STATEMENT BY THE ITALIAN MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, LAND AND SEA, HON. ANDREA ORLANDO,TO THE HIGH-LEVEL EVENT “HEALTHY OCEANS AND SEAS: A WAY FORWARD” ON THE OCCASION OF THE EIGHTH SESSION OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (February 4, 2014)

President of Palau, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen

I feel privileged to participating in this meeting which I consider a most fitting conclusion to a year-long discussion on all the issues that are of vital importance not only for the development of all peoples and nations on Earth, but also for the survival of the way of life that we cherish and wish to bequeath on future generations. We are in fact discussing one of the most important drivers of global wellbeing.

We know that healthy oceans and seas are the guardians of the Earth climate; we know that the oceans and seas are providers of food and work opportunities for millions of people; we also know that human activities both on land and on the seas are threatening the capacity of the oceans and seas as providers, as well as healers of damages already done to the Earth atmosphere. What we must know now is how best we can preserve and maintain the health of the oceans and seas in the face of the permanence of food, energy and poverty crisis. We must be able to mobilize the creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity of the world to prove the poet, the one who said that “even the sea dies” , wrong.

Through the millennia Italy has learned to develop a wholesome relationship with its many seas; this relationship however has started to show fissures and faults in the last century due to many threats that have been brought about by excessive and unsustainable anthropogenic activities. Italy shares its seas with many other countries – the Mediterranean countries, and with these countries Italy has learned, as Ambassador Cardi has said, that cooperation and partnership are vital to addressing a common challenge and tackling a common threat. The Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean has established, almost 40 years ago, what must be done to preserve the capacity of the Mediterranean sea to continue being the custodian of Mediterranean climate and ecosystems.  

Italy, being aware of its preeminent role in the Mediterranean region, is fully committed to ensure that the Barcelona Convention, that encompass all the coastal States of the Mediterranean Sea, will continue to pursue its main goal to achieve the protection of the marine and coastal environment of the Mediterranean, thus contributing to a sustainable development, poverty reduction and a peaceful and stable cooperation among all the Mediterranean countries. This task is particularly essential in the current period, where financial crisis and political and social instability require a particular committment and responsability to both preserve the environment of our common sea and give support to the countries that are facing difficulties.

Italy is convinced and that this two common goals should be achieved by identifying and implement common priority actions and projects for the protection of the marine and coastal environment of the Mediterranean Sea and to strengthen capacity building and technological competence toward countries in need, also through the full collaboration with all the other regional organizations, in particular the European Union and the Union for the Mediterranean, ensuring a strong north-south and west-east cooperation.

Italy has also put this experience at the disposal of other countries that share similar challenges and face common threats, namely, the Caribbean countries and the SIDS of the Pacific. We are very proud of the partnership that Italy established with the SIDS well before the word “partnership” became so popular among development experts, and one of the themes for the Third International Conference on SIDS. The success of our cooperation with SIDS is due to the fact that our collaboration is nothing else but a genuine partnership in the spirit of the Eighth Millennium Development Goal. We have achieved so much together. The threat to healthy oceans and seas however is enormous and much remains to be done, not only by us – Italy and the SIDS together, but by all of us on the planet, together.

Italy will do its part: our tradition of staunchly contributing to the highest endeavours of recent years – the Rio + 20 Conference,  the Rio + 20 follow-up SDGs discussion,  and the establishment of the HLPF – will continue. In a few months Italy will proudly assume the EU presidency, during which time a number of historic events will take place. The HLPF will start its substantial work, and Italy will spear no effort to ensure that the HLPF becomes the vital instrument for progress that the new Development Agenda will need. The Samoa Conference will challenge all of us into better and more effective cooperation patterns with the SIDS – and Italy will do its part in disseminating its success stories. The SG Climate Summit will offer the opportunity to renew the collective impetus towards finding binding solutions to the common and alarming threat, and Italy is keen to contributing to the shaping of the consensus.

But most importantly, this fall we will begin our collective iter towards the new development  Agenda of the decades ahead; Italy will be ready to foster a shared vision towards global well being, social equality and respect for the planet. Italy will support, defend and help realize all the global commitments that the discussion ending this week will generate, and in particular any commitment that the meeting today may help to forge for meeting the challenge of preserving the health of oceans and seas.

Thank you.