Declaration by Ms. Tamara Elzein, Minister of Environment of Lebanon
At the Third United Nations Ocean Conference – UNOC3, Nice, France
“Free man, you will always cherish the sea!
The sea is your mirror; you contemplate your soul…”
For Baudelaire, the sea was a mirror of the soul. Today, it is the mirror of our disastrous excesses.
Warming waters, uncertainties surrounding thermohaline circulation, overexploitation, depletion of fish stocks, biodiversity loss, various forms of pollution, microplastics… The list of threats to our future is long.
Will the ocean still be the cradle of life tomorrow?
This uncertainty should haunt us.
Restoring the ocean’s capacity to nourish and sustain balance is our responsibility — we owe it to our children.
Coming from Lebanon, I represent a Mediterranean country that has shown that even in a state of collapse and submersion, a resurgence is always possible. So what can we do together?
Let us start by turning our commitments into real, effective actions for the sustainable management of our oceans — our collective treasure.
To do so — and I should not have to say this again — we must listen to scientists and researchers.
Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, that the cause of Cleopatra’s defeat by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC was explained a few years ago by a group of researchers? They identified a physical ocean phenomenon — dead water — as a key factor.
It is science that reveals the mysteries of the past, that sheds light on the threats of the present, and that proposes solutions for the future.
Supporting scientific research and following its recommendations are more than ever a vital necessity. This is our first and foremost battle.
Our second battle is the courage and political will to act. Facing global, complex, and multidimensional challenges — threats that will spare no one — requires participatory efforts from North to South and from East to West.
May this conference lead to greater solidarity, shared knowledge and resources, and funding and support mechanisms accessible to all.
Our third battle, to name only three, is ideological. We must rethink our relationship with the blue planet — blue like the ocean — rethink our economic models, our growth objectives, and reclaim control over technological progress.
The future is bleak without a shared vision grounded in renewed humanism, which, as Edgar Morin said, requires us to stop glorifying the image of a supernatural man — center of the world, master of nature, sovereign of the universe, with unlimited rights over all things.
We know this is false. The selfishness of nations and individuals, short-term thinking, and choices made in favor of present-day opulence and disregard for the future will collectively lead us to ruin.
There is still time to turn things around. I call for the courage of effort, collective action, and solidarity with future generations and with the most vulnerable — both nations and individuals — of our present world.
Ladies and gentlemen, the sea has shaped my country’s history, its culture, its economy, and its connections with the world. Lebanon’s destiny is inseparable from that of the Mediterranean.
In the name of the Lebanese people, I say to you: Let us act — before the ecological point of no return is reached.
To conclude, I commend the efforts of France and Costa Rica in organizing this Third United Nations Ocean Conference, and I announce that I have signed, on behalf of Lebanon, the International Treaty for the Protection of the High Seas and Marine Biodiversity — in the interest of humanity and future generations — with the aim of ratifying it before September.
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