Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks

By Esme Stallard, BBC Climate and Science Reporter

Nations have reached a historic agreement to protect the world's oceans following 10 years of negotiations.

The High Seas Treaty places 30 percent of the seas into protected areas by 2030, aiming to safeguard and recuperate marine nature.

The agreement was reached on Saturday evening, after 38 hours of talks, at UN headquarters in New York.

The negotiations had been held up for years over disagreements on funding and fishing rights.

The last international agreement on ocean protection was signed 40 years ago in 1982 - the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

That agreement established an area called the high seas - international waters where all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research - but only 1.2 percent of these waters are protected.

Marine life living outside of these protected areas has been at risk from climate change, overfishing and shipping traffic.

In the latest assessment of global marine species, nearly 10 percent were found to be at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

These new protected areas, established in the treaty, will put limits on how much fishing can take place, the routes of shipping lanes and exploration activities like deep sea mining - when minerals are taken from a sea bed 200m or more below the surface.

Environmental groups have been concerned that mining processes could disturb animal breeding grounds, create noise pollution and be toxic for marine life.

The International Seabed Authority that oversees licensing told the BBC that moving forward "any future activity in the deep seabed will be subject to strict environmental regulations and oversight to ensure that they are carried out sustainably and responsibly".

Rena Lee, UN Ambassador for Oceans, brought down the gavel after two weeks of negotiations that at times threatened to unravel.

Minna Epps, director of the IUCN Ocean team, said the main issue was over the sharing of marine genetic resources.

Marine genetic resources are biological material from plants and animals in the ocean that can have benefits for society, such as pharmaceuticals, industrial processes and food.

Richer nations currently have the resources and funding to explore the deep ocean but poorer nations wanted to ensure any benefits they find were shared equally.

Stockholm University ocean researcher Dr Robert Blasiak said the challenge was that no one knows how much ocean resources are worth and therefore how they could be split.

"If you imagine a big, high-definition, widescreen TV, and if only like three or four of the pixels on that giant screen are working, that's our knowledge of the deep ocean. So we've recorded about 230,000 species in the ocean, but it's estimated that there are over two million," he said.

Greenpeace Nordic oceans campaigner Laura Meller commended countries for "putting aside differences and delivering a treaty that will let us protect the oceans, build our resilience to climate change and safeguard the lives and livelihoods of billions of people".

"This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics," she said.

Countries will need to meet again to formerly adopt the agreement and then have plenty of work to do before the treaty can be implemented.

Pews Trust ocean governance team director Liz Karan told the BBC: "It will take some time to take effect.

"Countries have to ratify it [legally adopt it] for it to enter force. Then there are a lot of institutional bodies like the Science and Technical Committee that have to get set up."

In detail: The plan to protect the high seas, what is it and why it is needed?

After more than a decade of negotiations, the countries of the UN have agreed to the first ever treaty to protect the world's oceans that lie outside national boundaries.

The UN High Seas Treaty places 30 percent of the world's oceans into protected areas, puts more money into marine conservation and means new rules for mining at sea.

Environmental groups say it will help reverse biodiversity losses and ensure sustainable development. Here's what you need to know:

What are the high seas?

Two-thirds of the world's oceans are currently considered international waters.

That means all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research there.

But until now only about 1 percent of these waters - known as high seas - have been protected.

This leaves the marine life living in the vast majority of the high seas at risk of exploitation from threats including climate change, overfishing and shipping traffic.

Which marine species are at risk?

In the latest assessment of marine species, the IUCN found nearly 10 percent were at risk of extinction.

Dr Ngozi Oguguah, chief research officer at Nigerian Institute For Oceanography and Marine Research said: "The two biggest causes [of extinction] are overfishing and pollution. If we have marine protected sanctuaries most of the marine resources will have the time to recover."

Abalone species - a type of shellfish - sharks and whales have come under particular pressure due to their high value as seafood and for drugs.

The IUCN estimates that 41 percent of the threatened species are also affected by climate change.

Minna Epps, head of IUCN's ocean team, said: "A bit more than a quarter of emitted carbon dioxide is actually being absorbed by the ocean. That makes the ocean much more acidic, which means that it's going to be less productive and jeopardise certain species and ecosystems."

Climate change has also increased marine heat waves 20-fold, according to research published in the magazine Science - which can bring about extreme events like cyclones but also mass mortality events.

Epps said to tackle the issue of climate change in the sea involves implementing the other global agreements such as the Paris Agreement.

She said: "This is a real reason to have a synergies and collaboration between these different multilateral agreements we've seen increasingly within the UN conventions on climate change."

Global Species Assessed for Extinction Threat

The treaty also aims to protect against potential impacts like deep sea mining. This is the process of collecting minerals from the ocean bed.

Environmental groups are seriously concerned about the possible effects of mining, such as disturbing sediments, creating noise pollution and damaging breeding grounds.

What is in the High Seas Treaty?

The headline is the agreement to place 30 percent of the world's international waters into protected areas (MPAs) by 2030.

However, the level of protection in these areas was fiercely contested and remains unresolved.

Dr Simon Walmsley, marine chief advisor of WWF-UK said: "There was debate particularly around what a marine protected area is. Is it sustainable use or fully protected?".

Whatever form of protection is agreed, there will be restrictions on how much fishing can take place, the routes of shipping lanes and exploration activities like deep sea mining.

Other key measures include:

• Arrangements for sharing marine genetic resources, such as biological material from plants and animals in the ocean. These can have benefits for society, such as pharmaceuticals and food
• Requirements for environmental assessments for deep sea activities like mining

Richer nations have also pledged new money for the delivery of the treaty.

The EU announced nearly 820m euros for international ocean protection on Thursday.

However, developing nations were disappointed that a specific funding amount was included in the text.

Will this make a difference?

Despite the breakthrough in agreeing to the treaty there is still a long way to go before it is legally agreed.

The treaty must first be formerly adopted at a later session, and then it only enters "into force" once enough countries have signed up and legally passed it in their own countries.

Dr Simon Walmsley said: "There is a real delicate balance, if you don't have enough states it won't enter into force. But [you] also need to get the states with enough money to get the impact. We are thinking around 40 states to get the whole thing into force".

Russia was one of the countries who registered concerns over the final text.

Countries have to then start looking at practically how these measures would be implemented and managed.

Epps, from the IUCN said this implementation is crucial. If marine protected areas are not properly connected, it might not have the desired impact as many species are migratory and may travel across unprotected areas where they are at risk.

-BBC