Sabine Roux de Bézieux, President of the Fondation de la Mer, has been named Personality of the Year 2021 by the Wista International network, which annually rewards a personality who works in the maritime sector. This network is made up of women who all hold positions of responsibility in the maritime environment and this is the first time that a Frenchwoman has been distinguished.
Sabine Roux de Bézieux has been at the head of the Fondation de la Mer since 2015. This organization’s mission is to promote the study of the oceans, disseminate knowledge, promote public debate and encourage innovation for the protection of oceans.
The president of the foundation, formerly a businesswoman and company director, is firmly convinced that the ocean is everyone’s business and that it absolutely must be placed at the heart of public debate and the business world. exactly. “We must reconcile ecology and economy”, she says. For this, the foundation has created an international label for companies called “Ocean approved”, which aims to identify the impacts of the company on the ocean with the ambition of reducing them or even canceling them.
Sabine Roux de Bézieux recognizes that we still have to fight to convince companies of the usefulness of this commitment. “Maritime companies are timidly starting to take an interest in the label”, she admits. This is also the case for business leaders passionate about the sea who see very well that the ocean is increasingly threatened by pollution and global warming. This label also affects more strategic or more visionary bosses who have fully integrated the links between the ocean and climate change, the circular economy or biodiversity.
“Salt water must be included in all school curricula.”
Sabine Roux from Bézieuxto franceinfo
Microplastic waste is the biggest threat to the ocean today. These particles, whose size is less than 5 millimeters, are found in water and on the coast and are ingested by fish, marine mammals but also sea birds. “The priority is to enforce the rules”, insists the president of the Fondation de la Mer, but it is also necessary to educate and sensitize the youngest. “We must anchor the ocean in all minds from an early age”, she says. The National Education already has programs around sustainable development, but Sabine Roux de Bézieux believes that we must go even further and that all subjects are a pretext to talk about the ocean, whether in science and life of the Earth, plastic arts, geography, history or literature.
Sabine Roux de Bézieux admits that she was disappointed by the results of COP26. “We expected a lot more commitments from our leaders”, she says.
The year 2022 will be rich in appointments to try to change things.
First there will be the One Ocean Summit in February, wanted by Emmanuel Macron.
The president of the Fondation de la Mer also puts a lot of hope in the draft global plastic treaty because, according to projections, plastic pollution in the oceans should triple by 2040.
Added to this are the UN negotiations on the high seas, which represents 64% of the planet’s surface, as well as the United Nations conference on the oceans, scheduled for Lisbon from June 27 to July 1, 2022. So that France takes the rotating presidency of the European Union in this first half of 2022, Sabine Roux de Bézieux calls on politicians: “States and governments must take their responsibilities”.