The Second World Ocean Assessment Volume 1

In its resolutions 57/141 and 58/240, the General Assembly decided to establish a regular processunder the United Nations for global reporting and assessment of the state of the marineenvironment, including socioeconomic aspects, both current and foreseeable, building on existingregional assessments. In its resolution 71/257, the Assembly recalled that the scope of thefirst cycle of the Regular Process focused on establishing a baseline and decided that the scopeof the second cycle would extend to evaluating trends and identifying gaps. The programme ofwork for the period 2017–2020 of the second cycle of the Regular Process includes the preparationby the Group of Experts of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment ofthe State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, of the second WorldOcean Assessment, building on the baselines established by the First Global Integrated MarineAssessment (first World Ocean Assessment). In its resolution 72/73, the Assembly decided thatthe Group of Experts should proceed on the basis of a single comprehensive assessment. Thepresent document was prepared by the Group of Experts in accordance with those decisions.