Leading cruise lines announced partnerships with ocean conservation non profits to improve and sustain world’s oceans and seas. Carnival Corporation will host the Nature Conservancy’s Mapping Ocean Wealth Annual Meeting Being at Miami and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. together with WWF announced their five-year partnership setting ambitious and measurable goals to reduce company’s environmental footprint.
Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation will welcome representatives from leading conservation, science and sustainability organizationsJan. 26-27 to its Miami headquarters for The Nature Conservancy’s Mapping Ocean Wealth annual forum.
The Mapping Ocean Wealth initiative is designed to create a new kind of knowledge about how and where ocean benefits are produced – and mapping those areas. Coral reefs and mangroves, for example, provide numerous benefits, including fish production, flood mitigation, erosion control and recreation. The project will be transformational to ocean management and will improve investments in conservation, restoration and economic development by identifying and mapping the areas where these benefits are produced.
The meeting will also highlight updated research in the areas supporting tourism, the coastal ocean’s CO2 sequestration capacity and coastal protection specific to coral reefs and mangroves, which are present in ports around the world and whose health is an important environmental priority for Carnival Corporation and its 10 cruise line brands operating in more than 700 global ports.
Along with Carnival Corporation, representatives from The World Bank, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), World Resources Institute (WRI),University of British Columbia, Duke University, GRID-Arendal and others will join The Nature Conservancy at the meeting.
“Our annual meeting will advance the discussion of how ocean habitats benefit us all, and how well-informed conservation initiatives can yield lasting, measurable outcomes,” added Rob Brumbaugh, director of ocean mapping and planning for The Nature Conservancy.
“Mapping Ocean Wealth demonstrates what the ocean does for us today so that we can maximize what the ocean does for us tomorrow.”
Supporting the 2016 Mapping Ocean Wealth meeting is the latest example of Carnival Corporation’s ongoing support of The Nature Conservancy. In June 2015, the company announced that its first year of supporting The Nature Conservancy helped the conservation organization further some of its critical preservation activities. Highlights included:
- building new coral nurseries in the Caribbean
- transplanting 20,000 corals in the Bahamas and U.S. Virgin Islands
- installing new pilot reef enhancement structures to provide greater habitat for fish and a potential area for future coral growth in Grenada’s Grenville Bay
Royal Caribbean Cruises
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced a five-year global partnership to help ensure the long-term health of the oceans.
The partners will set measurable and achievable sustainability targets that will reduce Royal Caribbean’s environmental footprint, raise awareness about ocean conservation among the company’s more than five million guests, and support WWF’s global oceans conservation work.
The targets announced focus on supply chain sustainability and emissions reductions through 2020. Royal Caribbeanand WWF also are working together to develop targets aimed at strengthening the company’s sustainable sourcing strategy and its destination stewardship and sustainable tour operations platforms.
“The threats that are facing the ocean are greater than ever – in the last 30 years, some ocean wildlife populations have declined by nearly 50 percent. If we are going to reverse the downward trends, we must take serious steps to repair, restore and protect the oceans,” said Carter Roberts, WWF-US President and CEO.
“This initiative centers on two core concepts: first, committing to specific and measurable targets to reduce carbon emissions, increase sustainable sourcing and build destination stewardship; and second, comprehensively engaging their millions of travelers to learn about the ocean and then act to help save it.”
