Amid challenges posed by climate change, India has made a strong pitch for designing region-specific ocean observations for forecasting and roping in NGOs to harness traditional knowledge for better understanding of deep-sea ecosystems At the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona earlier this month, India also called for people-centred multi-hazard early warning systems and designing adaptation planning strategies to increase coastal resilience.

The Indian delegation to the Conference was led by Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran and comprised experts in the area of ocean studies, including T Srinivasa Kumar, Director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

Ravichandran also urged integration of ocean observation systems across platforms in accessible and usable formats, bringing focus on use of science for policy and decision making by coastal cities and a greater emphasis on region specific ocean observations.

India had convened the Indian Ocean Regional Decade Conference in Hyderabad in February to deliberate on ocean decade challenges and steps to address the same.

At the Barcelona conference, India also stressed on increasing bio-geo-chemical and coastal observations and the need to reinvigorate ocean data management programs such as the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), the digital twins and capacity development hub initiatives. Ravichandran also stressed on the need to design regional projects such as ocean forecasting that demonstrate the end-to-end operational ocean value chain to user communities.

He also underscored the need to align existing and future initiatives with the UN Ocean Decade Challenges Ravichandran said there was a need of bringing traditional knowledge through involvement of NGOs, local communities, and industry partners in ocean literacy and other related programs.

The United Nations had proclaimed 2021-30 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to stimulate knowledge generation to reverse the decline of the state of ocean systems and catalyse new opportunities for sustainable development of the massive marine ecosystem.

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