Lisbon - Angolan head of state João Lourenço has expressed concern about the problems in the Gulf of Guinea, the Horn of Africa and other parts of the world, where piracy seriously threatens the use of the seas for peaceful purposes.
He expressed the concern at the second United Nations Conference on the Oceans, held in Lisbon, Portugal, on Monday(27).
Angolan statesman stressed the importance of marine activities, with particular emphasis on trade, tourism and other related activities that boost the economies of the states.
João Lourenço said it was important to expand international cooperation with the countries of these regions, in order to provide them with the capacity to face up to this global threat.
According to him, the importance of the oceans for the regular flow of goods, their impact on world trade and the stabilisation of the prices of the main products and raw materials, as well as on the normal functioning of the global economy, is becoming increasingly evident.
In the light of this observation, the President stressed the pivotal importance and the unavoidable need for the peaceful use of the oceans stands out, as a guarantee of the survival, in humanly decent conditions, of the populations of our entire planet.
According to the President, the oceans, seas and the land infrastructures connected to them, such as commercial ports, are of such importance to the economies and well-being of citizens worldwide.
He said that the blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports is causing the current global food crisis, due to the shortage of cereals, fertilizers and oilseeds for the production of cooking oil.
The Angolan statesman highlighted the cooperation effort that the member-states of the Portuguese Speaking Community (CPLP) have been making to assume a committed and interested role in the debate on issues related to the oceans, taking into account the fact that all the countries that make up the bloc are coastal and insular.
President Lourenço also spoke of the evidence of the relevance that the CPLP attaches to its relationship with the oceans, reflected in the Namibe Declaration, approved in this Angolan province with the same name.
According to the Head of State, this is an important legal document that was widely discussed among all member-states and aims at the creation of a Cooperation Platform in the Promotion of Sustainable Fishing and Fight Against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, among the CPLP member-states.
Objectives of the Conference
The objective of this United Nations event, sponsored by the governments of Portugal and Kenya, is to mobilise global support to implement, create, conserve and use, in a sustainable way, the seas, oceans and marine resources.
Running until 1 July, under the slogan "Save the Ocean, Protect the Future", the event represents a call to action for the oceans, seeking to encourage leaders and decision-makers from the 193 countries of the UN to mobilise partnerships and increase investment in scientific and innovative approaches that contribute to reversing the decline in ocean health.
The planet's importance
The oceans absorb 90 per cent of excess heat and on a global scale have already warmed 0.76 degrees Celsius, which is a massive amount of energy.
These problems are compounded by many others, including acidification and deoxygenating, which are killing corals and affecting thousands of marine species.
At least 10 per cent of the large predators of the seas, such as sharks, tuna and whales, have already disappeared.
The fight against marine pollution, the management, protection, conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems, the minimisation of acidification, deoxygenating and warming of the oceans and the promotion of sustainable fishing are some of the goals to be achieved by the United Nations.
