The Ocean Decade

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) (the Ocean Decade) recognizes the current ocean sustainability crisis and calls for transformative ocean science to move us from ‘the Science We Need’ to the ‘Ocean We Want’. The aim of the Ocean Decade is to catalyze ocean science solutions for sustainable development, connecting people and our ocean. 

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Why is BioActNet necessary?

Addressing the seven key challenges recognized by the Ocean Decade requires adaptable, coordinated, and participatory approaches that embrace multiple ways of knowing. It also requires that together we build a heightened sense of connection and stewardship to our shared waters.

Currently, across the Canada-US border, our collective ability to detect and understand the status and trends of marine biodiversity, and produce scenarios to guide more effective management and policy action, is hampered by a lack of transboundary coordination. Conservation management and policy requires data that are relevant, up-to-date, reliable, comparable among sites, and understandable.

To address the Ocean Decade challenges, and those closer to home, BioActNet received Ocean Decade project endorsement (2022-2030) and is focusing its efforts on clearly and effectively meeting ‘user needs’. What do we currently know and not know about marine biodiversity in the Northeast Pacific? What priority management questions need answers through co-designed and coordinated research? How do we more effectively share knowledge and data? What do communities need, to move them towards empowered ocean stewardship? What capacity-sharing will ensure long-term marine biodiversity sustainability? 

BioActNet is an endorsed project under the Ocean Decade program Marine Life 2030. Marine Life 2030 aims to establish a globally coordinated system that delivers knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation.

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Coordination and technical support for BioActNet is provided by the Ocean Decade Collaborative Center for the Northeast Pacific, a Tula Foundation contribution to the Ocean Decade. The Collaborative Center is working across the Northeast Pacific region to support and facilitate co-designed and co-produced knowledge for collaborative solutions to ocean challenges.

Learn More about the Ocean Decade Collaborative Center for the Northeast Pacific