First High Level Pacific Blue Economy Conference (PBEC)

The largest place on the planet is in trouble. Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth’s surface, and ocean ecosystems generate at least US$ 21 trillion in economic benefits each year. But a perfect storm of massive challenges, from collapsing sheries to plastic pollution to ocean warming and ocean acidification, is threatening the integrity of marine ecosystems. These threats put at risk the essential benefits Pacific people receive from our healthy ocean: sustainable fisheries, coastal protection, carbon sequestration, and coastal economic activities including marine tourism and community livelihoods. We simply cannot survive — let alone prosper — if we do not reverse the destruction of the Pacific ocean’s natural capital. In order to provide transformative change and to turn these threats into opportunities, the PIDF Leaders approved for PIDF to organise the First High Level Pacific Blue Economy Conference (PBEC) on 23-24 August 2017. It will bring together Governments, Civil Society, Private Sector, regional organisations, development partners and the academia and will focus on the outcomes of the Ocean Conference on SDG 14. It will identify the opportunities the blue economy offers Pacific Islands in order to sustainably manage and conserve their ocean resources for the benefit of their economies and people. The Pacific Blue Economy Conference will be the lead up to the PIDF Biennial Conference – “Sustainable Oceans in a Changing Climate” to be held on 24 August 2017.