Latest news with #sustainablefishing
NHK
a day ago
- Politics
- NHK
UN Ocean Conference kicks off in France
Delegates from around the world gathered in France on Monday for the opening of the UN Ocean Conference to discuss marine conservation as the US charts its own course under President Donald Trump. Representatives from about 120 countries and regions are expected to attend the meeting in the city of Nice on the Mediterranean coast. France is jointly hosting the event with Costa Rica. Among the more than 50 leaders on hand are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The attendees will discuss rising sea temperatures due to global warming, pollution from plastic waste, as well as the sustainable use of marine resources, among other topics. A declaration will be released on Friday, the last day of the conference. At the opening of the event, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for unity among the international community, saying, "The ocean is the ultimate shared resource, but we are failing it." In April, the US under the Trump administration unveiled a plan to mine seabed mineral resources outside the country's exclusive economic zone. In response, France, Costa Rica and others have called for restrictions on such mining, saying it could have a negative impact on the deep-sea ecosystem. French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the US move, saying the deep sea is not for sale.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Science
- RNZ News
'Pacific solutions are indeed global solutions' - Pacific Ocean commissioner heading to summit
Photo: AFP / Christoph Gerigk / Biosphoto The third UN Ocean Conference kicks off on Monday in Nice, France. Leaders, civil society groups, scientists and businesses, including those from the Pacific region, are due to attend the week-long summit. Dr Filimon Manoni, the current Pacific Ocean Commissioner, will be among the Pacific contingent at the conference. His role, established through the Pacific Islands Forum architecture, is to advocate for ocean priorities regionally and internationally. Manoni touched on what he expected to be discussed this week in a special pre-conference briefing. "We want this also to be the platform it needs to be - one where we can share our knowledge and success stories, to bring in traditional knowledge and share that, to show how traditional knowledge systems have helped the region manage our resources sustainably for generations," Dr Manoni said. "We want to share the community-led, coastal marine protected area initiatives [and] coastal resilience initiatives that are working in the Pacific." Examples of successful initiatives included the region's work on tuna fisheries management. The main tuna stock has been brought back from the "verge of extinction" through regional management techniques, he said. Now, Dr Manoni said, between 50 and 60 percent of the global tuna supply was from the western and central Pacific Ocean. He also pointed to the establishment of marine protected areas like the Cook Islands Marae moana, and more recently, the Marshall Islands marine sanctuary around Bikar and Bokak atolls. "Pacific solutions are not only Pacific solutions, but Pacific solutions are indeed global solutions," Dr Manoni said. "So what we want to see at the end of the summit of this conference is that the world lives with more understanding and respect for communities that rely on the ocean for livelihoods. Marine biologist and leading ocean conservationist Enric Sala said any progress around ocean sustainability would depend on the quality of commitments attendees agreed to over the week. Currently, eight percent of the world's oceans were protected. The goal was for that figure to be 30 percent by 2030, however Sala said the right areas of ocean need to be prioritised. "This is about quality as much as it is about quantity. It's not protecting any 30 percent of the ocean," he said. "We could protect areas that are now under ice and the least productive areas of the high seas and cover 30 percent of the oceans... yet that would not make any difference." Photo: 123rf/NASA Sala said the focus must be on ocean commitments and initiatives that increased marine life beyond what existed right now. That approach had already shown to be fruitful, both for ocean conservation and for interested industries like tuna fisheries, he said. For example, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world located in the north-western region of the Hawaii islands. Sala said the sanctuary had led to increased tuna stocks both inside and around the protected area, benefiting tuna fisheries in the region. "The science is very clear. We have discovered over and over again that the only way for marine life to really recover is through fully protected areas where there are no extractive managing activities," he said. "And we have plenty of examples from the Pacific and from around the world, showing that the fishing industry is actually catching more fish and lobsters and scallops around no-take areas now than before, when they were fishing all over the place." Tuvalu's Prime Minister Feleti Teo has urged global leaders to recognize their collective responsibility. "No nation, no city, and no community are immune to the impacts of climate change, nor should they be required to address the devastating effects of sea level rise on their own." During his address at the Ocean Rise and Resilience Coalition Summit, Teo said finding the right solutions will require statesmanship and empathy, "beginning with an acknowledgment that a situation globally caused must also have a globally just and equitable solution". The UN Ocean Conference occurs every three years. This week's official programme is due to finish on 13 June.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Latam-Caribbean development bank doubles oceans funding to $2.5 billion
BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) - The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) will double to $2.5 billion its investments in protecting the oceans and supporting sustainable marine economic activities, it said on Saturday. The bank has already exceeded its existing oceans funding commitment, of $1.25 billion over 2022-2026, with investments including strengthening marine protected areas and supporting small-scale fisheries. The extra $2.5 billion, which will be rolled out over 2025-2030, will target areas including low-carbon maritime transport, restoration of damaged ocean ecosystems and sustainable tourism, the bank said. It comes on top of the $1.3 billion CAF invested in oceans over the last three years. "This commitment reflects our transformative agenda, that is, to embed the health of the ocean in our development ambition," CAF executive vice-president Gianpiero Leoncini told a conference on oceans financing in Monaco. A U.N. Oceans conference next week in Nice, France, will attempt to rally stronger commitments from countries to protect and invest in oceans - including by ratifying a global treaty to protect ocean biodiversity, which most of the 116 countries that signed it have still not done. Oceans are crucial to trade, food and employment for coastal communities, and maintaining global climate systems. But funding to protect these functions has fallen far short. Investments in ocean health totalled just $10 billion from 2015-2019 - far below the $175 billion per year needed, the U.N. has said. CAF's existing oceans funding includes managing illegal fishing, providing loans to wastewater treatment plants and storm drainage systems to reduce damage from floods. Oceans also provide a vital buffer against climate change, by absorbing around 30% of planet-heating CO2 emissions. But as the oceans heat up, hotter waters are destroying marine ecosystems and threatening the oceans' ability to absorb CO2.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Baked ChalkStream trout with fennel butter, leeks and beans
I've suggested a particular type and brand of fish because I know it's good. The trout is farmed – you'd never guess – and so much better than farmed salmon. It's available from Ocado or direct from ChalkStream Foods in Hampshire.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
World's nations to gather in France to tackle what UN says is a global emergency in the oceans
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world's nations are gathering in France next month to tackle what the United Nations calls a global emergency facing the world's oceans as they confront rising temperatures, plastic pollution choking marine life, and relentless overexploitation of fish and other resources. The third U.N. Ocean Conference aims to unite governments, scientists, businesses and civil society to take action and raise money to address these and other crises facing the oceans and the people who rely on them for their survival. Conference Secretary-General Li Junhua told reporters on Tuesday he hopes it will not be another routine meeting but 'the pivotal opportunity' to accelerate action and mobilize people in all sectors and across the world. The conference, co-sponsored by France and Costa Rica, takes place in Nice on the French Riviera from June 7 to June 13. It is expected to bring together more than 60 world leaders, dozens of ministers, about 4,000 government officials and 6,000 members of civil society, Li told The Associated Press. Costa Rica's U.N. Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde said accelerating action to conserve and use the ocean sustainably 'means cutting decision-making time from years to months' and engaging all 193 U.N. member nations, more than 1,000 cities and over 500 corporations simultaneously. 'What is different this time around?,' she said. 'Zero rhetoric. Maximum results.' Valverde said she expects participants to make commitments totaling $100 billion in new funding to address the crisis facing the oceans. France's U.N. Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont said his country's priorities for the conference include obtaining 60 ratifications for the treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas adopted in March 2023 so it goes into effect. The treaty's mission is to ensure sustainable fishing, mobilize support to protect and conserve at least 30% of the oceans' waters, fight plastic pollution, 'accelerate decarbonization' of maritime transportation and mobilize financing. Conference participants are expected to adopt a declaration that says action is not advancing fast enough to address the impact of 'the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.' 'We underscore the central role of a healthy and resilient ocean in sustaining life on Earth, ensuring global food security, and supporting billions of lives,' the final draft says. It supports new scientific research to meet the challenges of climate change and improve the scientific understanding of the oceans. It does not address the issue of deep-sea mining because a consensus could not be reached, Li said. The Trump administration said last week that it will consider selling leases to extract minerals from the seabed off the South Pacific island of American Samoa, a potential first step in a wider industry push to allow deep-sea mining, which environmentalists oppose because they say it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems. The declaration and voluntary commitments from governments and all sectors are expected to become the Nice Ocean Action Plan.
