Autone Mululuma is a youth ocean advocate from Zambia, a landlocked country, who has dedicated 2025 to raising awareness about ocean protection and the High Seas Treaty. Through school outreach, government engagement, art campaigns and collaborations with youth groups like ActionAid Zambia and UNZANARSO, Autone has connected over 1,000 people to the cause, challenging the misconception that landlocked countries are disconnected from the ocean. Serving as a High Seas Youth Ambassador, Autone has also spoken alongside global ocean leaders, using their platform to highlight the role of youth in biodiversity and ocean conservation, and celebrating the ratification of the High Seas Treaty

Words by: Autone Mululuma, Zambia, High Seas Youth Ambassador

Change is inevitable. However true this may be, it does not really say when, where, or how big or fast this inevitable change will occur, or even whether it will be good or bad. And sometimes, this uncertainty impedes progress or even gives rise to new discoveries.

But one thing we can be certain of, about the inevitability of change, is that if we acknowledge the need for it sooner rather than later, we increase the chances of making a big and positive change—one we can foresee. The opposite is also true: if we do not start sooner, we threaten the likelihood of having control over the consequences of unanticipated, often negative, change.

Likewise, our ocean is a vast stretch of potential change—one that can be harnessed to serve both good and bad. While, through the years, actions toward positive change have been made, there have often been significant environmental and even cultural gaps. These gaps have not only made the endeavours to protect it fragmented but also far-fetched to accomplish, and have often left the most sophisticated and important elements of the ocean—its biodiversity—to bear the brunt. We are responsible for inflicting some of the cruellest human activities on an ecosystem that is meant to sustain us. A rather ironic and somewhat foolish thing to do.

But amidst all the noise of overfishing, marine plastic pollution, bottom trawling and the threat of deep sea mining, a clear political will to enforce policies to protect our ocean has prevailed.

Potent voices for the ocean have spent almost two decades formulating an agreement that would unite the globe, regardless of being coastal or landlocked, to protect our shared commons – the High Seas.

Twenty years later, we have a global Ocean agreement that can safeguard both people and nature, beyond coastal relations and centered on equity, mutual benefits and transfer of technology. The High Seas Treaty is an equalizer in ocean governance as we know it.

Having played a part, in my own way, as a High Seas Youth Ambassador to rally support for the treaty’s ratification, I could acknowledge the many gaps that lay between this powerful agreement and its entry into force. In my landlocked country context but also globally, there were so many social, political and cultural parts at play, some that may have been for or against it. However, the underlying and perhaps nuanced aspect was that those willing to see it through from beginning to now, from the most root-level collectives to multilateral groups like the High Seas Alliance, gave it hope for the future.

Today, as we look ahead to the first Conference of the Parties of the BBNJ, there is still much to be done. We must ensure that we do not suffer the lack of commitment and willingness to act according to its guidelines, as we have seen for other global climate policies such as the Paris Agreement.

I would also like to echo the importance of youth taking the lead, be it through grassroots activism, education or even policy influence. Because the future is ours to make and sustain. We shall look back at the decisions that were made, and draw inspiration from those that created a positive change for our ocean. It will be the basis to carve our own action to protect our shared commons in the future.

Indeed, there is so much we have no control over, but for the little influence we do have, let us make the most of it for both human and nature, for now and tomorrow.

For more information on the High Seas Alliance and their Youth Ambassadors, visit: https://highseasalliance.org/high-seas-youth-ambassadors/

The views in this article may not necessarily represent the views of other RISE UP network members or RISE UP as a whole. It is only through open dialogue and a diversity of ideas that we will arrive at the solutions necessary to restore Ocean health.