NICE, France (AP) – The third United Nations Ocean Conference opens on Monday as pressure on countries is escalating to convert contracts from promises to real protection for the sea.
The top comes only 2.7 % of the ocean is actual protected One of the destructive extractive activities, according to the NGO Institute. This is much lower than the object agreed upon by the “30×30” pledge to maintain 30 % of the Earth and the sea by 2030.
Above this year’s agenda is the ratification of Treaty of the High Seas. The treaty was adopted in 2023, for the first time to be allowed for countries to create marine protected areas in international waters, which cover nearly two -thirds of the ocean and great ventilation.
“It is the wild West there with hunting countries anywhere without any kind of organization, and this needs to be changed,” said Mauro Randoni, director of regional projects at the World’s Mediterranean Initiative in the world. “The high seas are for all, and no one is practically at the same time, and the two countries finally adhere to setting some rules.”
The ocean is crucial in stabilizing the Earth’s climate and preserving life. It generates 50 % of the oxygen that we breathe, absorbs about 30 % of carbon dioxide emissions and captures more than 90 % of the extra heat caused by these emissions. Without a healthy environment, experts warn that climatic goals will remain far.
The treaty will not come into effect unless 60 countries are ratified. As of only the two 32 countries king. Defenders hope that UNOC will build enough momentum to cross the threshold, allowing the first official ocean conference for parties.
“Two-thirds of the oceans are areas that go beyond the national judicial jurisdiction-that is, half of our planet,” said Mina Eps, Director of the World Ocean Policy, International Conservation Federation. “We cannot protect 30 % of the ocean if it does not include the high seas.”
South Korea, France and the European Union I defended the treaty, but most of the large ocean countries have not yet believed it, including the rest of the Group of Twenty. Thousands of attendees are expected to be nice – from delegates and heads of state to scholars and industry leaders. The United States has not yet confirmed an official delegation.
Moving from protection on paper to a real thing
Besides the new obligations, the conference highlights the increasing gap between marine protection ads and maintaining the real world.
France, the participant host of the conference, claims that it exceeded the target by 30 % for marine protection. But environmental groups say only 3 % of French water is fully protected from harmful activities such as lower hunting and fishing.
In 2024 alone, more than 100 ships followed their bottom, spending more than 17,000 hours in hunting inside the six maritime natural parks in France, according to the Ocean Advocacy Group Usina.
“The government declares that it is protected areas, but this is a lie,” said Enric Sala, founder of the National Geographic Seas Marine Reserve project. “Most of them are adhering to political squares. They are all paper gardens.”
This criticism is repeated throughout the continent. new Global Wildlife Fund Report I found that although more than 11 % of the sea area in Europe is intended for protection, only 2 % of the European Union waters have administrative plans.
Fabian Poelo, director of marine protected areas at the France Biodiversity Office, admitted that the lower hunting in the French protected areas, but said it was part of a gradual strategy.
“In France, we took the option to appoint large marine protected areas with relatively low levels of organization at the beginning, with the bet that stronger protection will be developed over time through local governance,” he said. “Today, we gradually increase the number of areas that contain strict protection within those areas.”
France Port: Model for Conservation
While many marine protected areas are struggling with enforcement, others show what real protection can achieve. About the southern coast of France, Port Cruise National Park is one of the oldest marine reserves in the Mediterranean. There, the prohibition of strict linking with the vast promoter of seaweed allowed to grow without an obstacle. The huge group carries rock patrols, a bright color producer park on algae, and large Corbus schools sliding across shallow, without hunger from hunting lines.
“Thanks to the protection that has existed since 1963, we can notice the species that are much larger than anywhere in the Mediterranean and with much higher intensity than it was in other regions,” said Hybert Flavini, director of the Mio Palm MO Center, Hyires, France.
However, these examples are still exceptions.
Defenders say industrial fishing salaries continue to resist the most stringent protection, although evidence that well -managed reserves enhance long -term fish fisheries through “indirect influence”, as marine life flourishes in nearby waters.
“Protection is not the problem – overfishing is the problem,” said Sala. “The worst enemy in the fishing industry is the same.”
With frustration due to the government’s failure, environmental groups took their hands. in May, Greenpeace 15 rocks of limestone in Golf de Lyon decreased in France, with the aim of prohibiting the lower army hunting physically in a naval area that has long been appointed to protect. The protected area was established in 2008 to maintain ecosystems in the depths of the seas, however, 12 swarms are still operating there, despite scientific warnings of environmental collapse, according to the Medreact Activists Group. GOOLFE is now one of the most overwhelming areas in the Mediterranean Sea.
What will the UNOC hand over?
The conference will include 10 paintings on topics such as blue financing, sustainable fish fisheries and plastic pollution. It is expected that mining in the depths of the seas will be displayed in broader discussions, while the small island cases are likely to be used to defend climate adaptation financing. The result of these discussions will be the basis of the gentle ocean plan – an announcement of voluntary obligations to adopt it through consensus and display at the United Nations in New York in July.
“There can be no healthy planet without a healthy perimeter,” said Peter Thompson, the United Nations Special Envoy for the Ocean. “It is an urgent work for all of us.” ___
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