Samuda calls for simpler, connected system for seaside residents during UN speech

NEW YORK, United States — Jamaica’s Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change, Matthew Samuda, took a clear message to the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday, emphasising that the ocean is one system, and the rules that protect it should work as one too. “The ocean is one connected system. Our governance should reflect that reality,” Samuda told the Solutions Dialogue on Ocean Action and Leadership at UN Headquarters in New York. Speaking for the fishers, coastal families and small island nations who live by the sea every day, the minister said the world does not lack ocean agreements. The problem is making them work together on the ground. “Communities do not experience climate change separately from biodiversity loss,” he said. “Yet the international system often asks us to respond to these interconnected issues through separate processes, separate reporting requirements and separate financing mechanisms.” His answer is not more bureaucracy, but better teamwork: “The answer is not necessarily another institution, but rather stronger coordination among the institutions we already have.” Samuda called for less paperwork for small island developing states, and for funding that rewards projects delivering more than one benefit, such as mangrove restoration, which protects coastlines, wildlife and communities at the same time. He urged the UN Secretary‑General to bring the system together, and held up Jamaica’s own National Council on Ocean and Coastal Zone Management (NCOCZM) as a model for other nations. For Jamaica, the issue is personal. Approximately 80 per cent of Jamaicans live near the coast where Hurricane Melissa caused damage, losses and costs estimated at US$12.2 billion, more than half of the country’s 2024 gross domestic product. “If we were designing international ocean architecture afresh, we would start with the ocean rather than the institutions,” Samuda said. The minister closed by inviting officials to Jamaica’s hosting of the 13th Our Ocean Conference to be held in Montego Bay in June 2029.