Saving Seafood

Delegates come close, but fail again to clinch high seas protection treaty

August 30, 2022 — U.N. member states came tantalizingly close to sealing a deal for a high-stakes, legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity on the high seas, areas beyond national jurisdiction that comprise two-thirds of the global ocean. At the close of negotiations on Aug. 26 in New York, however, delegates had failed to net consensus. Top sticking points included fair access to marine resources for all and how to establish marine protected areas.

The meeting of 168 U.N. member states ended with a commitment to reconvene before the year is over.

“We’re closer to the finish line than we’ve ever been before but … we still need a little more time,” Rena Lee of Singapore, president of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, the body negotiating the treaty, said to delegates.

This was the fifth of four planned diplomatic sessions that began in 2017 following more than 10 years of discussion. The two-week-long meeting included a ramped-up dual schedule of negotiating groups and plenary sessions aimed at finally reaching a deal.

The idea is for the treaty to close governance gaps and address contemporary challenges not covered by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was adopted in 1982, before present-day threats to biodiversity were anticipated.

Home to up to 10 million different species, many as yet unidentified, the high seas are a vast, resource-rich global commons worth a lot — no one knows just how much. They belong to everyone and no one, and so far, there is no comprehensive, agreed-upon framework governing resource extraction or conservation there.

Technological advances enabling greater access to high seas resources are exposing marine ecosystems to severe impacts from fisheries and other extractive industries. Pollution and climate change are further destabilizing ocean systems that buffer the planet from global warming, provide a primary protein source for more than 3 billion people, and affect the livelihoods of almost 600 million, according to a 2022 report from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Read the full article Mongabay

U.N. hopes 5th time’s the charm in long push for high seas treaty to protect our oceans

August 17, 2022 — The Arctic is heating up at a record rate, plastic pollution is “choking the seas,” fish stocks are being depleted, acidity rates are rising and ocean waters are warming and rising. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the world is facing an “ocean emergency,” and he’s hoping that after years o­f false starts, world leaders might finally agree on some rules aimed at averting disaster.

The U.N. kicked off an 11-day conference on Monday aimed at creating a new, legally-binding global treaty to govern use of the high seas. The ambition of the treaty is to reverse the current downward trend in biodiversity and protect marine life, while also guaranteeing safe access to international waters.

It has already been a long time coming.

Since 2017, when the U.N. first declared its ambition to hash out a treaty based on the 1982 U.N. Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), which established rules for ocean usage and sovereignty, organizers have convened five times.

The General Assembly has created a draft treaty, but despite the negotiators meetings over the last five years, there’s been no agreement. Now there’s a glimmer of hope. Here’s what you need to know about this international effort to preserve our world’s oceans for generations to come.

The U.N. Treaty That Could Be the Oceans’ Last Great Hope

March 11, 2022 — United Nations member states have tried for years to reach a global agreement that would protect marine life on the high seas—those parts of the world’s oceans that fall beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country.

The endeavor is seen as hugely important for protecting the world’s biodiversity and limiting the impact of climate change. While existing laws and treaties address marine and maritime activities within countries’ jurisdiction, very little extends to the high seas, which include about 95 percent of the world’s oceans in terms of volume.

Member states began discussing the issue in 2004, with delegates meeting every two years. By 2020, the parties appeared to be close to striking a deal, but the outbreak of COVID-19 that year put the talks on ice.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at Foreign Policy

 

As UN’s SDG14 targets approach, MSC’s Seafood Futures Forum highlights path forward

April 24, 2019 — There’s just one year left to deliver the 2020 targets for the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for Life Below Water (SDG14), and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is making a concerted push to reach those goals.

The MSC’s efforts to help the world reach the goals in SDG14 is a big topic at this year’s Seafood Futures Forum, taking place at Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium on 8 May, from 8 to 11 a.m. Central European Time. The forum is an opportunity for members of both the seafood industry and of environmental NGOs and conservation groups to come together to both get an update on MSC’s current and future efforts to address unsustainable fishing and to discuss what each sector can do to help.

“This year’s Seafood Futures Forum will cut through the talk to explore how the seafood industry and ocean conservation community can work together to deliver meaningful change,” Dr. Yemi Oloruntuyi, head of accessibility at the MSC and a panelist at the forum, said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC: “Life Below Water” lagging behind other Sustainable Development Goals

November 19, 2018 — In an effort to spotlight marine conservation and the millions of livelihoods that depend on seafood around the world, the Marine Stewardship Council and research consultancy firm GlobeScan have teamed up with Nomad Foods Europe to host a text-based discussion surrounding “Life Below Water” – one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

“Life Below Water” refers to Sustainable Development Goal No. 14 (SDG14), which focuses on ending overfishing, restoring fish stocks, protecting ecosystems, and eliminating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

As with each of the other Sustainable Development Goals, SDG14 is ultimately aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all. However, unlike its counterparts, prioritization of “Life Under Water” and SDG14 is universally lacking, recent findings from multiple surveys suggest.

For instance, just 5.4 percent of the 3,500 respondents participating in AidData’s 2017 Listening to Leaders Survey said SDG14 was among their top six priorities. Findings from GlobeScan’s separate survey of 500-plus sustainability experts across governments, NGOs, the commercial sector, and academia tell a similar story: When asked to rank the Sustainable Development Goals in order of importance, respondents placed SDG14 last on the list.

“Life Below Water” shouldn’t keep flying under the radar, according to the MSC, GlobeScan, and Nomad Foods, which is why the  collective will focus on SDG14 during its upcoming SDG Leadership Forum taking place on Wednesday, 28 November.

Read the full story at Seafood Source