The contribution of international scientific cooperation and related institutions to effective governance for the oceans: the cases of regional tsunami early warning systems and the Argo Project - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 296

8.5 Concluding remarks
The Future We Want , the outcome document adopted at the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 (Rio de Janeiro, 20-22 June 2012), calls on states to
'support marine scientific research, monitoring and observation of ocean acidification and
particularly vulnerable ecosystems, including through enhanced international cooperation in
this regard' (United Nations, 2012b ) . In spite of this, the Rio+20 conference did not em-
phasize the importance of MSR and operational oceanography for the sustainable develop-
ment of the oceans. A programme like Argo plays a major role in this task, but is also a
key instrument in ocean predictability and climate change. Argo is not specifically regulated
in UNCLOS or related legal instruments; however, it is an example on how to collaborate
internationally in MSR and how this has evolved since the adoption of UNCLOS. Indeed,
activities falling under operational oceanography, aimed at systematic measurements of the
seas, the oceans, and the atmosphere, rapid interpretation and dissemination of products in
the form of real-time descriptions of the state of the sea and continuous forecasts of the con-
ditions of the sea, are among the most important developments in oceanography in the last
40 years. Such activities rely on the use of multiple platforms, often automated - drifting
surface buoys, moored buoys, measurements from volunteer ships, tide gauges, profiling
floats, aircraft, and satellites - whose scope is significantly wider than that of traditional re-
search vessels. Some of these platforms are also vital in the collection of data essential for
the production of marine weather forecasts and tsunami advisories and warnings.
The outcome document of Rio+20 also underlined the need to foster collaboration
among academic, scientific, and technological communities, in particular in developing
countries, to 'close the technological gap between developing and developed countries,
strengthen the science-policy interface' (United Nations, 2012a ). However, the Rio de
Janeiro conference has not focused sufficiently the attention of states and other stakeholders
on the need to increase international cooperation in scientific programmes, failing in what
promised to be 'a unique opportunity to speed up implementation and to take action on