“It is not only the beauty of the sea we cannot keep taking for granted, it is also preventing or preserving our joint national capital accounts, biodiversity, our livelihoods, food resources, space, energy and genetic resources, etc., but luckily there is a growing awareness that we have to take action on marine nature and biodiversity.”

According to Vis, existing policies are mainly focusing on limiting future damage, thus the new program emphasizes the need for added actions to ensure the ecosystem’s long-term resilience, as it is clear that additional efforts are necessary.