prevent our waste from even reaching the ocean. The next step is to present a targeted strategy on plastics by 2017, to keep plastic and microplastics from contaminating the marine and coastal environment.

Third, we want to boost ocean research and knowledge. We have more than doubled our initial commitment, setting aside 250 million euros or 280 million dollars until 2020. We are also looking to strengthen scientific cooperation with our transatlantic partners: in spring next year, we will launch a science action plan for the south Atlantic, complementing our excellent cooperation with the United States and Canada.

Finally, we want to ensure a more sustainable use of the oceans and their resources around the globe. This means continuing our fight against illegal fishing, boosting regional fisheries bodies, closing legal gaps, cooperating more effectively, strengthening enforcement - in short, better ocean governance. I intend to launch a major initiative on international ocean governance before the end of the year.

The Our Ocean conferences have created momentum for change. Now we need to keep that momentum. In this spirit, I am proud that the European Union will be hosting the fourth edition of the Our Ocean conference on 5-6 October in Malta next year. In the spirit of Washington and Chile, it will seek new concrete initiatives from around the globe while following up on previously made commitments.

I am also looking forward to engaging more with a sustainable blue business and finance community. Next year in Malta, I would like to hear success stories of investments in the blue economy that helped preserve or restore the marine environment while creating jobs and growth for coastal communities. Let's share some best practices and hear some commitments from the private sector.

The oceans are our common opportunity and our common responsibility. Let's all take good care of them.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Secretary of State John Kerry's Our Oceanconference and Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the Our Ocean Conference (September 15th, 16th) as part of HuffPost's What's Working initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here. The State Department does not endorse the content of this blog. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #OurOcean #MakeASplash.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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When it Comes to Natural Capital, it's Easy to Forget that We're on the Same Team

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This article has been submitted as part of the Natural Capital Coalition's series of blogs on natural capital by Mark Gough, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition

We often feel safer when we're surrounded by people with complementary views. In few places is this more obvious than at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, where 10,000 passionate and dedicated individuals come together to rally around the conservation of the natural world.

The event takes place every four years, and allows the IUCN, and the conservation community at large, to build consensus about the direction that conservation should take. As you may imagine, there are many different views as to what should and should not be done, and some fierce debate.

At this year's Congress, the Guardian described a resolution to end the domestic trade in ivory as 'descending into acrimony' as delegates and national representatives fought over the what they believed to be the most effective methods of protecting native elephants populations.

To many, it may appear commonsensical that the legal ivory trade must be immediately abandoned. A recent report detailing that nearly a third of African savannah Elephants have been wiped out between 2007 and 2014 and an understanding of Elephants as ecosystem engineers, may only strengthen this resolve.

However, an awareness that the closure of legal markets will serve to significantly increase global ivory prices, and may subsequently encourage and embolden poachers - many of whom are desperately poor - may give some reason to take pause.

As with any global challenge, conservation is vastly complex, and answers that may appear clear in one light suddenly become opaque when taken in the context of geo-political issues such as poverty, climate change, and globalization.

Based in Hawaii, this year's Congress sat at a mid-point between the East and the West, (and to some degree, between the North and the South), making it an appropriate venue for a global meeting. The beautiful setting, and its rich biodiversity, serve to remind delegates what's at stake.

I attended this year's Congress to help launch the Natural Capital Protocol to the conservation community. Although the Protocol is aimed predominantly at businesses, it will only be successful if all of nature's stakeholders support it, and the conservation community are a vital piece of this puzzle. Indeed, 35 conservation organizations are part of the Coalition, including the IUCN, Conservation International and the WWF; all three of whom were involved in the Protocol's development process.

While the natural capital movement has progressed significantly over the last couple of years, it was clear at Congress that there are many who still reject the concept. For some, natural capital approaches are not only an ineffective method of protecting nature and the natural environment, but they actually serve to hasten their demise. This is a narrative reflected by some in the media, most recently in a widely shared article from the Conversation, and most famously by British writer George Monbiot.

Much of this distrust stems from the use of the term we have coined for this work, 'capital' and the connections this has to 'capitalism'. More still stems from the suggestion that such approaches split nature into neat little packages, and place isolated monetary 'prices' on each, leaving them open to commodification and privatisation.

The suggestion that we 'put a price on nature', is one I am often confronted with. While these concerns are well-intentioned, I believe the charge is a category error. We don't price nature, we illuminate the value that we already receive from it.

This is a vital distinction. Price and value are not one and the same. You don't pay a price for the air that you breathe, but does that mean that it holds no value? In this way, we can also communicate the value of clean air, without assigning it a price. This is the aim of natural capital in a nutshell.

Translating this value into monetary terms can certainly be very useful. Financial values are understood near-universally, and allow businesses and governments to make decisions using comparable sets of information. However, monetary valuations are one small element in natural capital, qualified or quantified information is often enough to inform our decisions.

It's important to remember that even when monetary values are used, this valuation is not a 'price' for which the natural capital can be 'bought', nor is it 'commodifying nature'. Rather, it is demonstrating the value that we already receive from the natural world, in ways that allow it to be incorporated into traditional decision making frameworks, leading to better outcomes for all.

If a 'price' is used at all, it often reflects the cost of doing nothing. Valuing clean air for instance, does not involve assigning a dollar value to each particle of unpolluted oxygen. It might however value clean air in terms of the financial costs associated with air pollution. If 9,500 people in London die each year from dirty air, the value of clean air should be calculated, (in part), in terms of the financial cost to the NHS. Again, this is not 'pricing nature', but highlighting our dependence on its systems in terms we can all understand.

Of course, these values cannot reflect the true and total intrinsic value of the natural world, this is something that cannot be expressed in words, let alone numbers. What they can do however, is to make one dimension of nature - the dependence on it for successful human societies - discernible to decision makers. Once our dependencies on the natural world are understood in this way, even in the absence of ethical arguments about the innate value of the natural world, the argument for conservation in fantastically strong.

It's also important to remember that it's not the 'separate units' of natural capital that are valued, but the services that they collectively provide. So in natural capital, we don't value an individual bee, or a bee hive, or a collection of bee hives, we value the service of pollination. This works to take ecological complexity into account, by valuing all pollinating insects, their habitats, and the ecosystems (i.e. the other organisms, habitats and phenomena) that allow the pollinating insects to flourish.

I spent a lot of my time at the Congress listening to the concerns of people working on the front line of conservation. We had discussions around the risks of providing numbers for things that are innately priceless, and the need for businesses to fundamentally change their models of working.

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It became obvious as we talked through practical examples, that both those applying natural capital approaches, and those challenging them, share, for the most part, largely identical concerns. Although there are challenges, there are also many great opportunities to finally work together across the system, with the goal of conserving and enhancing our natural world.

I came away contemplating an article which argues that (somewhat paradoxically), in this dispute at least, it's possible to be on both sides of the debate.

The author caricatures the debate as it is often seen: as an argument between 'Idealistic Dreamers' & 'Neoliberal Pragmatists'. As he then outlines, this depiction is a fiction.

Proponents from either side of the discussion rarely, if ever, magnetise to one or the other of these poles. Rather, our beliefs, ideals and concerns are often much closer than we think, and this leaves the door open for honest dialogue.

As with many situations in life, the answer to conflict is to sit down, look each other in the eye, and be honest about our fears and aspirations. Often our fears are unfounded, or we come away with different perspectives and understandings. Good communication is probably the best tool we have to address the challenges we face in the world.

As well as being an opportunity for the conservation community to meet and share experiences and solutions, the Congress also provides an opportunity for IUCN members to agree their future mandate.

Last weekend a motion was passed that requires the IUCN Director General to 'establish with urgency an inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral working group' on natural capital, which will 'explore the conceptual and ethical underpinnings of natural capital approaches and related policies'.

This is a significant step forward for us all, as it formalises the role that the conservation community can play in this work, and will allow them to bring their expertise and concerns into the fold, providing a space for challenges to be addressed, and new partnerships to be formed.

The most astounding thing for me though, was how much support this motion gained. 98% of member governments and 96% of the Non-Governmental Organizations voted in favour.

Quoting a poster I saw in a café in Hawaii, 'The wave is coming. Either drown, or pick up your surf board'.

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Disclaimer: Articles in this series are submitted by people who work in organizations who are part of the Natural Capital Coalition, or people who are involved in the natural capital space more generally, the views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of The Natural Capital Coalition, other Coalition organizations, or the organization that employs the author.

Mark Gough is the Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition.

Follow Mark Gough on Twitter: @Mark_Gough

On 13th July 2016, The Natural Capital Coalition launched a standardized framework for business to identify, measure and value their impacts and dependencies on natural capital. This ' Natural Capital Protocol' has been developed through a unique collaborative process; a World Business Council for Sustainable Development consortium led on the technical development and an IUCN consortium led on business engagement and piloting. The Protocol is supported by practically focused 'Sector Guides' on Apparel and Food & Beverage produced by Trucost on behalf of Coalition.

Keep up to date with the Natural Capital Coalition on Twitter: @NatCapCoalition

Keep up to date with our series on natural capital here.

www.naturalcapitalcoalition.org

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The European Union Steps Up Commitments As Ocean Champion
More than ever before, we understand the many ways in which oceans shape our lives: as a source of food, jobs, medicine, energy, comfort - right to the very air we breathe.

Yet if anything, the threats to our oceans have grown. Climate change, ocean acidification, overfishing, pollution - these pressures know no borders, and they are expected to increase. Our previous indifference has come back to haunt us. Now the world needs to act, together, to nurse our oceans back to health.

That is why a vast coalition of ocean champions is coming together in Washington this week, for the third edition of the Our Ocean conference.

Set up by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, these conferences allow us to share ideas and experiences, to find out what is working and where more needs to be done.

But what makes them stand out is their focus on concrete commitments for action. Delegates are expected to set out how they plan to make our oceans healthier - and, crucially, report back on their progress.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The day we collared Tim, the great tusker

Paula Kahumbu: The latest satellite tracking technology is helping to keep elephants safe from poachers— and away from farmers' crops

On a beautiful sunny day in Amboseli National Park, against the backdrop of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, a small group of cars was gathered at a safe distance around the prostrate bull elephant. The elephant lay still in the dust, head on the ground, his enormous tusks and trunk stretched out in front of him. Tension rose among the onlookers as the minutes passed.

Then the huge elephant flapped his ear, got up gently, shook his head vigorously in a vain attempt to dislodge the strange object around his neck, and walked off. We all breathed a sigh of relief. The operation to attach a tracking collar to Tim had gone perfectly.

It is 4.50 pm and the sun is gleaming on his ivory. An audible “aaaaaahhh” emanates from all of us. Tim is truly spectacular. Then Tim notices us and turns. It is as if he is hiding that which we find so beautiful, which too many Chinese are addicted to, and which translates to dollar signs for greedy poachers.

We sit quietly contemplating the giant Tim. I am acutely aware that it is very strange for this elephant I know so well to be so shy. He is usually proud and confident, and loves attention and cameras. And then the bombshell, as we see the sore his left flank, where blood and white clumps of puss are oozing out. This is why Tim is acting so strangely. He is in great pain.

This was my first witness of a collaring of an elephant and I must say that it was an amazing experience. However, there were concerns, because of his age whether he would be able to resuscitate after we put him down but as you can see he is up and gone and it's been very successful.

Today is a joyful day and I am excited and thank God for getting the opportunity to be this up close with an elephant. We care for them from a distance but today on behalf of Oltome Nadupo [the company name means ‘successful elephant' in the Maasai language], we have been fortunate to be involved in the collaring exercise.”

It is now easy for communities to identify Tim and I expect that we will be forewarned of Tim's whereabouts and be trained in how the app and collar works. We value elephants just as much as we value our cows and, in our tradition long ago, elephants were considered women's cows.

I'm just so happy that it turned out so well because there were a few people who said that it was dangerous. For us in Big Life the main thing now is that we've got an extra tool to monitor Tim and address human wildlife conflict in a more advanced and technological way.

To collar a majestic wild animal so that he can live out his life in peace and safety is an unnatural act. To build fences where farms have been allowed to encroach on historic migration paths in order to protect the lives of both settlers and animals—those, too, are unnatural acts. But if that's what it takes to protect our wildlife, I support and encourage all of it.

Human population growth along with wholesale abuse of the environment have put us at war with wildlife. And it is a war that, if humanity isn't careful, we will win. But it will be a tragic and Pyrrhic victory of epic proportion. Very simply, I worry that a world without animals will be a world we won't want to—or be able to—live in. The last stop on the road to our own extinction.

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