Nearly 200 countries reach historic agreement on draft treaty to protect marine life in high seas

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

公海での海洋生物保護、約２００カ国が条約案に歴史的合意

2023.03.06 Mon posted at 14:15 JST

 （ＣＮＮ） 公海の海洋生物を保護するための法的拘束力のある条約案について、国連の会合で約２００カ国が合意した。地球の表面の約半分を覆う公海は、これまで実質的に無法状態だった。

条約案は米ニューヨークの国連本部で２週間の協議を経て、４日夕に調印された。起草は２０年がかりの作業だった。

同条約により、生物多様性の保護を目的とした海洋保護区の設置や管理に向けた法的手段が確立される。また、深海採鉱のような商業活動の潜在的被害について事前に判断する環境影響評価や、海洋資源の共有に関する誓約も盛り込まれた。

公海は、真に手付かずの自然が残る世界で最後の場所とも呼ばれる。この広大な海域は、表面積で世界の海の６０％以上を占める。

公海は幅広い種が生息して独特の生態系を形成し、何十億もの人口が依存する世界の漁業を支え、気候危機に対する緩衝材として過去数十年で世界の余分な熱の９０％以上を吸収してきた。

同時に極めて脆弱（ぜいじゃく）な存在でもある。気候変動によって海洋温度は上昇し、海水の酸性化が進んで海洋生物を脅かしている。

漁業や海上輸送、深海鉱業、海洋植物や動物の「遺伝資源」を医薬品などの産業に利用しようとする競争など、人間の活動も海洋の負担となっている。

しかしこれまでのルールは断片的で執行力が弱く、公海上の活動は無規制で監視も不十分なまま搾取されやすい状態にあった。

新しい海洋条約は、公海上に海洋保護区を設定して管理するための法的力を与えることで、そうした溝を埋めることを目指す。２０２２年１２月にカナダのモントリオールで開かれた生物多様性条約第１５回締約国会議（ＣＯＰ１５）で採択された世界の多様性の目標を達成するために、これは不可欠だと専門家は指摘している。

Translation

(CNN) Nearly 200 countries had agreed at a United Nations meeting on a draft legally-binding treaty to protect marine life in the high seas. The high seas, which covered about half of the Earth's surface, had been virtually lawless until now.

The draft treaty was signed on the evening of the 4th after two weeks of consultations at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The drafting was a process that took 20-year to finish.

The convention established legal instruments to establish and manage marine protected areas in order to protect biodiversity. It also included environmental impact assessments that made judgement in advance on the potential harm of commercial activities such as deep-sea mining, and also included a pledge to share marine resources.

The high seas had been called the last truly pristine natural place in the world. This vast area covered more than 60% of the world's oceans by surface area.

The high seas were home to a wide range of species, forming unique ecosystems, supporting the world's fisheries on which billions of people depended on, and acting as a buffer against the climate crisis by absorbing more than 90% of the world's excess heat over the last few decades.

At the same time, the high seas were extremely vulnerable. Climate change was causing ocean temperatures to rise, increasing ocean acidification, and threatening marine life.

Human activities, such as fishing, maritime transport, deep-sea mining, and competition to harness the ‘inheritance resources' of marine plants and animals for use in industries such as medicine had also put a strain on the oceans.

But up to now, rules had been fragmented and weakly enforced, leaving high seas activity unregulated and poorly monitored, and vulnerable to exploitation.

This new maritime treaty aimed at filling that gap by giving legal power to establish and manage marine protected areas on the high seas. Experts said this would be essential to achieve global diversity goals adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) held in Montreal, Canada in December 2022.

              So, nearly 200 countries have agreed at a United Nations meeting on a draft legally-binding treaty to protect marine life in the high seas. Hopefully, the damages done to the high seas can be reversed with this new convention.

Note:

The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. (Wikipedia)