United Nations Regular Process

30 August 2018

The United Nations Regular Process is preparing for the second World Ocean Assessment (WOA-2). At the UN Regular Process regional workshop held in Valetta, Malta, 27-28 August 2018 Deputy Secretary Jo Foden promoted OSPAR’s Intermediate Assessment 2017 (IA 2017).

The first WOA established a baseline for measuring the state of the marine environment, which the WOA-2 will build on in order to evaluate trends in the marine environment and identify gaps. OSPAR’s IA 2017 processes and findings and most especially the key messages from each assessment were of great interest to the WOA-2 chapter leads.

Alongside OSPAR for the North-East Atlantic, three other Regional Seas Conventions participated in the workshop; HELCOM for the Baltic Sea, the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan, and the Black Sea Commission.