2020 Coastline Clean-Up

In what has become an annual event in honor of World Oceans Day, WMU students again joined forces with the City of Malmö and the SEA-U Marine Science Center on cleaning up Malmö's coastline. Due to social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s clean-up was a bit different with SEA-U bringing the clean-up equipment (clean gloves, large forceps, plastic bags, scales) to WMU for the students to use in cleaning up the canal area around the WMU Building on 13 June. 

WMU’s participation in the clean-up is a student-led initiative organized by the Student Council and the Ocean Sustainability, Governance, and Management specialization students. Roughly 40 participants, including Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of WMU, removed and disposed of 50kg of trash. “I have had the pleasure of joining the students on each of the annual World Ocean Day clean-up events since they started in 2018. Through this simple act, the University is giving back to the Malmö community as well as living the commitment that WMU instills within all of our students - be a part of the change you want to see, and we all have a role to play, no matter how simple, in supporting achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda,” said President Doumbia-Henry. 

The United Nations celebrates World Oceans Day annually on 8 June as an opportunity to raise global awareness of the benefits humankind derives from the ocean and our individual and collective duty to use its resources sustainably. A healthy world ocean is critical to our survival. Since its founding, WMU has contributed to sustainable use of the ocean by focusing on the implementation and enforcement of IMO instruments to reduce accidents and ship-source pollution. Building on this strong foundation, ocean-related matters have become part of WMU’s mandate and are now incorporated across all degree programmes.