Team Malizia's Boris Herrmann becomes ambassador of the UN Ocean Decade in Germany
by Team Malizia 16 Jan 2024 02:19 AEDT
Malizia - Seaexplorer with Climate Action Now and UN SDG branding © Antoine Auriol
Skipper Boris Herrmann has been announced as ambassador to the German Committee of the United Nations' Decade of the Ocean, with the mission to anchor marine conservation and research more firmly in the public consciousness.
Team Malizia's Cornelius Eich becomes a new member of the committee for a duration of three years. Building on existing achievements in Ocean science and outreach, Team Malizia is furthering its support towards the global effort to stimulate action at all levels and find solutions to create a healthy Ocean by 2030.
As Boris Herrmann and his Team Malizia take part in offshore races around the world, they carry their A Race We Must Win - Climate Action Now! message and the colourful United Nations Sustainable Development Goal wheel on the sails of their Malizia - Seaexplorer race yacht, with the aim of raising public awareness and inspiring ambitious climate action around the globe. Today, they are going one step further in actively shaping a sustainable future for our Ocean. Skipper Boris Herrmann becomes one of the eight ambassadors of the German Committee of the UN's Decade of the Ocean (ODK). Team Malizia's Head of Sustainability and Partnerships, Cornelius Eich joins the German Committee as one of its new members for the next three years.
The Ocean covers over 70% of our blue planet and plays a crucial role in our lives and climate change: It regulates the climate, absorbs tremendous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, and provides the air we breathe and the water needed for all life on Earth. The Ocean provides transportation routes for goods, gives us food, raw materials, renewable energy, and is home to a fascinating array of biodiversity. Yet we exploit the sea, destroy its ecosystems, and bring the Ocean to its limits.
In 2021 the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Ocean Decade is a global campaign with the goal of working together to shape the Ocean we need for the future: Healthy, full of life, with protected areas, but also managed sustainably. Science-based solutions are to be developed and implemented for the Ocean's most pressing problems. However, this enormous task requires not only marine research but also supporters from all sectors of industry.
The German Committee of the Decade of the Ocean (ODK) implements the internationally set tasks and goals in Germany, and works on a voluntary basis: up to 15 members are appointed for a period of three years. They come from academia, business, non-governmental organisations, administration and politics as well as foundations. The first cohort will be replaced in mid-January 2024 and new members, such as Team Malizia's Cornelius Eich, will take up their work.
Also new from January: eight public figures will support the committee as ambassadors through targeted communication to anchor marine conservation and research more firmly in the public consciousness. Amongst them: professional sailor Boris Herrmann, future shaper and founder Monika Griefahn, marine biologist and author Julia Schnetzer, journalist Lars Abromeit, polar researcher and author Arved Fuchs, lawyer Anna von Rebay, extreme sportsman André Wiersig and Björn Both, frontman of the band "Santiano" and a sailor.
Since August 2023, the ODK has had a full-time coordinator in Ulrike Heine, and in addition to the virtual home on the website ozeandekade.de, the physical office of the ODK is located at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a long-time scientific partner of Team Malizia.
"Through our activities around science, education and partnership, Team Malizia wants to actively shape the UN Ocean Decade", commented Boris Herrmann. "The Ocean is the most vital organ on our planet. Global warming is in fact Ocean warming. So we must never tire of emphasising the need to preserve and protect it, but also the need to get actively involved and motivate and inspire others to do the same."
"It is a great honour to become a member of the German Committee of the UN Decade of the Ocean," said Cornelius Eich. "I am looking forward to the task of further deepening the social discourse on the importance of the Ocean for us humans, but also to tackling it in concrete terms: We need projects, funding, and networking across social groups and sectors such as education, business, science, and civil society. Ocean protection is not an option, it is a necessity."
Team Malizia's A Race We Must Win - Climate Action Now! mission is only possible due to the strong and long-lasting commitment from its seven main partners: Zurich Group Germany, Kuehne+Nagel, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Llyod, Schütz, the Yacht Club de Monaco, and EFG International. These partners band behind Team Malizia to support its campaign, each of them working towards projects in their own field to innovate around climate solutions.
The German Committee of the UN Ocean Decade 2024-2027:
Antje Boetius, Stefan Bülow, Cornelius Eich, Karin Kammann-Klippstein, Alexis Katechakis, Steffen Knodt, Anne-Marie Melster, Kim Nierobisch, Marja Ritterfeld, Susanne Stampf-Sedlitzky, Nuri Max Steinmann, Martin Visbeck, Holger Watter, Ute Wilhelmsen, Nadja Ziebarth
Ambassadors of the German Committee of the UN Ocean Decade:
Lars Abromeit, Björn Both, Arved Fuchs, Monika Griefahn, Boris Herrmann, Anna von Rebay, Julia Schnetzer, André Wiersig
Website of the Ocean Decade in Germany: ozeandekade.de/en
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/deutsches-komitee-der-un-ozeandekade-odk