Protecting our Marine Crown Jewels: A Common Challenge

Jean-Michel Cousteau will join 43 Marine World Heritage site managers for a three-day conference in Honolulu, Hawaii December 1st-3rd.

There he will have the honor of delivering a key note presentation, “Protecting our Marine Crown Jewels: A Common Challenge” in which he will share his travels to many of our world’s most beautiful and ecologically important natural areas. He will highlight the role he and his Ocean Futures Society expedition team played in the designation of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) in 2006 after spending the summer on expedition filming a two-hour special for PBS, Voyage to Kure.

Today there are 43 exceptional places in the ocean included on the World Heritage List. Together they represent the ‘Crown Jewels of our Ocean’ for their outstanding beauty, exceptional biodiversity or unique ecological, biological or geological processes, and they are selected through rigorous nomination, evaluation and inscription process.

The goal of the conference is to bring together managers of these 43 sites and establish a productive exchange of success stories and management experiences to foster a stronger community of marine managers, scientists and conservationists. Many of these crown jewels are suffering multiple stresses, such as marine pollution, habitat destruction, illegal and unregulated fisheries, mineral extraction, and climate change.

Ultimately, a draft action plan will be written to address these threats and collectively navigate a new future for marine World Heritage sites world-wide. Ocean Futures Society is honored to be a part of this historical event and grateful to UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Program and NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries for organizing these three days of education and inspiration to protect our water planet.

From Honolulu, Jean-Michel will fly directly to Indonesia where he is the invited guest of WISDOM 2010 Conference on Science, Education and Culture/Colloquium at the Universitas Gadjah Mada where the theme is “Local Wisdom Inspiring Global Solutions”. He will address 750 Indonesian and international academics, scientists, senior government officials and political figures with his inspiring “Great Ocean Adventures” multi-media presentation.

Stay tuned to hear more about Jean-Michel Cousteau and Ocean Futures Society, and join us in making change, one speaking engagement at a time—one heart beat at a time—to protect our marine heritage both for our enjoyment and for future generations.

To learn more about Marine World Heritage site please:

• Visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/maarine-programme

Warm regards,