H.E. Ambassador Sareer, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Maldives, alongside President Remengesau of Palau and other Small Island State Representatives, highlighted the importance of Oceans in a statement at the side event : "Healthy Oceans and Seas: a Way Forward". The enthusiastically attended and highly visible event was co-hosted by Palau and Italy on the margins of the 8th Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals.
Ambassador Sareer stressed that for Maldives the Oceans and Seas are an integral and indivisible part of development. He explained the reason why together with other Small Island Developing States Maldives had worked in Rio+20 to include Oceans in the agenda, an effort reflected in the high number of paragraphs devoted to the subject, which outline that sustainable development of the Oceans and Seas is highly interrelated and conducive to poverty eradication, the provision of decent work and food security.
Ambassador Sareer said that as with climate change, fulfilling existing agreements would already address the main threats to the Ocean, but that this is unlikely given the current trends. He therefore concluded that Oceans must be reflected prominently in the SDG framework as a stand-alone goal and that a Post-2015 Agenda that does not adequately reflect the vital and central role of Oceans for Sustainable Development would be meaningless for Maldives.
