Thank you.
At the Immersed in Change Conference held in Costa Rica in June 2024 — exactly one year before the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France — the Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean initiative became a movement. In the lead-up to the 3rd UN Ocean Conference, 110 entities have joined as associated stakeholders, in support for the Protection Principle — making ocean protection the norm, not the exception.
Launched in November 2023 by The Varda Group with the support of six partner organizations, Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean set out to raise ambition ahead of UNOC3 through new, creative approaches to marine protection.
We thank the scientists, environmental and ocean law experts, youth advocates, organised civil society, and innovators who have helped bring this vision to life. Your credibility, energy, and collective voice has shaped the Protection Principle into an actionable framework on the global stage.
As we close this chapter and look ahead, we are proud to pass the baton to the Protection Principle Task Force — a multidisciplinary body that will work through the intersessional period leading to UNOC4. Tasked with embedding the Protection Principle into multilateral ocean policy, this new body will continue the work we began together: moving from rhetoric to action.
This page remains as a tribute to the 110 organizations who lent their names, expertise, and trust to this shared effort.
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An initiative coordinated by The Varda Group
Let’s Be Nice to the Ocean is an initiative coordinated by The Varda Group in cooperation with the Ocean & Climate Platform and in partnership with TBA21-Academy, Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy, the Tara Ocean Foundation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and MedPAN.