Future Policy Award celebrates solutions to save oceans and coasts

31 policies from 22 countries and regions nominated

Hamburg/Montreal/Washington D.C./Rome, 6 June 2012: The list of nominees for this year's Future Policy Award is complete: 31 outstanding policies from 22 countries and regions are in the running for the best policy worldwide to protect oceans and coasts. The Future Policy Award celebrates policies that create better living conditions for current and future generations. It is granted by the World Future Council, an international policy research organisation that provides decision makers with effective policy solutions. Each year the World Future Council chooses one topic on which policy progress is particularly urgent. In 2012, the award is dedicated to exemplary coastal and ocean policies. The nominated polices range from national ocean policies, marine protected area programmes and integrated coastal zone management plans to policies regulating fisheries, trade in marine products, marine litter and land-sea interactions.  

For this year’s theme the World Future Council is partnering with the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with support from the Okeanos Foundation. Ocean experts from international organisations, academia and non-governmental organisations have submitted nominations. A comprehensive evaluation process is under way and a jury will decide on the winners. The winning policies will be announced at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September 2012 and celebrated at the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, India in October. 

Nominations include policies from Australia, the Baltic Region, Belize, Canada, the East Asia Region, Ecuador, the European Union, France / French Overseas Territories, Kenya, Kiribati, Iceland, India, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, New Zealand, Palau, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and the United States of America. For more information, visit www.futurepolicyaward.org or www.worldfuturecouncil.org. 

Alexandra Wandel, Director of the World Future Council, says: “With the Future Policy Award we want to cast a spotlight on policies that lead by example. The aim of the World Future