Australia, Canada, Fiji, Jamaica, Japan, Portugal, Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia and Palau are among the nations led by Norway. In line with the Sustainable Ocean Plans, countries have now made a pledge to handle 100% of the ocean areas under their national authority in a sustainable way by 2025.

This suggests that up to 40% of the world's coastlines and 30% of all exclusive economic zones will be protected by integrated management plans in five years' time.

The Ocean Panel urges the implementation of such plans by 2030 by all other coastal states.

The 14 countries represented in the Ocean Panel support the global aim of protecting 30% of the world's oceans by 2020 through the development of marine protected areas and other effective protection measures based on the region.

National decisions on such steps will depend on the status of the ecosystem and the degree and consistency of management of the ocean in general. Therefore the worldwide goal is not binding on individual countries.

The Government of Norway claimed that the actions identified by the Ocean Panel are optimistic, but at the same time practical and necessary if we are to achieve the SDGs.

The Ocean Panel will now grow into a larger international collaboration and will encourage more countries and partners to join forces to enforce the Action Agenda of the Panel.

For these efforts, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 will provide an international context.

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