The Blue Justice Initiative and UNDP Blue Resilience have joined as supporters of the One Ocean Expedition, part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The first Blue Justice Initiative/UNDP Blue Resilience fisheries crime event on board the expedition’s training vessel Statsraad Lehmkuhl is set to take place in Kingston, Jamaica, on the 15th of November as part of a high-level program facilitated by the Norwegian Embassy in Havana.
Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a 107-year-old 98-meter-long tall ship sailing under Norwegian flag. It set sail from Norway on the 20th of August and will circumnavigate the globe on an epic journey of 55 000 nautical miles, creating awareness and sharing knowledge about the ocean´s crucial role for a sustainable future globally. Ensuring that the ocean and its resources are free from criminal activities is one of several elements of this goal.
UNDP’s Blue Resilience project, funded by the Norwegian Blue Justice Initiative, supports building effective government institutional capacity in developing countries to fight fisheries crime. The Lehmkuhl’s journey involves port calls at many of the countries supporting the Ministerial Declaration on Transnational Organized Crime in the Global Fishing Industry (Copenhagen Declaration),which forms the policy backbone of the project. Thisincludes the Bahamas, Brazil, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Palau, Philippines, Indonesia, Mozambique and South Africa. CARICOM members states are poised to join the Copenhagen Declaration at a digital regional signing event on October 4th, in line with a recent Ministerial Resolution on the topic.
UNDP, in conjunction with Blue Justice Initiative, will stage an awareness-raising fisheries crime event in many of these ports in coordination with UNDP local offices. The on-board event will be paired with national capacity building activities under the Blue Resilience project and coordinated with high level Country Dialogues on fisheries crime, whenever possible.
Stay tuned for more updates on planned Blue Justice Initiative events and activities with partners along the Lehmkuhl’s route.
Learn more about the One Ocean Expedition here.
Follow their social media for updates here.
