UNITED NATIONS: UN member states finally agreed on Saturday (Mar 4), following years of talks, to a text on the first international treaty to protect the high seas, a fragile and vital treasure that covers nearly half the planet.
“The ship has reached the shore,” conference chair Rena Lee announced at the UN headquarters in New York shortly before 9.30pm local time, to applause from delegates.
After more than 15 years of discussions, including four years of formal talks, the third so-called final negotiating session in less than a year heralded the long-awaited consensus.
The treaty is seen as essential to conserving 30 per cent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030, as agreed by world governments in a historic accord signed in Montreal in December.
The exact wording of the text was not immediately released but activists hailed it as a breakthrough moment for the protection of biodiversity.
“This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics,” said Greenpeace’s Laura Meller.
Following two weeks of intense talks at the United Nations headquarters in New York, including a marathon overnight session Friday into Saturday, delegates finalised a text that cannot be significantly altered.
“There will be no reopening or discussions of substance,” Lee told negotiators.
Lee is also Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs (MFA).
An MFA spokesperson said Singapore welcomes the “successful and timely” conclusion of the agreement and that it looks forward to its universal adoption and effective implementation.
It also comes just after the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 under another Singaporean President, Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, said the spokesperson.
The agreement will be formally adopted at a later date once it has been vetted by lawyers and translated into the United Nations’ six official languages, she announced.
The high seas begin at the border of countries’ exclusive economic zones, which extend up to 370km from coastlines. They thus fall under the jurisdiction of no country.
Even though the high seas comprise more than 60 per cent of the world’s oceans and nearly half the planet’s surface, they have long drawn far less attention than coastal waters and a few iconic species.
Ocean ecosystems create half the oxygen humans breathe and limit global warming by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities.
But they are threatened by climate change, pollution and overfishing.
Only about 1 per cent of the high seas are currently protected.
When the new treaty comes into force it will allow the creation of marine protected areas in these international waters.
“High seas marine protected areas can play a critical role in building resilience to the impact of climate change,” said Liz Karan of The Pew Charitable Trusts, which called the agreement a “momentous achievement”.
The treaty will also oblige countries to conduct environmental impact assessments of proposed activities on the high seas.
A highly sensitive chapter on the sharing of potential benefits of newly discovered marine resources was one of the focal points of tensions before it was finally overcome as the scheduled talks, due to end Friday, overran by a day.
