'Revive Our Ocean' initiative launched to protect coastal waters
SINGAPORE, April 24 (Reuters) - A new initiative backed by British naturalist David Attenborough was launched on Thursday to help communities profit from efforts to protect at least 30% of the world's oceans by the end of the decade.
The initiative, dubbed Revive Our Ocean, is led by the NGO Dynamic Planet together with the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas programme and will assist local communities in their efforts to establish "marine protected areas" in coastal waters.
here.
It will focus initially on tackling overfishing and ocean climate impacts in Britain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, the Philippines and Indonesia.
"The worst enemy of fishing is overfishing," said Enric Sala, executive director of National Geographic Pristine Seas.
Organisers behind the initiative said that establishing marine protected areas would also have economic benefits, noting a study showing that they improved fishing yields and also boosted tourism.
"Marine protected areas are good businesses," said Kristin Rechberger, the founder of Revive Our Ocean.
They also said MPA creation has been far too slow, noting that more than 190,000 protected areas would need to be established in order to meet the "30 by 30" target - to bring 30% of the oceans under formal protection by 2030.
"Reviving marine life revives local economies and communities. It's time for the world to recognize that MPAs are the building blocks of the blue economy," Rechberger said.
Countries are meeting in New York this week to discuss how to implement and finance a global treaty agreed in 2023 to protect ocean biodiversity. The treaty will go into effect once it has been formally ratified by 60 governments.
Though more than 100 countries signed the treaty, only 21 have ratified it. More ratifications are expected ahead of the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in France in June.
"Countries are really pulling out all the stops to fast track ratification in a number of places," said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups.
Environmental groups say the agreement needs to come into effect this year if the world is to meet its target. Currently, only about 8% - or 29 million square kilometres - is protected.
Though the United States was involved in setting up the treaty, it has been absent from this week's negotiations, and is now not expected to ratify it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump administration ending protected status for Nepalese migrants
June 5 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections the United States granted to thousands of Nepalese people after a 2015 earthquake devastated the country, according to a government notice posted on Thursday. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the notice that the administration is terminating temporary protected status for Nepal after a review found the country has largely recovered from the disaster. "There are notable improvements in environmental disaster preparedness and response capacity, as well as substantial reconstruction from the earthquake's destruction such that there is no longer a disruption of living conditions and Nepal is able to handle adequately the return of its nationals," the notice said. The department estimates there are around 12,700 Nepalese with the status, which provides deportation relief and work permits to people already in the U.S. if their home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. Of those, approximately 5,500 have lawful permanent residence in the U.S. The notice said the revocation will take effect 60 days from Friday, giving the approximately 7,000 Nepalese migrants with temporary protected status who aren't permanent residents until August 5, 2025, to leave the country or change their immigration status. After that date, they could face deportation. The Department of Homeland Security and the Nepalese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Donald Trump, who returned to the presidency in January, has pledged to deport record numbers of migrants in the United States illegally and has moved to strip certain migrants of temporary legal protections, expanding the pool of possible deportees. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump's administration tried to end most enrollment in the temporary protected status program, but was stymied by federal courts. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let the Trump administration end temporary protected status that was granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S. by his predecessor Joe Biden. Trump has also sought to end the status for Haitians, Afghans and others.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
India test captain Gill ready to lead in his own way
June 5 (Reuters) - India's new test captain Shubman Gill knows he has big shoes to fill after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but he wants to develop his own style of leadership, he said on Thursday. Rohit and Kohli, former skippers and batting mainstays of the team, both quit test cricket weeks before the start of India's five-test series in England. Gill, 25, impressed as captain of Indian Premier League (IPL) side Gujarat Titans, leading them to the playoffs. "The pressure comes with every tour. The two big players have served us for so long, it is not easy to fill that space," Gill told a news conference in Mumbai. "My style of captaincy will be my own, it will develop with experience. I like to communicate with the players. I would try to get them comfortable with their strengths and weaknesses. The players should feel secure, only then will they perform well." Gill was picked as captain ahead of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who led India in two recent tests in Australia. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar cited workload management concerns over the 31-year-old Bumrah who will not play all five tests in England. "We haven't taken the call over which three games (Bumrah is) going to play," India head coach Gautam Gambhir said. "We are going to have a discussion with him and a lot will depend on the results of the series as well, where the series is heading." At least 11 people died and 47 were injured on Wednesday in a crowd surge outside IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru's home stadium during celebrations of their maiden title. "My heart goes out to the people who lost their lives," Gambhir said. "We are all equally responsible for this. Every life matters. If we are not ready to hold a road show, we should not do that."
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ronald Corp obituary
Ronald Corp, who has died aged 74, made an indelible mark on the British music scene, particularly in his work with choral singers. Having founded the New London Orchestra in 1988, he went on to establish and conduct its children's choir, as well as directing the London Chorus (previously the London Choral Society) and Highgate Choral Society, bringing together singers of all ages and abilities. A prolific composer, especially of choral pieces and songs, he wrote in an engaging style that delighted performers and audiences alike. His works in all genres were well crafted, often characterised by lively, syncopated rhythms and abundant melodic appeal. In 1996 he launched a series of recordings of Light Music Classics (four of British music, one of European and one of American) with his New London Orchestra. The British discs featured the signature tunes to such classic radio and television programmes as The Archers, Music While You Work, Dr Finlay's Casebook and Desert Island Discs, with scores by Eric Coates, Ronald Binge and many others. His own music, though similarly easy on the ear, was generally more serious in tone, owing much to the English choral tradition; it was also mildly dissonant, with Benjamin Britten, Holstian bitonality and Martinů among the notable influences. Corp's aim in founding the New London Children's Choir was to involve children in the performance of music both traditional and contemporary. To that end, he both commissioned pieces by such composers as Michael Nyman and Louis Andriessen (both patrons of the choir) and wrote many himself. The choir made multiple appearances at the BBC Proms and at other venues, as well as recording for film and television. Born in Wells, Somerset, the son of Geoffrey, a municipal gardener, and an amateur pianist and piano accordionist, and his wife, Elsie (nee Kinchin), Ronald began composing even before he learned to play the piano, using his own notation to remind himself of his intentions. After studying music at Oxford University, where Simon Preston was an important mentor, he worked for the BBC in London as a librarian, producer and presenter (1973–87). In 1999 he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England, serving as a non-stipendiary minister successively at St Mary's Kilburn, St Mary's Hendon and St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. A considerable proportion of his vocal works are settings of sacred texts or works by such poets as Gerard Manley Hopkins (Laudamus), George Herbert (Mary's Song), Francis Thompson (The Hound of Heaven) or John Ruskin (Nothing Can be Beautiful Which is Not True), reflecting his religious and ethical approach to life. Despite his calling, he did not restrict himself to Christian texts. Adonai Echad (2000), for soloists, choruses and orchestra, juxtaposes texts from the Jewish and Christian faiths, including psalms, prayers and poems. His orchestral compositions included four symphonies, two piano concertos and concertos for flute, recorder and cello. The Wayfarer (In Homage to Mahler), drawing on melodic fragments from that composer's music, was composed for Help Musicians UK and premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in 2011. It may be performed either by 16 solo singers (as at the premiere), or chorus and orchestra. Another piece for chorus and orchestra, This Sceptr'd Isle, was given its premiere at the Barbican the following year in a concert with the Highgate Choral Society, marking the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. And All the Trumpets Sounded, given its premiere in 1989 by the Highgate Choral Society, which commissioned it, was considered by Corp his first important composition. Referencing Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem and Britten's War Requiem, both of which he hugely admired, the work similarly features poems of the first world war, the requiem sequence and the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Other substantial choral works with orchestra included Behold the Sea (2016), again commissioned by the Highgate Choral Society. Among his smaller-scale works were Dover Beach, commissioned by the BBC Singers, and a setting of Dante for the ensemble Gesualdo Six. His operas included The Pelican, based on the play by Strindberg; Wenceslas, a Christmas opera for children; and The Ice Mountain, also for children. Letters from Lony (2017) was a setting of letters from a Jewish woman in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Leonie (Lony) Fraenkel, to her infant grandson, Peter Lobbenberg, unfolding a story of the writer's removal from her home to the Westerbork transit camp, to Theresienstadt and thence to Auschwitz. Scored for soprano, piano and string quartet, the work is essentially conversational – there are mentions of the ping-pong club upstairs and a bathtub crocodile that squirts water – though Corp succeeded in darkening the tone in a series of four interludes. He was due to conduct it again at the Three Choirs festival this August. He was a voracious reader, not least of poetry, and his songs include sets devoted to the verse of individual poets, among them Walt Whitman, Francis Thompson, Robert Browning, AE Housman, WB Yeats and William Blake. As in his choral works, Corp displayed a mastery of word-setting: his compositions were unfailingly pleasing to sing. Some of Corp's finest music is contained in the symphonies: the First, with its opening bold brass sonorities presaging powerful harmonic plunges later; the darker, serious-minded Second and Third; and the Fourth commissioned for the chamber forces of the Echo Ensemble. The Cello Concerto, with its movingly elegiac slow movement, and the First Piano Concerto are also worthy of special note. Releases on CD included The Songs of Ronald Corp sung by Mark Stone; Dhammapada, a setting of Buddhist texts for chamber choir; three string quartets, a clarinet quintet ('Crawhall') and the dramatic scena The Yellow Wallpaper, adapted from the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. His recordings of music by other composers included, in addition to the light music series, Rutland Boughton's opera The Queen of Cornwall, and works by John Foulds, Arthur Sullivan (Corp was vice-president of the Sullivan Society), Satie, Poulenc, Prokofiev and Grazyna Bacewicz. His orchestrations of Satie's Trois Gnossiennes featured in the film Chocolat (2000), starring Juliet Binoche. Corp believed strongly in the spiritual power of music. Inspired by his religious faith, a thirst for life and a sense of the act of creation as a voyage of discovery, he used to say that 'a day without writing is a day wasted'. In public and private, he was a warm-hearted, sympathetic man, who wanted his music to be useful to society. He is survived by his civil partner, John Glass, sister, Pauline, and brother, Robert. Ronald Geoffrey Corp, composer, conductor and priest, born 4 January 1951; died 7 May 2025
