World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced in Singapore this morning a $1.5 billion partnership to protect the world's oceans from overfishing, habitat loss and acidification brought about by rising global temperatures.

Speaking to the World Oceans Summit, Zoellick declared that oceans are "in danger." He called the new Global Partnership for Oceans a worldwide effort to restore ocean health and help developing countries that depend on fishing for their citizens' livelihoods.

"Fish stocks are crashing from over-exploitation. Rising pollution is flowing into the oceans from land, air and rivers, choking plant and animal life. Ocean habitats are disappearing -- some with alarming rapidity -- as coastal cities boom. A changing climate has brought warmer oceans, higher sea levels and ocean acidification," Zoellick said.

"Oceans are the natural capital of all countries, developed and developing. All countries suffer from degradation of these ecosystems."

The high-profile announcement is expected to be one of many that will emerge in the run-up to this summer's U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. The summit in Rio de Janeiro is expected to bring together heads of state, ministers, green groups and industry leaders to address some of the world's most pressing energy and environmental problems.

Up to now, oceans have not claimed a prominent spot on the agenda. The so-called zero draft of expected outcomes includes nine paragraphs describing the threats oceans face and calling for countries to implement various existing treaties and pledges. The partnership, some advocates said, could do more to put ocean health on the front burner of environmental concerns.

'Huge step forward'

"There is an urgent need to scale up the pace of ocean conservation around the world by bringing together a wide range of partners who are vested in the oceans," Nature Conservancy President Mark Tercek said in a statement. He called the World Bank partnership "a huge step forward for this."

Zoellick yesterday noted that environmental organizations, various arms of the World Bank and U.N. agencies devote hundreds of millions of dollars each year toward ocean protection, and scientific bodies like the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also are working on marine health. He said the problem requires a unified response.

In addition to a number of governments including those of Brazil and Kiribati, the partnership will include environmental agencies, scientific bodies like NOAA, industry organizations like the National Fisheries Institute and the World Ocean Council, and multilateral aid groups.

He pledged that the partnership will raise $300 million in "catalytic finance" for things like technical assistance to support government reforms as well as to manage protected areas. The group's goal is to leverage $1.2 billion in new funding, bringing the total, he said, to $1.5 billion for oceans over the next five years.

Among the goals: rebuilding at least half the world's fish stocks, increasing annual net benefits of fisheries to between $20 billion and $30 billion, turning around the current net economic loss suffered by global fisheries, more than doubling the area covered by marine protection from its current 2 percent and increasing sustainable aquaculture to provide two-thirds of the world's fish.

"Restoring our oceans to good health is an investment in all our future," Zoellick said.