The World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona (December 2019), gathered 2700 participants from 95 different countries mostly linked to research and conservation of marine mammals.
The Barcelona Declaration: Together for Marine Mammal Science and Conservation of Marine Mammals calls for commitment in a number of key principles and a pledge of three specific goals:
Key principles:
Signatories of the Barcelona Declaration commit themselves to:
- Carry out the highest-quality scientific work
- Share this work widely with the public at all levels through appropriate channels
- Inspire and motivate the public to protect marine mammals and the environments they inhabit
- Engage with policy-makers to ensure that management and conservation efforts are based upon the best available scientific information
- Strengthen existing collaborations, and seek out new ones across disciplines and boundaries
- Mentor and support students to always creatively look towards the future
Specific goals:
Goal 1: To enhance conservation of marine mammals beyond national boundaries, in particular through Marine Protected Areas in the High Seas.
Goal 2: To enhance and strengthen international collaboration to (1) ensure consistent, high-quality response to stranded marine mammals globally, and (2) support conservation efforts for species under threat of extinction.
Goal 3: To use science, education and policy to reduce the deaths of marine mammals in fishery interactions, currently the greatest cause of human-induced mortality.
The Declaration was signed in situ by more than 8OO people and was delivered to the Minister of Territory and Sustainability of the Government of Catalonia, during the reception of a delegation from WMMC’19 at the Palau de la Generalitat. The Barcelona Declaration will soon be online, in order to be adopted for individuals as well as for organizations, universities and research centers.
BICREF Founder Prof. Adriana Vella, PhD and Co-Presidents have signed this Declaration.
Adriana Vella, Malta National Contact Person for the European Cetacean Society, at the WMMC 2019, Barcelona.
BICREF ngo has been working to increase conservation measures and awareness for over twenty years. As 2020 is now here many environmental conservation target deadlines urgently need to be achieved.
In particular BICREF is concerned with the many human impacts on nature which have yet to receive more attention as they are still far from sight and consideration.
Among these one finds the problem of marine noise pollution and impacts on marine biodiversity.
Here are some educational clips by various other ngos on marine noise:
