Process kicks off at UNOC to foster consensus on measuring nature-positive outcomes for the ocean

Nice, France, 9 June 2025: As the global community gathers this week for the third United Nations Ocean Conference, a partnership is announced to develop consensus on measuring marine nature-positive outcomes.

The Nature Positive Initiative, Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance and World Economic Forum are convening initial discussions about what is needed to accurately and meaningfully measure nature positive in the ocean – and to identify critical data and monitoring gaps, and priority challenges. The partners are working together to establish scientifically credible, practical and standardized state of nature metrics for the marine realm. This includes marine ecosystem metrics and key performance indicators for the regenerative and sustainable blue economy.

Nature Positive is a global societal goal to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 on a 2020 baseline, and continue recovery to 2050 – agreed by all countries in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) in 2022. The goal means ensuring there is more nature across land and sea tomorrow than today, for the benefit of all.

Through 2024, the Nature Positive Initiative worked with stakeholders around the world to develop a draft minimum set of aligned terrestrial state of nature metrics for measuring nature positive contributions. The resulting framework is now in the piloting phase, to test and improve the practicality of the metrics and supporting measurement guidance. The Nature Positive Initiative is now working with ORRAA and WEF to build on this framework to encompass the marine realm, through a similarly comprehensive and inclusive consensus-building exercise.

Marco Lambertini, Convener of the Nature Positive Initiative, said: “The objective of the marine state of nature metrics is to inform business strategies, disclosure and reporting, and drive ambitious action at scale to build an ocean positive future for all. We are grateful for ORRAA and the Forum’s partnership in this endeavour and look forward to consulting with marine stakeholders across sectors and geographies to develop the most robust, aligned and effective metrics for an ocean positive world.”

Karen Sack, Executive Director of the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, said: “To unlock investment into ocean regeneration and sustainability, we need a common language of impact—one that’s clear for investors, grounded in the complexity of marine ecosystems, and also recognises the key role of local communities and Indigenous Peoples. That balance is what this partnership is aiming to achieve. Together with the Nature Positive Initiative and the World Economic Forum, we are building a framework that is scientifically credible, practical and finance-ready. ORRAA’s role is to ensure it is usable in real-world decision-making—from capital allocation to impact tracking—so that regenerative outcomes for the ocean can be delivered at scale.”

Alfredo Giron, Head of Ocean at the World Economic Forum, said: “To accelerate the transition to a regenerative blue economy, we need metrics and tools that are not only scientifically rigorous but also easy to implement, affordable, and actionable for scientists, civil society, businesses, and policymakers alike. This collaboration is about turning data into decisions—enabling transparency, accountability, and ambition across sectors for nature. Together with Nature Positive Initiative and ORRAA, we aim to build a globally trusted framework that supports transparency and accelerates ocean regeneration at scale, ensuring broad adoption and real-world impact across diverse contexts.”

While humanity is understanding and measuring the natural world more accurately than ever, such as through innovations in remote sensing, eDNA, bioacoustics and the growth in citizen science, there is no common approach to being able to know and demonstrate whether, in aggregate, nature is in recovery at different scales – especially for the ocean.

This lack of consensus on credible yet practical and accessible common metrics to measure genuine ocean-positive outcomes hinders private sector engagement, accountability, financial disclosure and the tracking of progress towards the mission of ‘halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030’ of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Consensus on meaningful and practical marine state of nature metrics will accelerate action towards the Nature Positive global goal, demonstrating contributions and driving action toward genuine outcomes. The Nature Positive Initiative does not seek to replace existing metrics but rather to build consensus with inspiring partners to drive collective action towards a nature-positive world.

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Media contacts:

• For Nature Positive Initiative: Gemma Parkes, +41 79 253 6386, gparkes@naturepositive.org  
• For World Economic Forum: Erin Skoczylas, +41 79 563 8479, erin.skoczylas@weforum.org 
• For Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance: Rishi Bhattacharya, +44 7767 654 070, rishi.bhattacharya@oceanriskalliance.org 

Note to editors:

• The Nature Positive Initiative, Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance and World Economic Forum are jointly hosting a side event during the UN Ocean Conference, “Measuring progress towards an Ocean Positive future”, on Thursday 12 June at 08:30-10:30 CEST at Novotel, Esplanade du Parvis de l’Europe 8-10, Nice, France. Find out more and register your interest to attend.