The prize is awarded to prominent individuals who advocate the protection and preservation of the sea in politics and society. The first winner, in 2006, was Klaus Topfer, former director of the United Nations (U.N.) Environment Programme and German Minister for the Environment.
The prize is named after Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, known as “the Mother of the Oceans.” The daughter of noted German writer Thomas Mann, she worked tirelessly to promote integrated management of oceans as the “common heritage of mankind” and to build the capacity of developing nations to manage their ocean resources. She had a major impact on the U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea and was the founder of the International Ocean Institute, with 25 teaching centers around the world.
The Meerespreis Jury cited Cicin-Sain's “political and scientific engagement for an ecosystem-based integrated management of the oceans [which] has been instrumental in promoting a responsible and sustainable use of marine environment within the international public.”
Cicin-Sain has been invited to accept the prize in Berlin on Nov. 26, from Schlesswig-Holstein's minister-president, Peter Harry Carstensen. Another celebration of the award is planned during the Blue Planet Forum in Brussels, Nov. 27, organized by the European Committee of the Regions and the Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs of the European Commission.
Cicin-Sain also holds appointments as professor of political science and international relations and professor of urban affairs and public policy. As director of the Mangone Center for Marine Policy, she organizes and administers research, policy analyses, conferences and publications and advises government and nongovernment organizations. The center's research projects have focused on cross-national studies of integrated coastal and ocean management; U.S. national ocean and coastal policy; implementation of international agreements on oceans; marine biotechnology policy; ecosystem management and GIS (Geographic Information System) remote sensing applications; and offshore marine aquaculture.
A leader in the field of integrated coastal and ocean governance, both in the United States and around the world, Cicin-Sain has forged international collaboration among all sectors of the international oceans community to advance the global oceans agenda.
Cicin-Sain serves as organizer, cochairperson and head of secretariat of the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands, initially mobilized in 2001 to place issues related to oceans, coasts and island states on the agenda of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and to agree on a detailed set of global ocean targets and timelines. Since 2001, the Global Forum has brought together ocean leaders from governments, nongovernmental organizations, U.N. agencies, the private sector and scientific associations from 93 countries to promote the implementation of international ocean agreements, analyze emerging policy issues and advance international consensus on unresolved ocean issues.
Cicin-Sain has served or is serving as a policy adviser to: international organizations--UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Bank, U.N. Environment Programme, Inter-American Development Bank; national governments-- Albania, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, United States, Vietnam; and U.S. coastal states and counties. Since 1991, she frequently has participated in U.N. negotiations on oceans and coasts, including the 1992 Earth Summit, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and annual U.N. negotiations on oceans. Among her advisory appointments, she has served on various boards of the U.S. National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering), including the Marine Board and the Ocean Studies Board and on the Department of Interior's Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf. Her experience also includes work as a senior policy adviser in the International Program Office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); a scientific adviser to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy; an adviser to the Independent Oceans Commission, Portugal; an adviser to the Ocean Policy Research Foundation in Japan; on the Academic Committee of Xiamen University in China; and a visiting professor of marine policy at the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Study in Tokyo.
Cicin-Sain is the author of more than 100 publications on marine policy, with an emphasis on crosscutting issues related to integrated ocean and coastal governance, and she serves as editor-in-chief of the international journal, Ocean & Coastal Management. Her 1998 book, Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management: Concepts and Practices, has been used in academic and governmental training efforts around the world. Her 2000 book, The Future of U.S. Ocean Policy: Choices for the New Century, which has been called “Šthe ultimate guide to the emerging debate on U.S. ocean governance,” presented a blueprint for national ocean policy reform in the United States. Integrated National and Regional Ocean Policies: Comparative Practices and Future Prospects, to be published in 2008, brings together in-depth analyses of the experiences of 15 nations and four regions of the world that have taken concrete steps toward crosscutting integrated oceans governance and provides international guidance on emerging best practices in the development and implementation of national and regional ocean policies.
In 2002, Cicin-Sain received, with the late Robert W. Knecht, former codirector of the center, the Ocean and Coastal Stewardship Award at the California and the World Ocean Conference.
Earlier in her career, Cicin-Sain served in two U.S. federal agencies--NOAA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development--was a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); founded and directed UCSB's Ocean and Coastal Policy Center; and served as a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
Born in Italy, Cicin-Sain spent her early years in Argentina, before immigrating to the United States. Cicin-Sain received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.
For more information on the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy at the University of Delaware, visit [www.ocean.udel.edu/cmp/] or e-mail [bcs@udel.edu]. For more about the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands, visit [www.globaloceans.org].