The oceans

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Good morning to all the representatives of the permanent missions, interim representatives and permanent observers, Mr. Secretary General, Mr. Assistant Secretary General.

We express our gratitude to the Chair of this Permanent Council for recognizing the importance that the use of the oceans as a resource for sustainable development deserves and for bringing it before this special meeting of the Permanent Council. We also thank the Permanent Missions of Argentina and Chile and the Observer Mission of France, which our Delegation supported in having this item included in the order of business. To each of the distinguished speakers we offer our congratulations and, at the same time, our thanks for sharing their knowledge and experience and for enriching today's presentations with their perspectives.

The Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic wishes to use this opportunity as well to recognize our Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Orlando Jorge Mera, for his eloquent presentation and for raising in this gathering the need to take up again the existing commitments, and those undertaken more recently after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), with regard to climate change and, in particular, to the need to protect our oceans by making proper use of them and recognizing that their preservation is a sine qua non for achieving sustainable development.

Mr. Chair, our region enjoys long coastlines along which a great many people live, for whom the oceans represent not only a precious natural asset and a place of recreation but also one of the primary sources of economic activity. It follows that the preservation of the marine ecosystem is essential to the food and nutritional security of our people, especially for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It is therefore necessary to adopt best practices in handling matters as basic as the dumping of waste at sea, including plastic waste, through to the most complex, such as the discharge of oil, chemicals or wastewater, all with the aim of ensuring the conservation of the entire marine ecosystem. The attainment of so fundamental an objective will be possible only once we become aware of our responsibilities as a region, as States and as individuals.

Mr. Chair, we wish to end our statement by echoing a passage from the address delivered by the Dominican President, Mr. Luis Abinader, at the United Nations on September 22, and I quote: “We have the historic responsibility to leave a better world than the one we found, but this is possible only if we take seriously the global transition toward a new model of production that is ecological, sustainable, inclusive and equitable, in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That change is possible only through a global and multilateral effort that guarantees the rule of law, human rights, the well-being of all people and the preservation of the environment, leaving no one behind.”

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.