The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, under the leadership of Ariel Troisi (IOC Chair) and Vladimir Ryabinin (IOC Executive Secretary), gratefully acknowledges the many individual and institutional contributors to the Implementation Plan over the last three years. The idea of the Ocean Decade was born out of a meeting of IOC officers and senior secretariat staff in early January 2016 in Gilleleje, Denmark. The meeting was chaired by the then IOC Chair, Peter Haugan, and benefited from the strategic advice of the former IOC Executive Secretary, Gunnar Kullenberg. The Implementation Plan had its genesis in the discussions of an Interim Planning Group throughout early 2018. Following these reflections, an Executive Planning Group (EPG) comprising 19 global leaders in ocean science was established in mid-2018 and made significant contributions to the development of the Implementation Plan.1 An Informal Working Group of Early Career Ocean Professionals that was established in late 2019 contributed to the shaping of the Implementation Plan.