Originally published on grida.no.

Pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing – the list of what ails the world’s oceans is a long one. 

The good news is that there is a lot of work going on around the world by governments, management bodies, NGOs, UN agencies, the private sector and many others to tackle these problems. The bad news is that all too often they work in silos and don’t have the capacity (or time) to find out who else might be working in their area or to share information.

But every two years, hundreds of people and organizations funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) get together at the International Waters Conference to connect and learn from each other. And GRID-Arendal is there. 

This year’s conference, the ninth, has just concluded in Marrakech, Morocco and was attended by about 300 people. Tiina Kurvits is GRID-Arendal’s project manager for GEF programmes. She explains why the conference is important: