Session II: Watch now! OCM webinar series “Essential Tools for a Sustainable Ocean: Sustainable Ocean Planning & Management”

Background information

The Wider Caribbean's marine resources are vital to the region's biodiversity, climate resilience, economic development and human well-being. Yet progress toward sustainable ocean management has often been constrained by fragmented initiatives, overlapping mandates and limited coordination across national and regional institutions.

The Wider Caribbean Ocean Coordination Mechanism (OCM) was established to address this challenge.The OCM is a groundbreaking governance platform that provides a permanent, inclusive structure for aligning action, sharing knowledge, and optimizing the use of limited resources by enhancing coordination and collaboration across the region.

In preparation for the Our Oceans Conference (OOC) 2026 in Kenya, the OCM, together with regional and international partners, is convening a series of Wider Caribbean Ocean Webinars. These webinars will strengthen regional coordination, raise awareness of key ocean sustainability initiatives, and support governments in identifying and advancing new or strengthened commitments to be announced at the conference.

The OCM and Partners presented an overview of the “what, why and how” of Sustainable Ocean Planning and Management (SOPM/SOPs), and how this integrated national approach towards ocean sustainability can and must link to transboundary/regional-level ocean governance efforts.

The second session of this series of webinars started with opening remarks by Mr. Vidar Helgesen, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Mr Helgesen highlighted that: “the ocean faces a vast array of challenges. But for the nations in the Caribbean, and for the region as a whole, the ocean also presents unique opportunities that will go largely untapped if we don't apply a knowledge-driven planning approach to ocean management.This webinar is one of those actions, and I hope you'll have an instructive and productive session”.

Moderated by Mr. Patrick Debels, Director of the Secretariat of the Wider Caribbean Ocean Coordination Mechanism (OCM), the discussion then continued with additional remarks from Mr. Dale Webber, Ambassador Special Envoy for Climate Change and Environment, Oceans in the Blue Economy from Jamaica. Mr Webber explained that: “based on where Jamaica is, being archaeologic, a large body of water, in fact, our EEZ is 24 times larger than our land mass. Our marine spaces are around 16-17% protected. Our land spaces are about 25%, and the 30 by 30 gold is still there”.

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