Critical time for our oceans and forests | Letters

Your timely editorial about the need to improve our knowledge of the ocean (8 August) rightly stresses the responsibility of political leaders to create the means to find out more about the 70% of the planet covered by the ocean. But it is not only in the physical, biological and chemical sciences that we must improve our knowledge. There are large gaps in our knowledge about the economic and social aspects of human interactions with the sea.

In 2002 the UN general assembly accepted the need for "a regular process for the global reporting and assessment of the marine environment, including socioeconomic aspects", as recommended by the 2002 Johannesburg world summit on sustainable development. Implementing this immense and novel project has been a slow and, at times, difficult task.