Source: The Times
‘We need to create trust funds for marine protected areas in perpetuity’
Sir, We live in a world with a growing population with increasing demands. Yet we are unsustainably exhausting our seas. The ocean economy, the “blue” economy, can only meet our increasing demand if we restore the ocean and manage it better for the goods and services it provides.
Continue reading Funds Are Needed for Marine Protected Areas
The focus of this year’s United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP) meeting from 6 to 10 April was ‘Oceans and sustainable development: Integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development, namely, environmental, social and economic’.
Continue reading The Ocean and Sustainable Development: UN ICP Meeting and SDGs
Source: PEW Charitable Trusts
U.N. will begin negotiating new treaty to protect marine life beyond national jurisdiction.
It took a decade of deliberation, many hours of talks, and one late night huddled in a basement meeting room at the United Nations in New York, but in the early morning of Jan. 24, members of a working group set up to make recommendations to the U.N. General Assembly reached a consensus. They agreed to begin negotiating the first treaty that specifically addresses protection of marine life in an area that covers nearly half of the planet—those ocean waters beyond national jurisdiction.
Continue reading One Step Closer to Conserving High Seas Biodiversity
Source: Greenpeace
Author: Sofia Tsenikli
It is time for Ocean Lovers worldwide to celebrate! After years of political foot-dragging, and four hectic days of negotiations at the United Nations, a breakthrough came in the wee hours of Saturday morning, 24 January: governments around the world agreed to develop a legally-binding treaty to protect marine life beyond national territorial waters.
Source: IUCN
In the early hours of a snowy Saturday morning in New York, United Nations delegates took a historic step towards safeguarding the global ocean commons. Government representatives at a UN meeting agreed to launch a formal preparatory process for a global and legally-binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.
Countries have agreed to start formal negotiations on a new “legally binding instrument” for the high seas. The Global Ocean Commission welcomes the decision on 24 January by the United Nations Informal Working Group on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) to begin negotiations for a new international agreement for the sustainable use and conservation of marine biodiversity in the high seas
Source: WWF
Author: Jessica Battle
After four days and a hard night of negotiations, governments meeting at the UN last week took a historic step toward ending the centuries-long free for all on the high seas.
We have the green light to negotiate the first major UN treaty for 30 years, and we can now look to a future in which we bring conservation for the benefit of all to these vital global commons.
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
