The President of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection heads a delegation to the event, held as part of the Ocean Decade.
The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, led by its President, Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, Patron of the Alliance of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (ocean decade), attended the third Foundation’s Dialogue in Monte Carlo from June 14 to 16, 2023, with HRH actively taking part in a rich and varied work program.
Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa participated in the high-level opening session, delivering a statement to express her particular appreciation for the ties that bind both shores of the Mediterranean, having each successively hosted the last two editions of the Foundations Dialogue. Her Royal Highness reiterated her Foundation’s commitment for concrete action in favor of ocean within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), with the annual Foundations Dialogue as one of its pillars.
Following the opening session, Her Royal Highness attended a meeting with His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fishing, Rural Development, and Water and Forests, Albert II of Monaco Foundation Vice-President and Managing Director, Mr. Olivier Wenden, and the special advisor of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, H.E. Mr. Bernard Fautrier.
Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa then took an in-depth tour of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco and its renowned museum, with the scientific director of the Albert II of Monaco Foundation presenting the various tanks, shark lagoon, reserve, and coral farm, where coral is grown and preserved. HRH also visited the Monegasque Marine Species Care Center, home to the iconic loggerhead sea turtle in the rehabilitation basin. HRH then visited the Monaco and the Ocean exhibition space of the Monaco Oceanographic Museum, where HRH learned first-hand of Foundation initiatives to protect and preserve the environment, from Prince Albert I’s Ocean exploration and study to missions conducted by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. The visit ended with a visit to Mark Dion’s Oceanomania, the world’s most extensive collection of marine curiosities, and an immersion in the two poles.
The 3rd Foundations Dialogue, co-organized by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the Albert II of Monaco Foundation, continued proceedings with a central focus on action. Gathered for three days, some twenty international foundations examined ways of supporting, not least financially, Decade activities already underway, and those yet to start, to attain the Decade’s 2030 objectives.
As a founding member of the Ocean Decade Alliance and member of the Africa and Adjacent Island States Ocean Decade Taskforce, the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection has since the first edition of these dialogues been a voice for Africa and the South, to raise the resources required for implementing Decade action in countries lacking these resources, yet particularly exposed to climate change and its impact on oceans.
During the second edition, held in Morocco under the aegis of the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training, participants jointly promulgated the Bouknadel Declaration, a call for action and international financial solidarity. Implementation of the Bouknadel Declaration was a central focus of the 3rd Dialogue in M
