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President of the Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE), Anthony Akpan, who participated in the recently held 2025 UN Ocean Conference, has made a case for the actualisation of a network that will champion public awareness of oceans in Africa.
In a poster presentation at the conference co-hosted by the Governments of France and Costa Rica and held from June 9 to 13, 2025, in Nice, France, Akpan urged the need for change as a result of consequences of widespread ignorance about the oceans.
The presentation was titled: “Proposal for the Establishment of the African Ocean Literacy Civil Society Action Network: A Key Necessity for Uplifting Voices of Local Actors, Creating Public Awareness and Increasing Ocean Education and Literacy in Africa (OOS2025-75)”.
Akpan said: “In Africa, most of us live our lives unaware of how our day-to-day actions affect the health and sustainability of the ocean and its many resources on which we depend. Nor do the majority of us recognise how the health of the ocean affects our daily lives.
“Most citizens are not aware of the full extent of the medical, economic, social, political, and environmental importance of the ocean and seas. However, what some scholars have called ‘ocean blindness’ can be countered by improving access to accurate and compelling ocean education that strengthens the learner’s connection with the ocean. This is the essence of ocean literacy: an understanding of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean.”
According to him, the proposal seeks to address Challenge 10 of the Ocean Decade, which states: “Ensure that the multiple values and services of the ocean for human wellbeing, culture, and sustainable development are widely understood, and identify and overcome barriers to behavior change required for a step change in humanity’s relationship with the ocean.”
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference focused on “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”. It sought to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), with three main priorities, to produce an ambitious Nice Ocean Action Plan:
Priority 1: Working towards completion of multilateral processes linked to the ocean
Priority 2: Mobilising finance resources for the SDG14 and supporting the development of a sustainable blue economy
Priority 3: Strengthen and better disseminate knowledge linked to marine sciences to enhance policy-making.
