At the Our Ocean conference in Panama, participants pledged nearly $20 billion to protect the oceans. A total of 341 commitments with a total value of 19.9 billion dollars were made, said the management of the ocean conference at the end of the two-day meeting on Saturday night.

The US government alone promised almost six billion dollars for 77 projects. The special envoy for climate issues, John Kerry, announced investments in marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries and renewable energies, among other things. For its part, the EU wants to increase spending on the world’s oceans to 816.5 million euros in 2023. Host country Panama announced plans to almost double the size of its marine protected areas.

In the future, more than 54 percent of the country's exclusive economic zone will be under protection. This zone extends 200 nautical miles from the coast of a country into the sea. There, the states have special rights under the law of the sea, such as exclusive fishing rights and rights to exploit natural resources.

At the international conference "Our Ocean", representatives from governments, the private sector, organizations and civil society from 70 countries discussed how to protect the world's oceans. The conference was held for the first time in 2014 at the initiative of the US government. The next ocean conference will take place in Greece next year.