2025 UN Ocean Conference
The third UN Ocean Conference, which took place in Nice from 9 – 13 June 2025, was co-hosted by the Governments of France and Costa Rica. The overarching theme of the Conference was “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”. Its aim was to support further and urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development and identify further ways and means to support the implementation of SDG 14, building on the previous UN Ocean Conferences (2017 and 2022). A number of official special events were held alongside UNOC3, including the first One Ocean Science Congress, organised by Ifremer and CNRS.
OOSC was attended by 2,150 delegates from 113 countries. It provided an opportunity to showcase OBON activities, with an oral presentation delivered by OBON Chair, Margaret Leinen (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA), as part of session T3-6 “Marine Biodiversity Observation and Monitoring”.
Margaret Leinen also participated in a POGO Town Hall, focusing more broadly on the need for sustained, long-term funding for ocean observations in support of global policy frameworks. On the first day of the congress, POGO issued a Statement entitled “No Data, No Action”, which garnered over 50 signatures from members and partner organisations, including OBON. The Statement was also referenced in POGO’s intervention in the UNOC Plenary session – sharing POGO’s global call for urgent, sustained investment in ocean observations.
Margaret Leinen and Sophie Seeyave discussed OBON with various colleagues and stakeholders, taking the opportunity to hold a side-meeting with colleagues from the Cawthron Institute (New Zealand), which is leading the “Citizens of the Sea” eDNA programme.
UNOC was very well attended, with 55 Heads of State and Government, along with 15,000 participants from civil society, business, and science. There were at least 450 side events. At its closing, more than 170 countries adopted an intergovernmentally agreed political declaration committing to urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the ocean, entitled Our ocean, our future: united for urgent action.
Sophie Seeyave spoke about OBON at the “Ocean Omics Partner Showcase and Reception”, hosted by Fortescue, the Minderoo Foundation, and Tattarang, on board the Fortescue Green Pioneer in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
She gave an overview of OBON’s goals, and spoke about the Minderoo Foundation and OceanX-sponsored workshop on “Leveraging Biomolecular Technologies for Supporting Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture”, which will be hosted by FAO in Rome in Sept 2025.
The Minderoo Foundation and IOC-UNESCO also held a side-event to launch a new project, “eDNA Expeditions Phase 2”, which is led by IOC-UNESCO, supported by Minderoo in collaboration with Wilderlab, and powered by the Ocean Biodiversity Information System. Phase 1 of the project was a UN Ocean Decade-endorsed project under OBON, and Phase 2 will continue the efforts from Phase 1 to establish long-term, operational biodiversity monitoring across global sites, generating high-quality data to inform marine decision-makers.
