Poster of the campain «RIO+20: Our Future Depends on Our Planet Ocean». Photography of Sebastiao Salgado / Amazonas images

Tara Expeditions at Rio+20

Twenty years after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and ten years after the Johannesburg Summit 2002, protection of our ecosystems and sustainable development will again be on the agenda at the Summit in Rio in June, 2012.
Tara Expeditions will participate in the program.
Etienne Bourgois, Romain Troublé and André Abreu, respectively Tara Expedition's president, secretary general, and Brazilian delegate, and Chris Bowler and Colomban de Vargas, scientific coordinators of Tara Oceans, will be present.
Since 2003, the Tara Expeditions Foundation has been organizing scientific and educational missions aboard the schooner Tara. These expeditions have focused primarily on the subject of oceans and climate change. During Tara's stopover in New York in February 2012, the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon came aboard the boat and recognized the importance of the Tara Oceans Expedition in the context of new negotiations on the future of the world's oceans which will take place at Rio+20.

Since our stopover in Rio in 2010, in the spirit of dialogue and commitment Tara Expeditions has become associated with various personalities,  universities and NGOs, in order to propose  during the Rio+20 conference a media campaign, an agenda of meetings, discussions, exhibits, films and educational activities.  Our objective is to inform and  mobilize the general public  about the  challenges concerning the oceans. People must become totally aware of the subject in order to make this summit an historical turning point, and create a strong current in the direction of sustainable management and an efficient governance of the oceans.
  
Activities aimed at the general public will be capped by a world premiere screening of the film Planet Ocean, directed by Yann Arthus Bertrand and Michael Pitiot.

The role of Tara Expeditions:  recommandations and a campaign aimed at the general public – «RIO+20: Our Future Depends on Our Planet Ocean»

Since early 2012, Tara Expeditions has been following negotiations at the UN in New York in order to better understand and communicate about the process which we hope will result in the establishment of concrete middle- and long-term  solutions. The Tara team, from its beginnings has sought to put education and public awareness at the center of its goals. We believe that the changes necessary for the planet will not happen without greater participation of the public. On issues concerning the oceans – referred to as the “blue agenda” – we note a wide lack of understanding, compared to the challenges of  climate  change, preservation of forests, and other themes on the “green agenda”.

In the context of Rio+20, the blue agenda needs to occupy an important place in the text that will be submitted to heads of state. In addition to the primary questions brought to the negotiation table – fishing quotas, governance of the high seas, protected marine areas – there will be new challenges and priorities such as acidification of the oceans, multiplication of oceanic zones with little or no oxygen, pollution by plastic, and regulation of new sea routes through the Arctic. Degradation of ecological conditions in the oceans is one of the most serious threats to the future of humanity. Our actions are aimed at maintaining the balance of the Earth's ecosystem and  assuring the future of mankind on the planet. 

Nearly 30 years after the Montego Bay 'Law of the Sea' Convention, Rio+20 can be an historic moment in the establishment of agreements and political actions to keep the world's oceans in good health. Our survival depends upon it.

In this context, the campaign «Rio+20: Our Future Depends on Our Planet Ocean» aims to promote a strong collective message and create meeting places for various groups: universities, multilateral institutions and the general public. We want to ensure that the dangers confronting the world's oceans are taken into account at  Rio+20. Our campaign involves a series of publications in the local and international press, events in town, conferences, exhibitions and educational activities, including a pavilion dedicated to the blue agenda within the People's Summit in the City Center.

This campaign is conducted in collaboration with the UN, and the support of various networks and organizations such as Tara Expeditions, High Seas Alliance, Mission Blue, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and the Pew Environment Trust. These organizations will publish a joint manifesto on June 8th.


Program for Tara Expeditions at Rio+20

- International Ocean Day – beginning of the campaign “RIO+20: Our Future Depends on Our Planet Ocean”
Declaration about the Ocean at Rio+20 by all partners in the campaign.
Date: June 8

- Participation of Dr. Colomban de Vargas,  scientific coordinator of Tara Oceans, in a TEDx Special Rio+20 
Dates: June 11 or 12
Place: Copacabana Fort

- Participation of André Abreu, Tara Expeditions representative in Brazil, at the GESCOM meeting on coastal management

Date: June 11  

Place: Copacabana Fort

- Activities at the Rio+20 Blue Pavilion (for NGOs and associations). Photo exhibit by Tara Oceans Expedition and partners
Dates: June 14, 19, 20 & 21  
Places: Blue Pavilion, Flamengo Park, gardens of the Museum of Modern Art

- Riocentro / World Forum on the Oceans 
Projections of films et animations with other NGOs
Date: June 16 


- World Premiere of Planet Ocean
A film by Yann Arthus-Bertand and Michael Pitiot produced by Hope, with the support of Omega, in association with Tara Expeditions.
Place: Odeon Cinema, the Good Planet Film Festival
Date: June 19

Web:
- Site of the campaign RIO+20: Our Future Depends on Our Planet Ocean . On-line starting June 8th: www.oceansinc.org
- Site: Tara Expeditions
- Site for children: Tara Junior
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