Webinar “The United Nations Regular Process / World Ocean Assessment”

The FCT, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE), the Directorate-General for Maritime Policy (DGPM), and with the collaboration of the National Expert to the Group of Experts, researcher Maria João Bebiano, is promoting the webinar "The United Nations Regular Process / World Ocean Assessment, "which will take place on November 8, 2022, in an online format. Registration is now open.

This initiative is specifically aimed at the Portuguese scientific community and seeks to provide clarification on the United Nations Regular Process for the Global Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including socioeconomic aspects, and the World Ocean Assessment III (WOAIII), which is a global mechanism established by the UN after the 2002 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development. Its goal is to contribute to strengthening the regular scientific assessment of the state of the marine environment in order to reinforce the scientific basis for policy-making.

Since its inception, there have been two assessment cycles of the Regular Process, the first Cycle between 2010-2014; and the second Cycle between 2016-2020. The third cycle of the Regular Process is currently underway, between 2021 and 2025. TheWorld Ocean Assessment (WOA) is the main outcome of the Regular Process, with reports on the first cycle (WOAI) and the second cycle (WOAII) already published.

The involvement of the Portuguese scientific community has increased from one cycle to the next, with 30 national experts involved in the preparation of WOAII, and there is still room to strengthen Portugal's contribution to the Regular Process. This event also aims to: publicize the Regular Process/WOAIII, as well as the two previous cycles (WOAI and WOAII); explain the added value of Portuguese participation in this process; recruit new experts for areas in which Portugal is underrepresented, including the socioeconomic component; and strengthen the remaining areas with more experts involved.

The MNE is the national representative in the Regular Process, with the FCT and the MNE sharing the role of National Focal Point. Researcher Maria João Bebiano, from CIMA-UAlg – the Marine and Environmental Research Center at the University of Algarve, is the Portuguese expert in the Group of Experts.