5 June 2017: UN Environment is encouraging all concerned to make individual pledges to protect the earth’s water resources, through its joint campaign with a private US-based foundation, the Wyland Foundation. The two partners launched the Wyland World Water Pledge at the start of the UN Ocean Conference that took place in New York, US, from 5-9 June 2017. The launch also marked the beginning of their joint partnership to protect marine resources through UN Environment’s Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA).

The areas targeted for action under the Wyland World Water Pledge relate to many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6 on clean water sanitation, SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities, SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production, SDG 13 on climate action, SDG 14 on life below water, and SDG 15 on life on land. Pledges can be made through the website, wylandworldwaterpledge.com, by ticking a series of boxes that indicates participants’ willingness to reduce marine litter, food waste, and use of plastics, while promoting water-use efficiency and saving “indigenous green spaces.” The website adds up the collective impact of pledges as if they have been already fulfilled, and displays a running total on its home page, which, in late June 2017, stood at over three billion gallons of water “saved.”

The Wyland Foundation was founded in 1993 by an artist known for his murals of marine life. The foundation supports the protection of global marine resources, and works with both public and private-sector partners, including Toyota and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). [RONA Press Release] [Wyland World Water Pledge Website] [Wyland Foundation website]