18th Mar 2025

Oceanic Protection Imperatives - Highlights from the World Ocean Summit, Tokyo

Tokyo was the backdrop for the 12th World Ocean Summit, convened by Economist Impact with the Nippon Foundation this March. The Summit gathered hundreds of leaders and activists focused on the world ocean, highlighting the growing role of capital markets support for natural capital and the central role of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in strategic protection of natural assets.

The keynote conversation, from Japan’s new LDP Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, elected in 2024, highlighted Japan’s desire to command a global leadership role in oceanic governance and investment. Over 60% of Japan’s territory is oceanic, ranking the 6th largest country when taking into account its EEZ, and fourth largest when taking into account cubic depth. The focus seems to be more on ‘management’ rather than protection, indicating a comprehensive approach to the ocean that is still based more on consumption than renewal.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were center stage for much of the conference, with speakers highlighting the successful implementation of MPAs as one of the leading mechanisms for oceanic protection. In addition to the new 30 by 30 initiative for ocean protection implemented by the Azores, the community discussed the arrival of new MPAs from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific, where a strategic division is emerging between nations seeking to protect their waters and those seeking to develop industrial processes within them. Generally the consensus is that the more threatened or depleted the location, the more likely they are to turn to extractive mechanisms like deep sea bed exploration in an attempt to find business models to support their communities.

To help counter this, thinking is emerging around MPA networks, connected groupings of MPAs that can create corridors of protection for fish and sea-life. One such corridor in development extends from Fiji and Tahiti south to the Antarctic region, encompassing EEZ territories of New Zealand and Australia. Through cooperation, the protection of such migratory routes is coming into focus and action.

From an investment standpoint, the Ocean Climate Fund noted the growing presence of strategies around MCDR - marine carbon dioxide removal - as a method for potentially heading off the growing problem of ocean acidification that is occurring worldwide. Emerging technologies seek to capture CO2 directly from the water column.

Upwelling techniques are also gaining attention. Circulating cold ocean water from lower depths to the surface can help to cool surface ocean temperatures while creating energy from temperature inversions, pointing the way to new forms of energy production from the ocean. Additionally, wave energy technologies are continually improving, and may soon provide reasonable energy production capabilities at more efficient cost pkwh.

China is taking a lead in new thinking around natural assets related to the ocean. The county is working on measuring degraded coastal ares within its territory and working on accounting for GOP - “gross ocean product’ to evaluate which areas of the ocean are more or less productive than others, and to track declines in productivity from ocean exploration, fishing and resource extraction. All of these components connect to the concept of Marine Spatial Planning. - a country’s approach to mapping and measuring its oceanic resources, and to create a spatial plan for better management - a crucial first step toward implementing a successful MPA.

Interestingly, over 60 percent of China’s remaining oceanic diversity is in the South China Sea in the small areas surrounding Hong Kong, not exactly an area known for conservation. This points toward longer term need for Chinese fishing expansion into international or exotic waters, a recipe for more uncomfortable incursions into territorial waters, as recently evidenced by Chinese fleets entering Chile’s coastal EEZ for unauthorised fishing.

A final interesting note was the perception of MPAs to provide the ‘spillover effect’ a longtime reasoning for the successful creation of MPAs. The spill-over effect refers to increasing quantities of fish and biomass that result from the creation of MPAs, which spill over into adjoining fishing areas and increase catch opportunities for local fishermen.

While true that these advantages are beneficial in a world where 95% of the fish stocks have already been depleted, the reality is that these spillovers still require time to generate, and are not as extreme as often described. This just underlines how important establishing wider MPAs is for ocean health, to better increase resilience and replenishment before its too late and nothing is left at all.