Countries reach historic agreement to protect high seas

Around 200 countries at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York reached an agreement on Saturday evening to protect marine life in international waters, CNN reported on Saturday.

The historic treaty puts in place legal tools pertaining to the establishment of marine protected areas, as well as managing them. These tools are also beneficial in assessing the potential damage commercial activities, such as industrial fishing.

Laura Meller, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic referred to how it is a positive sign that “protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics.”

International waters, also known as the high seas, constitute more than 60 percent of world’s oceans. However, only 1.2 percent of it is protected.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed that around 10 percent of marine life species existing in high seas are facing the risk of extension.

This agreement is the fruit of two decades of negotiations. Meller applauded “countries for seeking compromises, putting aside differences and delivering a treaty that will let us protect the oceans.”

The treaty targets placing 30 percent of the seas into protected areas by 2030. The formal adoption of the treaty would still require governments’ ratification.

“There are a lot of institutional bodies like the Science and Technical Committee that have to get set up,” Liz Karan, director of Pews Trust ocean governance team, mentioned to BBC.