Madrid (EFE).- After years of discussions, the treaty on the oceans for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity outside areas under national jurisdiction has finally been approved, by the that a series of aspects will be regulated for the first time worldwide to stop its decline.
In those areas, which until now were not subject to any regulation, any country could do what they wanted, but from now on that will change in some aspects.
What is the origin?
It is an agreement that was born after 17 long years of negotiations by the United Nations countries. The agreement will make it possible to implement marine protected areas in international waters and protect marine biodiversity, meeting the goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, which is the minimum according to scientists at the Science Media Center (SMC). ) Spain, to reverse the dramatic loss of marine biodiversity.
What does this historic agreement intend to regulate?
The treaty is divided into four main sections and creates, for the first time, mechanisms for the creation of marine protected areas in international waters as ocean sanctuaries.
Among other aspects, marine genetic resources will be regulated, which are increasingly important with respect to advances in medicine, food, etc. Likewise, the management and protection of marine areas necessary to achieve the objective of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 and contributing to conserving biodiversity and halting its loss, as well as fighting the climate crisis.
Also, carrying out environmental impact assessments, necessary for a multitude of growing activities, such as the installation of renewable energies, mining operations or the installation of submarine cables. In addition, the creation and transfer of marine technologies.
Cooperation between countries for the protection of the oceans will also be promoted; As illustrated by Ángel Borja, principal investigator of environmental management of Seas and Coasts at the AZTI technology center, the idea is to “get to know our seas as we know, for example, the Moon.”
What are the objectives? What have been the most controversial aspects?
The Treaty seeks to protect and regulate the use of areas located outside national jurisdictions, which represent more than 60% of the oceans, which is equivalent to almost half the planet.
The issue of marine genetic resources and how to share those benefits has been one of the main stumbling blocks in these long negotiations. Mechanisms for carrying out environmental evaluations have also received special attention in order to make sustainable use of the resources of the high seas areas, outside the national jurisdiction of the countries. Other questions about national sovereignty and voting modalities have also been debated points until the end.
What will be the next step?
Once the text is signed, the complicated process of ratification and implementation will begin. Facing the established criteria will be the industrial fleets of various countries, including Spain, “which have enjoyed several decades without limits to the environmental impact in international waters.”
This is stated by Guillermo Ortuño, co-director of the Group of Specialists in the High Seas of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), who explained that the “fierce” negotiations have been those of the redistribution of benefits of the international genetic patrimony from which “a few countries have benefited up to now”.
In this regard, the oceanographer Carlos Duarte has explained that “it is in the distribution of economic benefits derived from the genetic resources of the ocean, where the treaty seems to contain vagueness, such as what will be exploited with equity criteria, without articulating a mechanism for to get it”.
A decade ago, “we published research showing that ten nations appropriated 97% of the ocean’s genetic resources, with one company, BASF, owning 70% of the patents.”
“In our work we already pointed to a mechanism to share resources, which has more to do with sharing and building capacity than with monetary compensation. This will have to wait, perhaps another decade”, laments the marine biologist.
Despite specific aspects, what do scientists think in general?
Although the treaty is far from what many scientists and civil society would have wanted, it is a step in the right direction for the conservation and sustainable use of marine nature, according to the researchers.
In the opinion of Carmen Morales, a researcher of excellence in ecology at the University Institute of Marine Research of the University of Cádiz, the agreement “is a great step” against habitat degradation, the unsustainable exploitation of resources, pollution, invasive species or the climate emergency.
For Ángel Borja, from the AZTI technological center, it is clearly a historical text; “The best face of the United Nations”, added Carlos García-Soto, a researcher at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC), president of the European Center for Information on Marine Science and Technology (EurOcean) and coordinator of the Ocean Report. World Cup (2021-2022, United Nations).