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OCEAN TREATY: HISTORIC AGREEMENT REACHED AFTER DECADE OF TALKS

Published
5 March

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Image source, Getty Images
By Esme Stallard
Climate and Science Reporter, BBC News


Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world's oceans
following 10 years of negotiations.

The High Seas Treaty aims to help place 30% of the seas into protected areas by
2030, to safeguard and recuperate marine nature.

The agreement was reached on Saturday evening, after 38 hours of talks, at UN
headquarters in New York.

The negotiations had been held up for years over disagreements on funding and
fishing rights.

The last international agreement on ocean protection was signed 40 years ago in
1982 - the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

That agreement established an area called the high seas - international waters
where all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research - but only 1.2%
of these waters are protected.



Marine life living outside these protected areas has been at risk from climate
change, overfishing and shipping traffic.

 * In detail: The plan to protect the high seas

In the latest assessment of global marine species, nearly 10% were found to be
at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN).

The High Seas Treaty establishes marine protected areas in these high seas which
will help achieve the global goal of protecting 30% of the world's oceans - made
at the UN biodiversity conference last year.

These areas will put limits on how much fishing can take place, the routes of
shipping lanes and exploration activities like deep sea mining - when minerals
are taken from a sea bed 200m or more below the surface.

Environmental groups have been concerned that mining processes could disturb
animal breeding grounds, create noise pollution and be toxic for marine life.

The International Seabed Authority that oversees licensing told the BBC that
"any future activity in the deep seabed will be subject to strict environmental
regulations and oversight to ensure that they are carried out sustainably and
responsibly".


Image source, IISD/ENB Mike Muzurakis
Image caption,
President Rena Lee huddles with country delegates during intense evening
negotiations

Rena Lee, UN Ambassador for Oceans, brought down the gavel after two weeks of
negotiations that at times threatened to unravel.

Minna Epps, director of the IUCN Ocean team, said the main issue was over the
sharing of marine genetic resources.

Marine genetic resources are biological material from plants and animals in the
ocean that can have benefits for society, such as pharmaceuticals, industrial
processes and food.

Richer nations currently have the resources and funding to explore the deep
ocean but poorer nations wanted to ensure any benefits they find are shared
equally.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Sea sponges have yielded key ingredients for HIV and cancer treatments

Dr Robert Blasiak, ocean researcher at Stockholm University, said the challenge
was that no one knows how much ocean resources are worth and therefore how they
could be split.

He said: "If you imagine a big, high-definition, widescreen TV, and if only like
three or four of the pixels on that giant screen are working, that's our
knowledge of the deep ocean. So we've recorded about 230,000 species in the
ocean, but it's estimated that there are over two million."



Laura Meller, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic, commended countries
for "putting aside differences and delivering a treaty that will let us protect
the oceans, build our resilience to climate change and safeguard the lives and
livelihoods of billions of people".

"This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world,
protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics," she added.

Image source, Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Image caption,
Marine protected areas could help endangered species like the whale shark - the
largest living fish - recover

Countries will need to meet again to formally adopt the agreement and then have
plenty of work to do before the treaty can be implemented.

Liz Karan, director of Pews Trust ocean governance team, told the BBC: "It will
take some time to take effect. Countries have to ratify it [legally adopt it]
for it to enter force. Then there are a lot of institutional bodies like the
Science and Technical Committee that have to get set up."


RELATED TOPICS

 * Fishing
 * Biodiversity
 * United Nations
 * Mining
 * Oceans


MORE ON THIS STORY

 * What is the plan to protect the high seas?
   
   8 March
   
   

 * 'Magical marine species' pushed toward extinction
   
   9 December 2022
   
   





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