The SOS Océan declaration, launched today in Paris, explicitly includes a reference to the Protection Principle—marking a major milestone just 70 days before the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice.
This powerful endorsement is part of an inspiring manifesto issued at the high-level SOS Océan conference hosted by President Emmanuel Macron. The event served as a curtain-raiser to the global UN Ocean Conference in June 2025 and calls to give consideration to making ocean protection the norm, not the exception—the core of the Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean initiative.
“We call for […] leaders of the maritime countries of the United Nations, who will be represented in Nice […] to listen to the messages of young generations concerned about a sustainable future; for example, the introduction of the Ocean ‘protection principle’, indicating that the protection of the Ocean should be the norm rather than an exception.”
This represents a significant and timely endorsement of the Protection Principle. We call for its inclusion in the forthcoming Nice Ocean Action Plan.
President Macron Outlines Eight Ocean Priorities
In his address at the SOS Océan Conference, President Emmanuel Macron highlighted eight priority areas to guide international ocean action in the lead-up to UNOC:
- High Seas Treaty (BBNJ): Accelerate ratification efforts—only 21 of the 60 ratifications required for entry into force have been achieved.
- Sustainable Fishing: End overfishing, enforce bans on destructive practices (e.g., electric and deep-sea fishing), and fight IUU fishing.
- 30×30 Target: Increase ocean protection from the current 8.5% toward at least 12–15% by UNOC2025.
- Shipping decarbonization by 2040, with investments in sustainable fuels and port electrification.
- Plastic Pollution: Address the crisis upstream; and launch a Mediterranean regional agreement at UNOC “when microplastics reach the sea, it is already too late”.
- Finance for a Regenerative Blue Economy: Mobilize public, private, and philanthropic investments.
- Local Climate Action: Partner with cities—500 mayors from coastal cities worldwide representing over 700 million people are expected in Nice.
- Defend Science: Protect scientific integrity, support a moratorium on deep-sea mining, and prioritize ocean exploration and knowledge before exploitation.
What if protecting the ocean became the rule, not the exception?
Our op-ed published in La Tribune du Dimanche on Sunday, 30 March 2023
“Et si la protection de l’océan devenait la règle, et non plus l’exception ?”
Read the full op-ed (in French)
In this piece, we call on governments to seize the historic opportunity of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice to enshrine the Protection Principle in the Nice Ocean Action Plan.
- Through LetsBeNicetotheOcean.org, supported by +100 organizations—including scientists, researchers, and artists—we advocate for a paradigm shift: ocean protection must become the norm, not the exception.
- The Protection Principle reverses the burden of proof: it is no longer up to civil society, scientists, or States to prove harm, but up to those seeking to exploit the ocean to prove no harm will be done to marine ecosystems and life.
- Grounded in existing international legal frameworks, the proposal will be brought to Nice by civil society, legal experts, and the cultural sector to take this ambition beyond insider circles.
In a time of multiple multilateral crises, we must raise—not lower—the level of political ambition. Let’s prove that global cooperation can deliver for the ocean that sustains all life on Earth.
This op-ed was co-authored by:
Rémi Parmentier (The Varda Group, Coordinator of Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean), with our partners:
Romain Troublé & André Abreu (Fondation Tara Océan)
Loreley Picourt (Ocean & Climate Platform)
Dona Bertarelli (Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy)
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza (TBA21)
Renaud Dupuy de la Grandrive (MedPAN)
