Despite growing awareness and political commitment for the protection of marine environments from upstream pressures, fragmented management and engagement of many key stakeholders in connected land, water and coastal systems continue to pose challenges.

The Action Platform for Source-to-Sea Management (S2S Platform) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that works to support coordinated and innovative approaches to governance and management from source to sea. It helps freshwater, coastal and marine experts to share experiences and contribute to global knowledge generation on source-to-sea interconnections, connect and engage in collaborative projects, promote successful practices, and take collaborative action to improve the management of land, water, coastal and marine linkages.

By doing so, it aims to enhance the efforts of the international community to fulfill inter alia its commitments to the Manila Declaration on Furthering the Implementation of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (UNEP-GPA, 2012) and contribute to the implementation of SDGs 6 and 14.