The UN Ocean Decade Kickoff Conference for the Western Pacific and its Adjacent Areas was successfully held online from November 25 to 26, 2021. The conference was organized by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through its Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and attended by more than 1,000 people from all walks of life in the marine field worldwide. The conference was composed of a high-level ministerial forum and 17 interactive side events entitled "Decade Action Incubators". Among all these side events, the First Institute of Oceanography (FIO) successfully hosted two events themed "Ocean Prediction" and "Marine Spatial Planning" respectively.

The side event, themed "Ocean Prediction – Seamless Ocean Prediction and Service System from Ocean to Climate (SOS)", was co-convened and presided over by FIO researcher Qiao Fangli, Prof. Fredolin Tangang from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Xie Botao, a senior engineer from China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The vision of the Science for Ocean Sustainability (SOS) program is to develop a new generation of seamless ocean prediction and climate forecasting systems to provide high-quality services to the public and the scientific community, so as to achieve integrated ocean management, reduce and prevent the impacts of marine and climate natural disasters, protect marine ecosystems, and mitigate and adapt to climate change. More than 70 experts, scholars, government officials, managers of marine-related enterprises and representatives of other stakeholders from China, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia and IOC/WESTPAC attended the seminar. Eight special guests delivered keynote speeches. During the discussion, the participants highly praised the coupled wave-tide-current model and the Earth system model coupled with ocean surface waves developed by the FIO, expressed their desire for further cooperation, and showed great enthusiasm for participating in the SOS program.

Speakers of the event

The side event, themed "Marine Spatial Planning – Sea Area Use Conflict Resolution: Accelerating the Marine Spatial Planning Process in the Western Pacific Ocean and its Adjacent Areas", was convened and presided over by Zhang Zhiwei, a senior engineer from the FIO. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an ecosystem-based tool for the management of human marine development and utilization activities, and has become a solution to the conflicts of sea area use widely adopted by the international community. This incubator gathered MSP researchers and practitioners from the Western Pacific and its adjacent areas to share their ideas and opinions and improve action plans based on the international and regional MSP developments and trends, furthering the MSP development process in the region. More than 90 experts, managers and scholars from the Western Pacific and surrounding areas participated in the event. Six special guests from China, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, South Korea and UNESCO-IOC made keynote speeches, and Pan Xinchun, Vice President and Secretary-General of China Oceanic Development Foundation (CODF), made concluding remarks.

The successful holding of the two side events reflects the leading role of FIO scientists in the related fields of international marine cooperation, and shows the FIO's deep involvement and strong convening power in international marine cooperation under the framework of WESTPAC. By holding these two events, we further clarified and improved the structure, content and objectives of the SOS cooperation program proposed by the FIO, and also further publicized the FIO's MSP achievements and promoted the application of the MSP technology of the institute in the Western Pacific region.