UN diplomats recommend start to high seas MPAs negotiations – Undercurrent News

After two years of talks, UN diplomats have recommended starting treaty negotiations to create marine protected areas (MPAs) in waters beyond national jurisdiction, reports the Straights Times.

Late last month countries worldwide tookthe first step to protect the high seas, and in turn begin the high-stakes diplomatic jostling over how much to protect and how to enforce rules.

"The high seas are the biggest reserve of biodiversity on the planet," Fiji's ambassador Peter Thomson, the current president of the UN General Assembly, said in an interview after the negotiations. "We can't continue in an ungoverned way if we are concerned about protecting biodiversity and protecting marine life."

But abroad range of interests are in play.Russian and Norwegian vessels go to the high seas for krill fishing; Japanese and Chinese vessels go there for tuna. India and China are exploring the seabed in international waters for valuable minerals.

Some countries resist the creation of a new governing body to regulate the high seas, arguing that existing regional organizations and rules are sufficient.

The negotiations must also still answer critical questions. How will marine protected areas be chosen? How much of the ocean will be set aside as sanctuaries? Will extraction of all marine resources be prohibited from those reserves -- as so-called no-take areas -- or will some human activity be allowed? Not least, how will the new reserve protections be enforced?

Russia, for instance, objected to using the phrase "long-term" conservation efforts in the document that came out of the latest negotiations in July, instead preferring time-bound measures.

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UN diplomats recommend start to high seas MPAs negotiations - Undercurrent News