The Paris Appeal for the High Seas International Conference was held on 11 April 2013.

The text of the Declaration adopted is attached (French and English versions).

In it the signatories of this Paris Appeal observed:

“Today parts of the High Seas have become lawless places, their intimate depth plundered, their resources exposed
to pillaging and trafficking, with generalized pollution reaching the farthest seas. The immensity is dying, its life is
wilting, emergency is at our door and the price of indifference is looming. There is hope yet : civil society is mobilizing everywhere,
and moving nations. There are solutions”.

They declared their commitment to mobilize all active forces in civil society, to call on governments, economic
partners and networks to obtain an ambitious agreement during the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.
They requested that a clear mandate be given to the United Nations General Assembly, so that the negotiations cover
the following: the preservation of High Seas’ ecosystems, access to and sharing of benefits related to the exploitation
of marine genetic resources, marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, research support and marine
technology transfer.

They also considered that civil society should be fully involved in international processes relating to the use and governance
of the High Seas.
Through these resolutions, they declared that the High Seas are not solely the business of specialists and professionals,
but that they are at the very heart of the survival of humanity and, as such, concern us all.
The declaration concludes with this forceful pronouncement:
ALL LIFE COMES FROM THE OCEAN, AND A LIVING OCEAN IS WHAT WE WISH TO PASS ON TO OUR CHILDREN

Swakopmund Matters
(For Swakopmund Matters the environment of the Namibian coastline and its ocean matters)
15 April 2013

Swakopmund Matters