Abstract
The world faces a triple challenge: halting and reversing biodiversity loss, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and addressing economic inequality. A healthy ocean is an essential part of the solution; it is home to the majority of life on Earth, is one of the world’s greatest allies against climate change, and is an engine of economic productivity. Yet the health of our ocean today is in steep decline in large part due to unsustainable industrial activity, and we are edging closer to dangerous tipping points. This poses immense risks—to people, planet, and to our collective prosperity and peace. Recovery of the ocean is possible if we act now - and companies have a key role to play in contributing to a nature-positive future.
At this mid-point in the UN Ocean Decade, we are at a critical juncture. Successfully addressing the triple challenge is possible, but it will require concerted and collaborative action by all actors—governments, academics, financial institutions, companies, communities, and individuals—at both the local and global level. In our ocean and on its coasts, this will require a transition away from business-as-usual activities that negatively impact ocean health, and towards a resilient, inclusive and sustainable blue economy that restores and regenerates the environment upon which we all depend.
Fortunately, progress in this direction is underway, and a new and ambitious concept is further mobilizing action. Nature positive is a unifying global goal and call to action that serves as a foundation for a better future. Achieving the nature-positive goal is not only possible, but is necessary to ensure that major environmental, social and business risks are avoided and that benefits for people and nature can be fully realized.
To make this happen in the ocean, we must account for the marine environment’s unique biophysical properties, its particular legal and policy landscape and the still notable gaps in our knowledge about it, not to mention the sheer size of the ocean and the practical challenges this poses for measurement, monitoring and restoration efforts at scale.
Within this context, this report is designed to support companies operating in marine and coastal areas to develop credible plans to contribute to the nature-positive global goal. Specifically, our recommendations focus on actions that companies in the offshore wind, coastal and marine tourism, shipping, and seafood sectors can take, recognizing that their business operations and value chains interface with nature in the ocean and on its coasts.
The principles and pathways for action complement, inform, and build on existing efforts, notably the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN)’s Ocean Hub and cross-realm guidance for setting science-based targets, and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) approach, disclosure recommendations, and other sector-specific guidance.
This document uses SBTN’s action framework, AR3T, as an organizing principle. We set out an illustrative set of evidence-based actions that companies can take to avoid future (negative) impacts, reduce unavoidable (negative) impacts, restore and regenerate ecosystems, and transform the broader social and economic systems in which they operate. By mapping these actions along the AR3T framework, this publication aims to help companies begin to develop their own pathways to support the nature-positive global goal. Of particular importance within these illustrative pathways are the transformative actions, which push the envelope on what is typically considered, and underscore the importance of multi-actor collaboration: this is especially the case in the ocean, given the cumulative impacts of economic activity across sectors and across large geographic distances.
Of course, companies are not the only actors with a role to play in facilitating the nature-positive transformation. Financial institutions, policymakers, and civil society all play important roles in co-creating the systems and conditions to enable collective achievement of the nature positive global goal—and we will develop additional resources for these audiences in the future.
This document is not intended to be a standalone tool; nor is it a standard, certification scheme, or disclosure framework; nor a mechanism for providing verification, assurance or enabling claims of any kind. Instead, it provides guidance as an entry point for companies to begin contributing credibly to the nature-positive goal through actionable pathways aligned to the AR3T mitigation hierarchy.
Transforming today’s blue economy to meet the needs of nature and people will require collective action. Companies have an important role to play—and the future of many ocean industries may be on the line. The nature-positive goal serves as a valuable guidepost for action. While the challenge of halting and reversing nature and biodiversity loss is substantial, there is reason for optimism: significant recovery may be possible for marine systems by 2050 if the main drivers of biodiversity loss are addressed at speed and at scale.