On June 6, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Head of the Delegation of the Holy See to the United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: "Conserve and Sustainably Use the Oceans, Seas and Marine Resources for Sustainable Development," taking place at UN Headquarters in New York, gave an intervention during the second Partnership Dialogue of the Conference, dedicated to “Managing, Protecting, Conserving, and Restoring Marine and Coastal Ecosystems.”

In his intervention, Cardinal Turkson said that the increase in human activities in the ocean foreseen in upcoming years challenges us to improve marine-related knowledge and research, develop better conservation strategies and improve policies, laws, regulations and behavior to keep our oceans, seas and marine resources sustainable. He spoke about the importance of integral ecology, one that focuses both on caring for our common home and the good of those who dwell within that home. A more effective and unified approach to managing, protecting, conserving and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems is needed, he said, and one such improvement would be to expand the terms of reference for UN OCEANS as the UN’s interagency mechanism of coordination.

His statement can be found here.