By Adrian “Ace” Buchan, ambassador for WSL PURE.

The sandstone felt cold and coarse as I traced my five-year-old finger along a groove carved out by the Aboriginals thousands of years earlier. I smiled at my dad as crisp morning light filtered through the forest, dappling its warmth on his broad-shouldered, six-foot frame. The cave entrance where we stood was underneath a small waterfall and completely obscured from the small bush track we followed a few minutes earlier. This special place was a secret passed down between friends and family who spent their free time in these National Parks scattered along Australia’s eastern coastline.

By Rosie Chambers, Campaign Manager for The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition’s Deep-sea Mining Moratorium campaign. 

Although most of us will never have the chance to visit the deep sea, in a healthy state it helps make all life on Earth possible. It provides a vast range of services, and in many ways is the planet’s life support system.

By Ati Bakush, Ekoru.

Growing up in Perth, Western Australia, our activities revolved around the ocean. Spending weekends at Cottlesloe Beach, sailing on the Swan River, jumping off Blackwall Reach, or fishing off the Applecross jetty. I had always taken the ocean for granted – it was always there.

By Vivienne Solís Rivera and Kim Sander Wright, ICCA Consortium.

Indigenous peoples, local communities and small-scale artisanal fisherwomen and fishermen are the rights-holders and custodians of marine life within their coastal and marine territories. All around the world, these people have deep bonds with specific areas or bodies of natural resources and over generations have developed a huge variety of effective forms of governance in the form of customs and rules that ensure nature is conserved and livelihoods are sustained. These “territories of life” are fundamental for the conservation and thriving of life on our planet.