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At UN conference, countries inch toward ocean protection goal
More than 170 nations adopted a political declaration at the end of the gathering calling for urgent action. PHOTO: REUTERS
NICE, France – Remote coral atolls in the Caribbean. Habitat for threatened sharks and rays around a Tanzanian island in the Indian Ocean. And 900,000 square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean around French Polynesia.
These are some of the stretches of water now set aside as part of an international goal to protect 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. More than 20 new marine protected areas were announced at the third United Nations Ocean Conference, which ended on June 13 in France.
Countries and territories pledging new areas included Chile, Colombia, French Polynesia, Portugal, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, the Solomon Islands, Tanzania, and Vanuatu.
'Protecting the ocean is beginning to become fashionable,' said Sylvia Earle, a marine biologist and oceanographer who served as chief scientist of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the 1990s, at an event celebrating a network of protected areas around the Azores.
The new designations come at a time when the United States, which sent only two observers to the conference, has moved to reopen the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. The country is also seeking to unilaterally authorise mining of the seafloor in international waters.
More than 60 world leaders attended the June 9-13 conference, with the UN saying the world faced an emergency over the health of the oceans. More than 170 nations adopted a political declaration at the end of the gathering calling for urgent action.
'The ocean is fundamental to life on our planet and to our future, and we remain deeply alarmed by the global emergency it faces. The ocean and its ecosystems are adversely affected by climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution,' the declaration says.
France, which hosted the conference with Costa Rica, pushed for a moratorium on deep sea mining, with four new countries pledging their support this past week, bringing the total to 37 countries.
Less than 3 per cent of the ocean is currently fully protected from 'extractive' activities such as commercial fishing and mining, according to the Marine Protection Atlas.
Peter Thomson, the United Nations secretary-general's special envoy for the ocean, acknowledged at the Azores event that reaching 30 per cent by the 2030 deadline may not happen. But, he said, 'it's not a mythical thing that will never happen'.
In order to reach the goal, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, also known as the High Seas Treaty, needs to be enforced with at least 60 countries ratifying it.
At the conference, 19 new countries ratified the treaty, bringing the total to 50 individual countries plus the European Union. Once active, the treaty would provide a pathway toward protecting stretches of the ocean beyond individual countries' borders.
And in coastal waters within those borders, much remains to be done. A study published in May 2025 found that the average marine protected area today is about 10 square kilometres, meaning about 188,000 more areas of that size are needed – or 85 new marine protected areas a day.
These numbers are 'super daunting,' said the report's lead author Kristin Rechberger, CEO of the conservation organisation Dynamic Planet. She wants countries to break through the challenge by decentralising marine protection and allowing coastal communities to create their own small protected areas at a faster pace.
A separate report published last week found that countries need to raise US$15.8 billion (S$20.2 billion) a year in order to protect 30 per cent of the ocean. Currently, about US$1.2 billion a year goes toward ocean protection globally.
Questions also remain about how meaningful existing protections are.
Activists have been pushing the French government to announce a ban on bottom trawling in its marine protected areas.
President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would place 4 per cent of its mainland waters under 'strong protection,' limiting bottom trawling, a fishing process that drags nets along the seafloor.
This falls short of an existing European Union goal of placing 10 per cent of its waters under 'strict protection,' without commercial fishing of any kind.
'Allowing destructive bottom trawling in most of France's so-called 'protected' areas makes a mockery of ocean protection,' said Alexandra Cousteau, senior adviser to Oceana and granddaughter of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, in a written statement. 'It's like building a fence around a forest and then bulldozing it anyway.'
Even where protections from commercial fishing exist around the world, enforcement is often lacking.
The United States did not send an official delegation to the conference. Two representatives from the administration's Environmental Advisory Task Force, including Ed Russo, the chair, attended as what the State Department called 'government observers.'
John Kerry, the former special presidential envoy for climate under President Joe Biden, said he didn't know what role the United States would play in ocean protection now.
'We have an amazing conglomeration of countries that have come together to improve the marine protected areas,' Mr Kerry said. The announcements this week, however, are 'just building blocks,' he said. 'We are not moving fast enough or at scale.' NYTIMES
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