Country 2: Thailand
Sustainable Development Goal 14 aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development,” a goal which is very important to a country, such as Thailand, which is bordered by 2 oceans – the Pacific and the Indian. Progress towards SDG 14 is being measured against significant indicators and targets, which will all be necessary in order for Thailand to achieve SDG 14. These targets were created by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) and were agreed to by the international community in March 2016. The indicators and targets for SDG 14 range over a wide variety of issues that can be identified with the sea, the ocean, and the marine assets, and they attempt to lead the wide-based sustainable development of marine assets in Thailand and globally. A few targets, for example, 14.1, which intends to diminish marine pollution, for example, plastic, are now high on the political agenda in Thailand. Plastic, as of lately, made the news across Thailand following a dead pilot whale appearing on a southern Thai beach, having died due to it consuming an excessive number of plastic bags, which led to a huge public outcry about the effects of plastic pollution. Different indicators are less in the public eye and a bit more technical, for example, indicator 14.6, which hopes to deny certain types of subsidies. Regardless, all indicators should be accomplished if Thailand hopes that its efforts are successful enough to accomplish SDG 14.