On the 8th of June 2021, the global populace celebrated the World Oceans Day 2021 to highlight the importance of our vast ocean ecosystems and the vibrant life that calls it home. Ocean Decade ‘30×30’ is the vision to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030 through the expansion of marine protected areas. The high seas encompass 43% of the Earth’s surface, and 70% of the living space on the planet including land and sea.
The Pearl Protectors hosted a four-day summit covering a range of timely and important thematic areas related to our ocean. This was the largest virtual summit to take place in Sri Lanka to date. The World Oceans Day Summit – Sri Lanka was organized in partnership with the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), Blue Resource Trust and International World Ocean Day. The main themes encompassed Sri Lanka’s marine biodiversity, ocean pollution and solutions, ocean-based resource economy and the way forward for our oceans. Since Sri Lanka is surrounded by twenty times more ocean boundary than land, it is vital that Sri Lankans acknowledge and appreciate its importance both ecologically and economically, and the need to sustain the marine environment for future generations.
The hosting organization, The Pearl Protectors is a youth led marine conservation platform which advocates for protected oceans while increasing awareness on the importance of sustaining and conserving our marine environment. The Pearl Protectors have launched various projects and initiatives which promotes volunteerism, research and public involvement to conserve and sustain the marine environment of Sri Lanka.
The World Oceans Day Summit – Sri Lanka was structured to provide maximum impact and awareness to the larger public audience of Sri Lanka. Each of the four days entailed a thematic topic which included sub session topics. The sub session topics were aired live on virtual media where several experts from each session will engage in presentations and discussions. The hour-long sessions provided the opportunity for the public audience to engage in discussions while each sub session was moderated by a team member of the host organization or partnered organizations.
The World Oceans Day Summit Sri Lanka 2021 was a first of its kind to be held in Sri Lanka. The virtual platform of the summit was through StreamYard and made available to the public for free. Recordings of the summit are available through Facebook and YouTube while publication press released summaries for each thematic session.