Oceans Current

BANKING ON A BETTER FUTURE

In the week when British-South African endurance swimmer and ocean advocate Lewis Pugh is due to complete his 120kim swim from Saudi Arabia to Hurghada, Egypt, passing, Sharm el-Sheikh, where world leaders will be gathering for COP27 in November, it's been reported that Gabon is in talks with The Nature Conservancy to reorganise $700million of its debt to fund marine conservation.

Lee White, the central African nation's environment minister, said in an interview that the US based global environmental organization, will buy Gabon's Eurobond debt at a lower interest rate and the difference will be used to fund marine conservation at around $5million a year for around 15 years. Gabon has already created 20 protected areas covering 26% of its marine waters, or 53,000 square kms (20,500 square miles) and is a signature of the '30 by 30' oceans initiative. It's thought to have the highest density of leatherback turtle nesting sites worldwide and the coast is an important seasonal breeding and calving ground for humpback whales. There are also 5 IUCN red-listed whale and dolphin species and over 25 species of sharks and rays. It's thought that this Eurobond transaction may be the biggest of its kind.

Meanwhile, after Lewis Pugh's 120 km Red Sea swim, which is expected to take 2 weeks to complete, he'll travel to Cairo and London for media interviews, before returning to attend COP27 in November to call for the world's remaining countries to sign up to '30% of the world's oceans to be protected by 2030', stressing to global leaders the role healthy oceans play in mitigating against the Climate Crisis.