By Athena Trakadas, ACUA Board Member

During the second week of June, an estimated 10,000 participants – including heads of state, high-level governmental leaders, national agencies, UN organizations, NGOs, Indigenous leaders, youth groups, and other stakeholders and rights-holders – converged upon Nice, France, to address the challenges facing the world’s oceans at the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3). Similar to the two preceding conferences, in Lisbon in 2022 and New York in 2017, UNOC3 focused on the need to support the generation of and access to ocean science data to address the health of the ocean in meeting the challenges of SDG 14, Life Below Water. Above all, urgency in action was stressed in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. This support was pledged largely through the financial backing for scientific data collection.

Athena Trakadas, co-Chair of the Ocean Decade Heritage Network, presenting on Ocean Heritage in Nice on behalf of a coalition of cultural heritage stakeholders.

Another topic of high interest in Nice was the implementation of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), passed in 2023. There were high hopes that French President Macron, who opened UNOC3, would announce that the required 60 ratifications for the Agreement to enter into force would be met during the conference, but this was not to be. By the end of the week, however, 51 countries had ratified the agreement.

Amongst the activities of UNOC3, cultural heritage events were sparsely represented. Those that were accessible were extremely relevant yet off-site side events: “Uplifting Indigenous Peoples leadership in marine and coastal conservation”, SeaVoice and Edinburgh Ocean Leaders’ open-water morning swim and interviews, ‘meet the expert’ events with maritime archaeologists in the Green Zone and museum exhibits showcasing the protection of underwater archaeological finds and the 2001 Convention. In the accreditation-only-access Blue Zone, cultural heritage-adjacent themes included “Marine reserves of fishing interest: a key tool for sustainable development of coastal communities” as well as “UN-Oceans as a mechanism to mobilize multilateral ocean action and amplify collective impacts toward the implementation of SDG 14”.

One of the documents presented at the UNOC3 side event “Uplifting Indigenous Peoples leadership in marine and coastal conservation”, published by the Indigenous Peoples and Biodiversity Coalition Philippines. One of the case studies included “Ancestral waters as a model of locally-managed marine areas (Coron, Palawan)”.

In this last event, presentations focused on “how synergistic multilateral efforts combatting cumulative pressures, promoting sustainable aquatic food systems and ocean economies, preserving natural and cultural heritage, mobilizing finance, increasing climate action, advancing science-based decision-making and following a human-rights based approach, can provide efficient cross-cutting solutions supporting States’ efforts to achieve SDG14.” Fortunately, colleagues from the Cultural Sector at UNESCO (particularly the 2001 Convention Secretariat), ICOMOS’ International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH), and Ocean Decade Heritage Network (ODHN) were able to ensure that an intervention was possible, to make a 3-minute plea with “The Role of Heritage in Ocean Science under the UN Ocean Decade”. (This effort was further enforced by the submission of a joint UN Ocean Input, Sustainable Ocean Heritage Stewardship [Nice Statement]).

This intervention at UNOC3 argued for the consideration of Ocean Heritage and its contribution to ocean sciences within the panel “Area-based conservation measures and ocean health monitoring and assessment”.It is worth providing a definition:‘Ocean Heritage’ refers to all tangible and intangible cultural heritage related to the ocean and linked with natural heritage. This concept includes a multitude of human-environmental interactions, expressions and knowledge that can derive from being on the coast, at sea, and under water. Human relationships and interaction with the marine environment, from the shoreline to the deep ocean, have extreme time-depth, and can provide a variety of data that can potentially transform our understanding and use of the ocean.

A key strategic benefit of integrating Ocean Heritage as part of the ocean sciences is its capacity to contextualize marine governance within longer temporal scales. Its integration allows decision-makers to better understand historical baselines, patterns of ecological change, and the cultural dimensions of marine resource use. This perspective supports more grounded, adaptive, and socially responsive reactions to environmental pressures, particularly in areas where scientific data are limited or contested. 

These are exactly the tenets that can be well integrated within the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction. Although the BBNJ does not specifically address heritage, it needs to be considered a valuable asset to be preserved and included in management and conservation policies and plans that adhere to the Agreement’s intended jurisdiction. Fortunately, from panel discussions at UNOC3, it appears that a few ocean-related policy makers, managers, and members of the larger marine science community are looking at integrated best-practice approaches for following its tenets.

Heritage can inform impact assessments, identify culturally significant seascapes, and link high seas governance such as the BBNJ to migratory or diaspora ocean cultures. Including Ocean Heritage in how we approach ocean science data offers a way to build marine governance systems that are more resilient, reflective of cultural realities, and better equipped to manage complex socio-ecological change. This includes formal recognition of heritage values in marine spatial planning and the inclusion of heritage dimensions in global and regional biodiversity and climate frameworks, creating valuable opportunities for sustainable ocean stewardship.

Globally, institutions such as UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre are working to incorporate cultural heritage more systematically into reporting, education, and conservation frameworks. The development of guidance for the protection of cultural heritage in the BBNJ Agreement negotiations illustrate a gradual but strategic shift in how Ocean Heritage is positioned within global governance dialogues.

Ocean science research vessels filled Nice’s Port Lympia – let’s hope that some of the investment in scientific data collection includes more Ocean Heritage.

Further information regarding the inclusion of Ocean Heritage in ocean science, and for its integration in the implementation in the BBNJ, can be found in ODHN’s Cultural Heritage Framework Programme (CHFP) Blue Paper Heritage in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) and Beyond.

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