If the Amazon is the planet’s lung, the ocean is the heart: its degradation is silently affecting populations and ecosystems. This situation calls for an imperative rethinking of current solutions and unifying all forces within a global framework of concerted governance. Morocco can play an essential role in this field, both as an active player in the international community and as a country with a rich and diversified natural environment.

Many coastal populations are already economically, physically and culturally affected by ocean degradation (rising sea levels, increasing extreme weather events, pollution, toxicity). The ongoing situation, largely invisible to the media and the general public, is indeed quite alarming (high costs of protection against rising sea levels, depletion of fish stocks*, collapse of biodiversity*). Yet, tomorrow, with a sick ocean, the situation could be far worse, as the health of humanity depends on it.

Marine resources currently seem still sufficient to support the socio-economic development we need to keep up with the world’s growing population.

However, the more we drain the ocean, the more we plough its surface, the more we dump waste into it and the more it is depleted, both in terms of resources (fish, minerals, hydrocarbons, etc.) and in terms of ecosystem services.

The Ocean Sphere’s* disruption is spurred by two inseparable and mutually reinforcing drivers: anthropogenic pressure and climate change. While it is impossible to halt ongoing alterations overnight, it is possible to alleviate anthropogenic pressure on the ocean in the long run.

In such a complex, systemic and highly interdependent context, how to resolve the paradox between protecting the ocean and its necessary exploitation? What are the keys to sustainability, assuming the very notion of it still has any meaning?
It is essential to thoroughly rethink current fragmented and multiple solutions, as well as the concept of blue economy, which is likely to accelerate the ongoing oceanic transformation (Chapter 1).

Regardless of the solutions we adopt, these can only be implemented in time using a new world governance framework that is tighter, more concerted and better planned (Chapter 2), in which Morocco would be both a stakeholder and a model (Chapter 3).