Irresponsible practices are pushing our ocean systems to the point of collapse. Improved management can help reverse this decline and restore ocean health.
Working with communities, civil society, businesses and governments around the world, WWF is solving the biggest challenges facing our marine environment.
The world's most important fisheries and ocean ecosystems are productive and resilient and improve livelihoods and biodiversity.
The world's ocean and coasts are home to an incredible array of life and vital to human health, livelihoods and cultures. But damaging and unsustainable human activities are weakening the ocean.
Fragile ecosystems such as corals are dying (corals are predicted to disappear by 2050), some species are at risk of extinction and others with major commercial value are just a shadow of their former abundance. Why is that a problem? Coral reefs provide refuges for a myriad of fish species and other marine life, as well as protection from storms and economic value of close to a trillion USD. Fisheries need to be carefully managed in order to be productive and to avoid undermining the ocean's health.
We pay the price – when the ocean suffers, so do millions of people around the world who depend directly on the marine environment to feed themselves and their families and who benefit from its many other major contributions to their lives.
► WWF Oceans Campaign
► Read WWF marine stories on ocean health and people
Populations of fish critical to human food security are in serious decline worldwide with some at risk of collapse according to the Living Blue Planet Report. Get the report ►
Our decades of experience, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Southern Oceans, has shown that people are key to sustain the ocean. Through projects that respond to people’s needs – for food, jobs, well-being – over the long term we can revive this complex but priceless biological engine which we all depend on.
WWF promotes a Sustainable Blue Economy to ensure that the economic development of the ocean contributes to true prosperity and resilience, today and long into the future.
We carry out our work through a large-scale, holistic approach that involves:
- Ramping up of ecologically coherent networks of marine protected areas to manage fishing activities collaboratively, on the basis of ecosystems, not individual fish stocks
- Effectively implement the Paris climate agreement and keep the global temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5C, so that invaluable ecosystems like coral reefs have a chance of surviving.
- Build strong, holistic ocean governance that ensures cooperation between states, and supporting efforts to develop a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
- Tackling overfishing
- Advocate for integrated ocean management
- Support small-scale fisheries and sustainable aquaculture
- Promote the value of services provided by ecosystems
- Manage the impacts of extractive industries (e.g. oil and gas, and seabed mining)
- Promote sustainable marine tourism
► Find out more about Our Solutions
The value of the ocean’s riches rivals the size of the world’s leading economies, but its resources are rapidly eroding.. Get the report ►
The WWF and TRAFFIC Shark & Ray Initiative aims to improve the management of shark fisheries, reduce demand and move international trade in sharks and rays toward sustainability.
Find out more ►
A blueprint focused on people's livelihoods and habitat protection
In the Northern Mozambique Channel, WWF and partners support governments to set up a regional vision and action plan that will enhance fisheries and protect critical habitat. Our ambition is that over time, this approach generates sustainable futures for coastal communities.
Find out more ►
