IMO was among the participants at the eighteenth international meeting on Large Marine Ecosystems, where project leaders discussed and shared best practices related to capacity-building programmes covering marine ecosystems, coastal management, biodiversity and coastal climate change adaptation. The conference was held at the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) headquarters in Paris, France (6-8 December). IMO’s Antoine Blonce represented the GloBallast Partnerships Programme, a Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-IMO project which is being executed by IMO to assist developing countries to reduce the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens in ships’ ballast water and implement the IMO Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention. The 18th Annual Large Marine Ecosystems Meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the contribution of GEF-funded and other marine projects to implement of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, particularly SDG 14 related to the oceans, ahead of the forthcoming UN Conference (June 2017) to support the implementation of SDG 14.