The Ocean and Us

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Incorporation of marine and coastal ecosystem services is
essential to reaching SDGs that demonstrate alignment
of ecological and socioeconomic objectives. UNEP-
WCMC, the UN SDSN and the BIP have produced guidance
documentation to support the development of ecosystem
service indicators of relevance to national and global targets,
particularly SDGs (2010 BIP, 2010a; UN SDSN, 2014; UNEP-
WCMC, 2011). Examples of ecosystem service indicators for
marine and coastal environments include: the percentage of
fish tonnage landed within the Maximum Sustainable Yield
(SDGs 12 and 14); the percentage of reduced wave energy
or coastal erosion through conserved or restored coastal
habitats, thereby protecting coastal communities (SDGs
11, 13, and 14); and revenue obtained from marine and
coastal recreational activities, such as diving (SDGs 8 and
14) (UN SDSN, 2014; UNEP, 2014; UNEP-WCMC, 2011). The
development of integrated indicators measuring progress
towards a number of targets would reduce the effort of
monitoring and reporting.
Web-based platforms, such as UNEP Live20 , can operate
alongside such initiatives to support progress towards SDGs
by providing open access to substantiated, contextualised
knowledge about the environment. For instance, global
datasets outlining known distributions of important marine
and coastal habitats, such as warm- and cold-water corals,
mangroves, seagrasses, seamounts and knolls, have
been collated and disseminated freely on the UNEP World
Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) Ocean Data
Viewer21 , and could be used towards establishing the baseline
knowledge required for SDGs 14.222 and 14.523 .
Developing metrics and indicators suitable to national
and global targets
Drawing from available data, the Biodiversity Indicators
Partnership (BIP; ) used the pressure-
state-benefit-response framework to identify a series
of indicators that measure progress against the Aichi
Biodiversity Targets of the UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020 (BIP, 2010; Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, 2010). As these biodiversity indicators
measure the biodiversity components that also underpin
sustainable development, they offer opportunities to
establish complementary indicators for SDGs using a similar
framework. For example, existing National Biodiversity
Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) can offer further
guidance for developing SDG indicators and implementation
plans (Bowles-Newark et al., 2014) as there is considerable
alignment across indicators identified by the BIP (BIP, 2011)
and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN
SDSN, 2014) .
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22 14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant
adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration, to
achieve healthy and productive oceans.
23 14.5: By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with
national and international law and based on best available scientific information.
istock photos