NGOs call on the German government.

Joint calls for action

With this paper, the undersigned environmental and development organizations (Bread for the World, BUND, DEEPWAVE, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, DNR, Environmental Justice Foundation, fair oceans, Forum Environment & Development, Greenpeace, NABU, Misereor, Oceania Dialogue, Pro Wildlife, SHARKPROJECT, WDC, World Future Council, WWF) to the German government and the responsible ministries and authorities, calling on them to consistently align their political decisions with the protection of marine ecosystems and the preservation of their functions as part of their current legislation.

Maritime initiative

Back in 2020, we jointly addressed a paper with key demands for a marine offensive. In this paper, we were not only concerned with formulating in more detail where marine protection is lagging behind nationally and internationally and what urgently needs to be done to keep the oceans alive and enable them to fulfill the functions we expect of them. We also wanted to show that marine protection is not a niche and side issue, but is a prerequisite for the necessary changes for the better, especially with regard to climate protection.

Our demands found their way into the election manifestos and into the coalition agreement, which led to the announcement of a “marine offensive” by the German government. However, we are still a long way from reaching a state in which the oceans can be our crucial ally in climate protection.

With this updated compilation, we hope to show all decision-makers where and how they can contribute to ensuring that the oceans continue to enable us to live on this planet. Because this is exactly what is at stake with a business-as-usual approach.

Climate protection also at sea, not just on land

As long as we only think about climate protection from the land instead of the sea, we will not be able to avert the climate catastrophe. Even if the young generation, whose future is at stake, sees it this way, most decision-makers are not yet sufficiently aware of how profoundly and ruthlessly we have interfered with the functions of the oceans in recent decades, how much this will affect our future and is already doing so, and how much the window of opportunity to make a decisive change is getting smaller every day.

As a wealthy Germany, we not only have the responsibility, but also the resources and capacities to take on this responsibility. Our current demands paper therefore spans the relevant problem areas of German and international marine protection. We show that the climate and biodiversity crises in the sea are particularly closely interlinked, we highlight the pressing issues surrounding marine protected areas, the threat of deep-sea mining and the overexploitation of the seas, e.g. by fisheries, and we turn our attention to the Global South, where access to healthy seas is also a factor in livelihoods and food security.

With our joint core demands paper, we would like to support the development of the German Marine Strategy and hope that all aspects will be reflected in it and underpinned with concrete measures.

Together, we can still set the course for a future with the oceans.