From Commitments to Courts: Strategic Litigation for Effective Marine Protection

​30x30 is not only a political commitment to designate areas; it is a commitment to make conservation real. However, Target 3 does not simply call for 30% of the ocean to be labelled as protected. It calls for at least 30% of marine and coastal areas to be “effectively conserved and managed”, through ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas. Law—and strategic litigation—can be one of the mechanisms that turns “protected on paper” into “effectively conserved and managed” in practice. But what does effective mean, how does litigation work and what does it depend on? Several cases, leading from coastal waters to areas beyond national jurisdiction, and approaches presented at this event will show: Strategic litigation can take different forms, but its power lies in turning legal obligations and rights into accountability.

​Speakers:

• ​Sascha Müller-Kraenner, CEO at Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), Germany

• ​Bellinda Bartolucci, Senior Environmental Lawyer at ClientEarth, Germany

• ​Fikerman Saragih, General Secretary at KIARA, Indonesia

• ​Prof. Alex Rogers, Deputy Director of Strategic Science Programmes and Partnerships, National Oceanography Center, UK

​Event organised by Deutsche Umwelthilfe