The world just made a historic agreement to protect almost half the planet’s surface

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea got here into pressure in 1994, earlier than marine biodiversity was a well-established idea.

An up to date framework to guard marine life within the areas outdoors nationwide boundary waters, referred to as the excessive seas, had been in discussions for greater than 20 years, however earlier efforts to achieve an settlement had repeatedly stalled. The unified settlement treaty was reached late on Saturday (early Sunday AEDT).

“We only really have two major global commons — the atmosphere and the oceans,” mentioned Georgetown marine biologist Rebecca Helm.

While the oceans might draw much less consideration, “protecting this half of earth’s surface is absolutely critical to the health of our planet”.

Now that long-awaited treaty textual content has been finalised, Nichola Clark, an oceans skilled on the Pew Charitable Trusts who noticed the talks in New York, mentioned, “This is a once in a generation opportunity to protect the oceans — a major win for biodiversity”.

The treaty will create a brand new physique to handle conservation of ocean life and set up marine protected areas within the excessive seas.

Clark mentioned that is essential to realize the UN Biodiversity Conference’s latest pledge to guard 30 per cent of the planet’s waters, in addition to its land, for conservation.

The treaty additionally establishes floor guidelines for conducting environmental affect assessments for business actions within the oceans.

“It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” mentioned Jessica Battle, an oceans governance skilled on the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Many marine species — together with dolphins, whales, sea turtles and lots of fish — make lengthy annual migrations, crossing nationwide borders and the excessive seas.

Efforts to guard them — and human communities that depend on fishing or tourism associated to marine life — have beforehand been hampered by a complicated patchwork of legal guidelines.

“This treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns across species’ ranges,” Battle mentioned.

That safety additionally helps coastal biodiversity and economies, mentioned Gladys Martínez de Lemos, government director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defence specializing in environmental points throughout Latin America.

“Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she mentioned.

The query now could be how properly the bold treaty shall be applied.

The excessive seas have lengthy suffered exploitation resulting from business fishing and mining, in addition to air pollution from chemical compounds and plastics.

The new settlement is about “acknowledging that the ocean is not a limitless resource, and it requires global cooperation to use the ocean sustainably,” mentioned Malin Pinsky, a biologist at Rutgers University.