Even with the current attempt, the member states of the United Nations cannot agree on a high-seas agreement. Environmental organizations criticize this because nothing less than the health of the oceans is at stake.
For 15 years there has been a struggle for an international high seas agreement to protect the world’s oceans – now another round of negotiations between the UN member states has ended without a result. “Although we have made excellent progress, we still need a little more time to reach the finish line,” said conference chair Rena Lee after two weeks of talks in New York. Environmental groups now fear a further deterioration in “marine health”. The negotiations, which ended without a result, should be resumed at a later date, Lee announced. However, a date for this has not yet been set.
The UN member states have been struggling for an agreement to protect biodiversity in the high seas for 15 years, and the current formal round of negotiations was the fifth of its kind. Now the UN General Assembly is to resume negotiations at an unknown date.
Around 60 percent of the world’s oceans that do not fall under a country’s exclusive economic zone because they are more than 370 kilometers from the nearest coast are referred to as the high seas. Only about one percent of the high seas is currently protected by international agreements. The negotiations are now about, among other things, when and how further protection zones can be created in the seas.
One of the most sensitive issues is the distribution of possible profits from genetic resources in international waters, where the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industries hope to find “miracle cures”. Only large international corporations or rich nations can afford the extremely expensive search for it; poorer countries do not want to be excluded from possible gains. They argue that the wealth of the seas belongs to everyone.
The renewed failure of the negotiations was met with sometimes sharp criticism from environmental protection organizations, which are pushing for better protection of the oceans in view of the dangers of global warming, pollution and overfishing. The oceans produce half of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and absorb a significant portion of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities.
“It is outrageous and also sad that the UN has still not passed an agreement to protect the high seas,” Greenpeace said. The goal of many states to protect at least 30 percent of the high seas by 2030 is now more difficult to achieve.
According to the environmental association WWF, the delay ensures “that the health of the seas continues to deteriorate”. Progress has been made in many areas. In order to reach an agreement, the heads of state and government of the countries involved would have to get more involved.