Mombasa becomes the first African city to host the Our Ocean Conference, as the 11th edition brings together governments, innovators, and communities around ocean conservation.
History is being made on the Kenyan coast. Mombasa has become the first African city ever to host the Our Ocean Conference — a landmark moment that places Africa not just on the map of global ocean conservation, but at its very centre.
The 11th edition of the prestigious international conference is now underway in Mombasa, bringing together heads of government, city leaders, scientists, innovators, and coastal communities from across the world around one shared and urgent mission: protecting the world's oceans for generations to come.
A Historic First for Africa
For decades, the conversation around ocean conservation has largely been shaped and hosted in the Global North. Mombasa's hosting of the Our Ocean Conference changes that narrative decisively.
By bringing the 11th edition to the African continent for the first time, the conference acknowledges what has long been true — that Africa's relationship with the ocean is ancient, intimate, and economically vital. From the fishermen of Likoni and Shimoni to the marine ecosystems of the East African coast, Africa has as much at stake in the future of the world's oceans as any region on earth. Now, Africa is leading the conversation.
What the Conference Brings Together
Over three days, the Our Ocean Conference will serve as a convergence point for the world's most consequential voices on ocean health and marine sustainability. Governments will make binding commitments. Cities will share innovation. Researchers will present data. Communities — including those whose livelihoods depend directly on healthy marine ecosystems — will have their voices heard on a global stage.
The overarching theme is one of shared responsibility. The ocean does not belong to any one nation or region. It is the lifeblood of the entire planet — regulating climate, sustaining biodiversity, feeding billions, and connecting continents. Protecting it demands collective action at the highest level, and that is precisely what this gathering is designed to produce.
Mombasa: The Right City at the Right Time
There is no more fitting location for this conversation than Mombasa. Kenya's coastal city has a centuries-old relationship with the Indian Ocean — a relationship built on trade, culture, fishing, and the rhythms of the sea. The ocean is not an abstraction here. It is woven into the identity of the city and the livelihoods of its people.
Hosting the Our Ocean Conference here sends a powerful message: that the communities most dependent on the ocean — coastal African cities among them — must be central, not peripheral, to the decisions that shape its future.
Our Ocean. Our Heritage. Our Future.
The conference theme captures something essential. The ocean is heritage — a shared inheritance passed down through generations of coastal communities across Africa and the world. It is also future — a resource whose health or degradation will determine the quality of life for billions of people yet to be born.
As Mombasa welcomes the world for these three days, Kenya and Africa stand as hosts, leaders, and advocates for the blue planet we all share.