The SDG14 Prep meeting wrapped up early today with all
member states, civil society and stakeholders having made their inventions outlining
what they would like to see in the final declaration. Co-chairs Portugal and
the Philippines will now have the task of taking this information and preparing
a zero draft.
Human activities and stressors including marine pollution,
ocean acidification, overfishing and illegal fishing are depleting and
seriously threatening the health of the ocean. The ocean is interconnected so
that what happens in the high seas, eventually has an impact on ocean life in
coastal communities and vice versa. A
treaty to protect the biodiversity of the high seas is recognised by science as
crucial for all ocean health, including coastal areas and NGO’s highlighted the
need to bring legal protection to high seas biodiversity and to close this
last, massive ocean governance loophole.
NGO’s reaffirmed the importance
of reaching the CBD Aichi Targets of
protecting 10% of the ocean by 2020,
but also to look beyond this by strongly protecting at least 30% of the Ocean
through marine reserves by 2030 and ensuring sustainable management in the
other 70%. They also called for targets set under the Paris Agreement to
be met, recognizing both tools as vital to achieving a healthy marine ecosystem
that promotes food security and livelihoods for the millions of people that
rely on the ocean for their survival.
In addition, they outlined the needs for transparent
reporting of
commitments and partnerships recorded at the Conference to ensure accountability and the need to secure
additional financing for oceans
solutions from public and private sources.
As Stephen Hawking recently reminded us, “we are
at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity due to significant
environmental challenges including climate change and ocean degradation…. We
now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to
escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human
colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to
work together to protect it.”
