UN members adopt first treaty to protect marine life in the high seas

Delegates from the 193 member nations burst into applause and stood up in a sustained standing ovation when Singapore’s ambassador on ocean issues, Rena Lee, who presided over the negotiations, banged her gavel after hearing no objections to the treaty’s approval.

The treaty to protect biodiversity in waters outside national boundaries, known as the high seas, covering nearly half of earth’s surface, had been under discussion for more than 20 years as efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled.

But in March delegates to an intergovernmental conference established by the UN General Assembly in December 2017 agreed a treaty.

The agreement is under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which came into force in 1994, before marine biodiversity was a well-established concept.

It will be opened for signatures on September 20 during the annual meeting of world leaders at the General Assembly, and will take effect once it is ratified by 60 countries.

The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas.

It also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.

Un secretary-general Antonio Guterres told delegates the adoption of the treaty comes at a critical time with the oceans under threat on many fronts.

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns and ocean currents, raising sea temperatures, “and altering marine ecosystems and the species living there”, he said, and marine biodiversity “is under attack from overfishing, over-exploitation and ocean acidification”.

“Over one-third of fish stocks are being harvested at unsustainable levels,” the UN chief said. “And we are polluting our coastal waters with chemicals, plastics and human waste.”

Mr Guterres said the treaty is vital to address these threats and urged all countries to spare no efforts to ensure it is signed and ratified as soon as possible, stressing that “this is critical to addressing the threats facing the ocean”.

The treaty also establishes principles to share “marine genetic resources” discovered by scientists in international waters, a key demand of developing countries which insisted that the fruits of such discoveries could not be solely controlled by richer countries with money to finance expeditions to look for potentially new lucrative ingredients for medicine and cosmetics.

After the approval, the Group of 77, the UN coalition of 134 mainly developing nations and China, called it “an exceedingly important day for biodiversity”, praising their successful struggle to achieve benefit-sharing in the final text as well as funding to help implement the treaty when ratified.

The Alliance of Small Island States, some of whose members fear that climate change and rising seas could obliterate their countries, said they have been championing a treaty for decades, and its adoption will have far-reaching implications “on our livelihoods, cultures and economies”.

But Russia said it “distances itself from the consensus on the text of the agreement” which it called “unacceptable”, saying it “undermines the provisions of the most important acting international agreements, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

Spokesman Sergey Leonidchenko told delegates the treaty “does not reach a reasonable balance between conserving and sustainably using the resources of the ocean”.

Greenpeace’s Chris Thorne called the treaty “a win for all life on this planet”, adding: “The science is clear, we must protect 30% of the oceans by 2030 to give the oceans a chance to recover and thrive.”