The world’s oceans have been protected under a treaty

The Kunming-Montreal Framework of Global Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction: Preparing for the International Ocean Ocean Conference, and the Future of Sustainable Planet

Monica Medina is the US Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Each country adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which commits them to achieving over 20 environmental targets by 2030. The framework is supposed to make sure that the benefits of global biodiversity are used in a sustainable and equitable way, and that human beings don’t drive species to extinction.

The framework says protected areas should be created to keep in line with the rights of indigenous peoples.

Still, some human rights advocates are skeptical, calling the 30×30 target a “big green lie” on social media. Survival International posted on Facebook that it was a huge land grab that would force millions of Indigenous people off their ancestral lands.

The adoption of the new framework was celebrated by large groups. The eyes of the world could have focused on Montreal instead of the World Cup if more people knew about the dangers of biodiversity loss, said Andrew Deutz of The Nature Conservancy.

Roughly a million animal and plant species currently face extinction, more than at any other time during human history, according to a 2019 UN assessment. By 2050, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to reduce the extinction rate of all species tenfold.

The task of making progress on the ground is even more difficult now that the framework has been set, as it is attempting to avoid the harms that have been committed in the past.

It felt like it was a championship game heading into extra time, and Deutz likened it to the World Cup. “The big difference is … for the global biodiversity community, the next phase of hard work already beckons.”

The goal of the U.N. meetings is to create an agreement for the use of the oceans. The talks, formally called the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, resume negotiations suspended last fall without agreement on a final treaty.

Rules that do exist are patchwork and weak, meaning activities on the high seas are often unregulated and vulnerable to exploitation.

Boris Worm, a marine Biologist at CANADA’sDalham University said that the ocean is the life support system of our planet. “For the longest time, we did not feel we had a large impact on the high seas. But that notion has changed with expansion of deep sea fishing, mining, plastic pollution, climate change,” and other human disturbances, he said.

Oceans Governance: The Role of Environment and Climate Change in the Determination of Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries in the High Seas

The aim of the talks is not to actually designate marine protected areas, but to establish a mechanism for doing so. Clark stated that the goal is to set up a body that would accept submissions for marine protected areas.

“This is our largest global commons,” said Nichola Clark, an oceans expert who follows the negotiations for the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. “We are optimistic that this upcoming round of negotiations will be the one to get a treaty over the finish line.”

Commercial fishing and mining have caused pollution to the high seas. The ocean is sustainable and requires global cooperation to do so, said a Biologist at Rutgers University.

“We need a legally binding framework that can enable countries to work together to actually achieve these goals they’ve agreed to,” said Jessica Battle, an expert on oceans governance at World Wide Fund for Nature

“The treaty should be strong and ambitious, having the authority to establish high and fully protected areas in the high seas,” she said. “Half of the world is at stake these weeks at the United Nations.”

Gemma Nelson, a lawyer from Samoa who is currently an Ocean Voices fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said that small Pacific and Caribbean island countries were “especially vulnerable to global ocean issues,” such as pollution and climate change, which generally they did not cause nor have the resources to easily address.

“Getting the traditional knowledge of local people and communities recognized as valid” is also essential to protect both ecosystems and the ways of life of Indigenous groups, she said.

With nearly half the planet’s surface covered by high seas, the talks are of great importance, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.

The United Nations High-Seas Treaty – Two Decades After the United States’ First Treaty of the High Seas

It has been two decades since a deal was struck between the United Nations headquarters in New York and the European Union, but it came to fruition on Saturday evening.

“This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics,” Laura Meller, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, said in a statement.

These waters provide the habitat for a wealth of unique species and ecosystems, support global fisheries on which billions of people rely and are a crucial buffer against the climate crisis – the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the world’s excess heat over the last decades.

The ocean’s “genetic resources” are being exploited by the race to harness them in industries such as pharmaceuticals, and other human activity on the ocean is adding pressure.

The protections of marine life in this area are not currently regulated, according to the oceans project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

There are gaps between the puzzle pieces. It is truly that bad out there,” Douglas McCauley, professor of ocean science at the University of California Santa Barbara, told CNN.

There were points during the negotiations where some worried that agreement would never happen, as conflicts threatened to derail talks. It has been a roller coaster ride.

Even as many developing countries are not equipped to do their own scientific explorations of the high seas, there were major sticking points regarding the creation of marine protected areas.

For more than two decades, an updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters has been in discussion, but previous attempts to reach an agreement had been unsuccessful. The treaty was reached late Saturday.

“It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Many marine species — including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and many fish — make long annual migrations, crossing national borders and the high seas. Efforts to protect them have previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.

The treaty will help to knit together various regional treaties to address threats and concerns across species’ ranges.

Towards environmental protection of the ocean, including coastal livelihoods, said Gladys Martnez de Lemos, executive director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense

That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.

“Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she said.