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Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy

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Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy
From the heat of the equator to the North and South poles, the ocean binds the planet together, supporting communities, maritime industries, and most life on Earth.

Covering more than 70 percent of the planet, the ocean regulates the weather, produces 70 percent of the oxygen in our atmosphere, and is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s known species—and many that still await discovery.

But the marine ecosystem is ailing because of problems that include overfishing, plastic pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, and marine debris.

Studies consistently show that large, fully protected marine reserves protect biodiversity, safeguard traditional cultures closely linked to the sea, and allow plant and animal species to recover, all of which benefit areas far beyond the boundaries of the protected areas.

But less than 4 percent of the world’s ocean is covered by strong safeguards, far short of the 30 percent recommended by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli created the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, with the shared goal of establishing the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. Today, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project also seeks to connect MPAs and help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems. These efforts build on more than a decade of work by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation, led by Dona Bertarelli, to create large-scale, highly or fully protected MPAs. Between them, they have helped to obtain designations or commitments to safeguard nearly 12.6 million square kilometers (4.8 million square miles) of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, investor, sportswoman, and strong advocate for ocean conservation. The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems, including the need for effective marine conservation.

Ocean Stewardship 3
Ocean Stewardship 3
Fact Sheet

Tradition and Cultural Heritage Bring Unique Perspectives

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Fact Sheet

Island communities around the world have strong ties to the ocean. The seas connect people to families and neighbors, provide sustenance, drive economies, and inspire art and cultural values.

Fact Sheet

A Way to Safeguard Biodiversity and Protect Ocean Habitat

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Fact Sheet

Ocean health is critical to all life on this planet. Phytoplankton, the microscopic plants found in the sunlit area of almost all oceans, generate about half of the Earth’s oxygen, and the complex interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere sustains our climate.

Article

Benefits Extend Beyond Sea Life to Communities on Land

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Article

In recent years, leading marine scientists have said that protecting large areas of the sea as oceanic reserves carries the added benefit of helping ocean life weather the impacts of climate change. Support for that claim was spread across numerous disparate studies—until now.

Article

For Ocean Protections to Work, Governments Need Clear Guidance

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Article

The need to protect the ocean has never been more urgent, and as a new decade dawns, governments around the world are recognizing this. Many are uniting around a resolution—first agreed to at the 2016 World Conservation Congress—to protect at least 30 percent of the ocean within marine protected areas (MPAs) or through other effective conservation measures (OECMs) by 2030.

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