WRI Mexico & TOF join to defend Mexico’s ocean environments

WRI Mexico and The Ocean Foundation join to reverse the destruction of the country’s ocean environments

March 05, 2019

This union will delve into topics such as ocean acidification, blue carbon, sargassum in the Caribbean, and policies around fishing

Through its Forests program, the World Resources Institute (WRI) Mexico, made an alliance in which a memorandum of understanding was signed with The Ocean Foundation, as partners, to work together to develop projects and related activities for the conservation of the marine and coastal territory in national and international waters, as well as for the conservation of marine species.

This union will seek to delve into issues such as ocean acidification, blue carbon, the sargassum phenomenon in the Caribbean, and fishing activities that include destructive practices, such as bycatch, bottom trawling, as well as policies and practices that affect local and global fisheries.

“In the subject of mangroves there is a very strong relationship with forest restoration, because the mangrove is where the Forests program intersects with the work of The Ocean Foundation; and the blue carbon issue joins the Climate program, because the ocean is a great carbon sink,” explained Javier Warman, Director of the WRI Mexico Forests Program, who oversees the alliance on behalf of WRI Mexico.

The pollution of the ocean by plastics will also be addressed through actions and projects that will be carried out to reduce the scope and severity of contamination by persistent plastics on the coasts and on the high seas, within specific regions of the world where pollution is a considerable problem.

“Another issue that we will study will be the marine contamination by combustible sources, of all the vessels that transit through the Mexican marine territory, because many times the fuel they use for their ships is made up of the residues left in the refineries,” Warman added.

On behalf of The Ocean Foundation, the supervisor of the alliance will be María Alejandra Navarrete Hernández, who aims to cement the foundations of the Ocean program at the World Resources Institute Mexico, as well as strengthen the work of both institutions through collaboration on projects and joint actions.

Finally, as part of this alliance, the ratification of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) will be watched over, signed by the Mexican government in 2016, and through which the Emissions Control Area (ACE) was delimited. in marine waters of national jurisdiction. This agreement, which was developed by the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the UN, seeks to eliminate maritime pollution of the ocean, and has been ratified by 119 countries.