"For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive: in this century he is beginning to realise that, in order to survive, he must protect it", stated significantly Jacques-Yves Costeau, paramount French explorer, navigator, oceanographer and film director. His figure is strongly attached to the history of the Principality and the Oceanographic Museum. This legacy derives from Monaco’s historic commitment to preserving the marine environment locally and internationally. The 2023 edition of the Monaco Ocean Week has just been announced. It will be held in the Principality from the 20th until the 26th March 2023 representing a further passage of a process that has been going on for many decades.
Not surprisingly, Prince Albert I of Monaco was a pioneer and founder of modern oceanography marking scientific expeditions throughout the twentieth century. Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, launched by the Sovereign Prince in 2006, reinforced the ocean preservation commitment through a series of actions and initiatives. Notably, the 2008 campaign against the bluefin tuna (endangered species) consumption and the 2009 Monaco's declaration on ocean acidification, involving 150 scientists from twenty-six countries. In 2010, Monaco Blue Initiative (MBI) came to life. The international panel was meant to explore potentials of ocean management and conservation worldwide. In 2013, a targeted Environmental Fund was created to foster Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean Basin while in 2015 BeMed project kicked off to curb plastic use, extremely hazardous to marine biodiversity. The Principality of Monaco has been then fully committed in the blue cause both at Paris COP21 and at the International conference, Our Ocean, held in Bali in 2018. Moreover, Monaco actively worked to draft the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Special Report on oceans and cryosphere, put in practice in September 2019. Environmental facilities have been provided by the will of the Sovereign Prince's Foundation, Australia and Indonesia, within the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) to preserve one of the most important marine ecosystems.
Monaco Ocean Week promises to be a moment of reflection, exchange of ideas and blue awareness.
"Monaco Ocean Week offers a unique forum for discussions, meetings, experimentation and openness", H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
A whole week addressed to all stakeholders linked to the Sea. Experts, scientists, non governmental associations, volunteers and public authorities will parade in iconic places like the Musée Océanographique and the Yacht Club de Monaco.
As already happened in previous editions, the Monegasque week of the oceans will offer an opportunity to keep up to date on the latest trends in terms of best practices, pivotal commitments as well as other forms of awareness for the preservation of the marine environment. The Monaco Manifesto for the Ocean, signed by the Sovereign Prince in 2018 jointly with the French and the Italian ministers of the environment, represented an important step aimed at strengthening international cooperation to promote the protection of marine ecosystems. The Sanctuary Pelagos Agreement and the Natural Marine World Heritage in the Arctic Ocean publication are equally milestones of this blue path.
The Monaco Blue Initiative, will be held at the Oceanographic Museum on the 21st March 2023. It will gather conservation, media and governance key actors to trigger new common synergies centred on the conservation of natural habitats and the implementation of the blue economy. Various roundtables will focus on relevant explorations and meetings merging science, diplomacy and local communities like the three scientific missions in northern Gulf of Aqaba (Jordan), Djibouti and Sudan, recently promoted by the Transnational Red Sea Centre with the official support of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. The first results of the research on the emblematic Red Sea Coral Reef will be presented exclusively at the Monaco Yacht Club during the Monaco Ocean Week in the presence of Alexandre Fasel, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office, Olivier Küttel, Head of International Affairs at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL) and Anders Meibom, Director of the Transnational Red Sea Centre.
Under the umbrella of the Monaco Ocean Week, the Monaco Smart Yacht Rendezvous, outcome of the Smart Marina Conference, will be set at the Yacht Club de Monaco on the 23rd and the 24th March 2023. This informative forum, sponsored by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, is also addressed to connect yachting owners with innovators engaged in conceiving eco-sustainable solutions and products to make a decisive contribution to the transition. Naval architects, manufactures, entrepreneurs, suppliers and other stakeholders will engage in an interactive debate to push circular economy through case study and best practices.
What is the sense of living if not to improve the world for those who will live there after we are gone?, Paola Buratto Caovilla.
"No More Time - Oceans are Life", this is the catching phrase of the monumental piece of art by Paola Buratto Caovilla, that will be installed in the gardens of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to celebrate the Monaco Ocean Week. A Planet-Earth-shaped sculpture made of resin and decorated in acrylic resin will show off a kaleidoscopic view of our Home through a colourful map where oceans are in the foreground. An accompanying message "Oceans are Life" will be reinforcing in words the symbolic artistic creation, visible from March the 2oth until April the 30th 2023. The artist, painter, designer and descendant of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (Eighteenth-century Italian painter), would like to stress the symbiotic boundaries between Human Beings and Mother Nature, currently under attack by the dangers that are undermining the stability of natural ecosystems. Hope is placed in the new generations so that they can change the course of history towards a fully sustainable future where environmental protection is the common denominator. An idea totally shared by Princesses Maria Chiara and Maria Carolina of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies who are the Ambassadors of this humanitarian initiative. ***
To know more about the Monaco Ocean Week please visit: 2023 MOW
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