07 Jun Road to Our Ocean Conference: Government and Community Sign Commitment to Free Our Oceans from Plastic Waste

On June 7, 2017, government officials and community leaders signed a commitment reduce plastic pollution in our oceans to mark World Environment Day, World Oceans Day and Coral Triangle Day and as a lead up to the upcoming Our Ocean Conference which will be held in Bali in October 2018.

The commitment was signed by officials from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Department of Marine and Fisheries led by Brahmantya Satyamurti Poerwadi, Director General for Marine Spatial Management and Aryo Hanggono Senior Advisor to the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries non Ecology and Marine Resources and Eko Djalmo, Staff to the Minster of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

The other lead signatories include Made Gunaja, head of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Local Agency of Bali Province, Suko Wardono head of the Ministry’s Coastal and Marine Resource Management Office in Denpasar, Ramon van Barneveld from the European Commission, Sally Yozell from the Stimson Center, Rili Djohani, Executive Director of the Coral Triangle Center, and Catur Yuda Haryani from the Pusat Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup Bali as well as other members of the Bali community.

The commitment was signed at the CTC Center for Marine Conservation in Bali following a Talk Show entitled “Samudera Bebas Plastik” (Plastis Free Ocean). The talk show tackled several solutions about the growing threat of ocean plastic pollution including education and awareness to support behavior change, reducing demand for single-use plastics, and creating incentives for businesses who are developing alternative packaging materials, as well as collecting the plastics waste that are already in the system such as ghost nets.

During the discussion, it was noted that the upcoming Our Ocean Conference in Bali can galvanize cross sectoral, high level and multi-country support to tackle plastic pollution in the oceans.