SDG 14 - ’Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ - is made up of 10 targets and 10 indicators. It covers measures of marine pollution, sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, regulation of fishing practices and economic benefits on sustainable use of marine resources. The means of implementation indicators focus on the increase of knowledge, research and technology to improve ocean health and marine biodiversity, on access rights for small-scale fishers to marine resources and markets and on enhancement of conservation and sustainable use of oceans.
SDG14 : LIFE BELOW WATER Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Where does France stand ?
Domestic challenges
France has a maritime area of 11 million km², 97% of which is in the French Overseas Territories. It is the world’s second-largest maritime area after the United States, which gives it a major responsibility in terms of SDG14.
10% of the world’s coral reefs and 20% of the world’s atolls are located in French waters. Nearly 10% of the world’s marine species diversity can be found there.
With 10% of the world’s reefs, France has a major responsibility to protect these ecosystems. It is committed to protecting 100% of coral reefs by 2025. The 2020 assessment of the state of health of coral reefs in France’s overseas territories shows that reefs are best preserved in extensive, sparsely populated or uninhabited territories whose coastal zones are subject to low or moderate pressure: in the Pacific (New Caledonia, French Polynesia - excluding the Society Islands, Wallis and Futuna), and the Scattered Islands (Indian Ocean): 70% of the resorts monitored are in good condition. In smaller areas, where there is strong demographic pressure and a high level of human activity, they tend to be degraded: The French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, Saint Barthélemy) and the Indian Ocean (Mayotte, Reunion Island): 62% of the resorts monitored are degraded.
A fair balance needs to be struck between preserving this exceptional biodiversity and exploiting marine resources. The latter is an essential source of employment and revenue. The work of the French Coral Reef Initiative (Ifrecor) underlines the importance of coastal and lagoon-based commercial and food fishing, with an estimate of the services provided by coral reef ecosystems of more than €215 billion per year (2016).
To protect marine biodiversity and its positive externalities, France has chosen to pursue a proactive policy of creating and managing marine protected areas in all its waters, both mainland and overseas.
The fifth largest marine reserve in the world is now located in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF).
240,000 of the world’s listed marine species are found in France’s exclusive economic zones (EFESE-MER).
On national territory, the French State has defined a Sea and Coastal Strategy, revised in 2023, which should lead to the balanced planning of uses in marine and coastal areas in order to maintain the good ecological status of ecosystems on the four mainland coastlines and overseas basins (14.2). The four coastline strategy documents have been adopted in mainland France and two basin strategy documents have been adopted in the French overseas territories (Target 14.2: 75% achieved).
Created in 1999, IFRECOR works to protect and sustainably manage coral reefs and associated ecosystems (mangroves, seagrass beds) in the French overseas authorities: more than a third of mangroves are now protected and entrusted to the Conservatoire du Littoral. 32% of waters under national jurisdiction are now covered by marine protected areas (14.2 and 14.5). A number of national plans to protect endangered marine species have been implemented (i.e. sea turtles, dugongs). In the Mediterranean, France is supporting a “FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE” to protect posidonia, a major species for carbon sequestration.
France is combating land-based and maritime pollution and underwater noise and has banned single-use plastic bags (14.1). It has adopted a national “zero plastics at sea by 2025” roadmap (14.1). It also supports an ecosystem-based approach to marine and coastal resources, and fisheries and aquaculture management based on the best scientific advice. France has adopted a ban on the dumping of polluted sediments and dredging residues by 2025. A multidisciplinary national group for the reduction of underwater noise, bringing together all the stakeholders, was set up in 2020 to support France’s ambitious positions on this subject at the IMO.
France has adopted an “Ocean and Climate” priority research programme as part of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development(2021-2030) and is actively contributing to its action plan through its scientific network in mainland France and overseas.
France is committed to the decarbonisation of maritime transport, which will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat acidification (Target 14.3). Brought before the IMO, it is now the subject of a national plan adopted on 4 April 2023.
Internationally
The following is a non-exhaustive overview of France’s initiatives at international level that contribute to SDG14:
- The recent unanimous adoption (2023) of the BBNJ treaty (protection of the high seas), in which the French State Secretariat for the Sea played a major role (target 14.5): adopted unanimously in June 2023, was signed by 82 States on 20 September 2023 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. This treaty covers the protection of the oceans outside the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and continental shelves of coastal states. Looking ahead to the United Nations Conference in Nice in 2025, France is continuing its efforts to ensure that this vital agreement for the oceans comes into force in 2025.
- The One Ocean Summit Conference held by France in February 2022 in Brest, prior to the SDG14 conference in Lisbon, and the commitments relating to a future treaty to combat plastic pollution (Target 14.1) and the conservation of marine biodiversity and marine protected areas (Target 14.5). Since its launch in 2017, coalitions have been at the heart of the One Planet drive. The High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) is a group of states, co-chaired by France and Costa Rica, whose aim is to support the adoption of an ambitious target to protect 30% of the world’s land and 30% of its seas by 2030 (the 30x30 target), as part of the global framework for biodiversity protection of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted at COP15 in China in 2022. France has already achieved this goal of protecting 30% of its EEZ, and efforts must now focus on the effective management of all the corresponding marine protected areas.
- France will be hosting the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice in June 2025, in collaboration with Costa Rica, and is preparing to mobilise the whole of French society for the Year of the Sea from September 2024 to September 2025, when most of the major national events will be dedicated to the sea.
- France successfully brought the issue of specific marine protection zones in the Mediterranean Sea before the IMO. On 15 December 2022, the 79th Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) approved the creation of a Sulphur Oxides and Particulate Matter Emission Control Area (SECA) covering the whole of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the designation of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea. France has also worked with Canada to relaunch work on reducing underwater noise (target 14.1).
- The French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), through payment of the national contribution to the regional seas conventions, the Plan of Action for a Model Mediterranean Sea in 2030 (PAMEx) and the corresponding financial fund (PLIFF), support projects in Developing Countries (DCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) (Target 14.7).
- France is mobilising significant resources to support the actions of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), decided by the United Nations to support efforts to reverse the cycle of declining ocean health and to bring stakeholders from around the world together behind a common scientific framework, to help countries to create better conditions for the sustainable development of the ocean. Within this framework, France is supporting the transformation of French society. Mercator Ocean International, based in Toulouse, was awarded the title of “Decade Collaborative Center” in Lisbon in 2022 to coordinate the construction of the Digital Twin of the Ocean supported by the EU. The creation of the Mercator International Center for Ocean (MICO) by France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom is due to be announced at UNOC 2025.
- France is involved in a number of international initiatives, including the international “Stop Plastic Waste” coalition and the Ocean & Climate Initiatives Alliance. Through the Conservatoire du Littoral, France has initiated the international SMILO programme for sustainable and resilient small islands and is supporting capacity-building and the involvement of local communities in the Pacific islands through pilot projects in Fiji, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Vanuatu. France has supported the principle proposed by UNESCO of devoting the next decade to ocean sciences and emphasising the interrelations between the ocean, climate and biodiversity, and has joined the coalition against acidification.
- France is supporting the launch of the IPOS programme, led by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which has succeeded in mobilising scientific institutions from many countries to commit to this programme for ocean sustainability (IPOS) and to lay the foundations for scientific collaboration with decision-makers. Scientific institutions have made their commitment a reality by supporting the creation of the IPOS (International Panel for Ocean Sustainability) and signing the "Brussels Declaration" in Brussels in April 2023. The next step will be to promote IPOS at the international UNOC conference in Nice in June 2025.
- At EU level, France is implementing European policy on the economic and social viability of the fishing industry. Each year, the 27 EU Member States agree on the maximum quantity that can be reasonably fished in a defined area, in order to ensure sustainable farming of various fish stocks. The policy package adopted in February 2023 establishes the common fisheries policy as a set of rules for the sustainable management of European fishing fleets and conserving fish stocks.
In addition, by ratifying several international conventions, notably with the United Nations Food Organisation, France is participating with 24 other countries in a coordinated fight against illegal fishing, which is particularly harmful. Together with the European Union (EU), France is also supporting the adoption of measures by regional fisheries management organisations to combat illegal fishing and management rules based on the precautionary approach and ecosystem-based management.
At the WTO conference in 2022, France supported the adoption of a long-negotiated agreement on the concept of “subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing” in order to move towards the target of eliminating them, which was initially planned for 2020 (Target 14.6).
With regards to the fight against maritime pollution, France is a contracting party to six of the eighteen existing regional seas conventions considered by the United Nations to be strategic for the implementation of SDG14 (i.e. Conventions for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, Barcelona, Nairobi, Cartagena). It is committed to promoting and highlighting best practice, particularly in the fight against pollution, eutrophication and plastic waste, the promotion of marine protected areas and the preservation of symbolic ecosystems (such as posidonia in the Mediterranean or coral reefs and mangroves in tropical areas), as well as the maritime planning of uses.