New York, 24 January 2015: States took a major step toward urgently needed ocean protection at the UN today agreeing to develop a legally binding agreement to conserve marine life in the high seas.
Continue reading Meeting Closes With A Major Step For The Ocean
On the final morning of a UN Meeting striving to achieve historic protection for the high seas, environmental organizations applauded the vast majority of States working hard to bring about a positive outcome.
Continue reading States Battle It Out Over Historic Agreement
On the first day of the UN BBNJ meeting High Seas Alliance members addressed State delegates through interventions and stressed the urgent need for a high seas biodiversity implementing agreement. You can read the full intervention statements from the High Seas Alliance members NRDC, Greenpeace and MarViva as well as the Sylvia Earle Alliance.
Continue reading High Seas Alliance Addresses States at UN BBNJ Meeting
Governments take it to the wire as third UN meeting on fate of the high seas gets ready to begin in New York.
World governments will meet this week, tasked with fulfilling the RIO+20 commitment to take a decision on whether to begin negotiations to launch a new agreement that would help protect ungoverned areas of the ocean – those beyond national jurisdiction (known as the BBNJ meeting).
Continue reading High Time for the High Seas at the United Nations
Over the past two months, High Seas Alliance members have been actively engaged in a number of regional workshops to discuss a new implementing agreement (IA) under UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Over the course of these two-day workshops, governments heard presentations from regional and international experts and discussed the need for this implementing agreement, the UN General Assembly Working Group process concerning this issue, and components of the “package” including area-based management tools including marine protected areas, marine genetic resources including access and a benefit sharing regime, environmental impacts assessments, and capacity- building and the transfer of marine technology. Most recently, these workshops have taken place in:
Continue reading HSA Members Host Series of Regional BBNJ Workshops
On Monday, Nov. 17, at the World Parks Congress in Sydney Australia, noted New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman, co-moderated with NRDC’s Director of the International Ocean Programme, Lisa Speer, a special panel featuring Environment Ministers Greg Hunt and Edna Molewa, respectively from Australia and South Africa. Other notable guests on the panel included Global Ocean Commissioner Robert Hill, and the Executive Secretary of Guatemala’s National Commission on Protected Areas, Benedicto Lucas. The audience was filled with numerous marine experts, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, and Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice-Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas.
Continue reading Thomas Friedman interviews Environment Ministers at WPC
This winter the High Seas Alliance is building a Wave of Change for the high seas and we want you to join in! Why a Wave of Change? Simple, it’s to raise public awareness about the dire state of our ocean and the urgent need for better protection and governance of the high seas.
At the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), on September 3rd, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Global Ocean Commission (GOC) jointly hosted a side event, SIDS and Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, about the implications for SIDS of the proposed UNCLOS Implementing Agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Panelists included GOC Commissioner Robert Hill, of the Global Ocean Commission, H.E. Ms. Inga Rhonda King, Permanent Representative of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations, Tevita Suka Mangisi, Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN of the Kingdom of Tonga, and Duncan Currie of the High Seas Alliance. The session was opened by Remi Parmentier, GOC Deputy Executive Secretary and moderated by Joan Yang of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Continue reading Pew Charitable Trusts and Global Ocean Commission Host SIDS Side Event
On Sunday evening, September 21, as leaders from around the world gathered in New York City at the start of the UN General Assembly’s 69th session, Global Ocean Commissioner co-chair Trevor Manuel, together with National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dr. Sylvia Earle, delivered a petition to His Excellency UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson at an event organized by The Ocean Elders. Reaching over 260,000 signatures, the petition asks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to support a call to the UN General Assembly to initiate negotiations for a high seas agreement to protect ocean health for the future.
Continue reading 260,000 People Call for a New International Agreement to Protect the High Seas
In just a few weeks time, the UN General Assembly will begin its 69th session. Why is this important? Government representatives from around the world will gather to discuss the future of the ocean and how it should be governed. At the June 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio-20) governments committed to address on an urgent basis key issues surrounding conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in those areas that fall outside of any one government’s national jurisdiction — the portion that belongs to all of us. We all have a shared concern in how these areas are managed and protected, and after many years of discussion at the UN, this is the year that governments have committed to make a decision. But we need your help.
