Governments have failed to protect the Antarctic – but this isn’t over
Over the last two weeks, a group of governments met in Hobart, Australia, to negotiate a new Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary.
They failed.
Although 22 governments supported the sanctuary, negotiators from Russia, China and Norway stopped it from going ahead. The Russian and Chinese delegations even used delaying tactics to waste time and hold up the negotiations, rather than engaging with the scientific evidence for the sanctuary.
This failure leaves the incredible wildlife of the Antarctic exposed to pressures from overfishing, pollution and climate change.
A broken system
There’s a specific international body that makes decisions about the waters around Antarctica – the Antarctic Ocean Commission. The Commission, officially known as CCAMLR, is made up of 24 countries, plus the EU.
It’s their job to look after Antarctic marine life and make sure the continent’s seas (which no single country controls) don’t become a free-for-all of overfishing. But because every country has to agree before a new sanctuary can go ahead, it’s easy for a small minority to stop things from progressing.
The Antarctic Ocean Commission failed this time, and if they keep failing, it’ll be increasingly clear that they’re unfit for purpose and aren’t part of the solution.
New hope for the oceans
Today is a sad day for everyone who cares about our blue planet. But this isn’t the end – it’s just the beginning. 2.7 million people joined the campaign for this ocean sanctuary – and we’re going to come back stronger than ever.
First, we’ll keep working to protect the Antarctic Ocean. But that alone isn’t enough.
To truly start healing our blue planet, we need to think bigger. That means changing how the system works so it’s easier to protect large areas of our global oceans.
Soon we’ll have a chance to do exactly that. There’s a new global ocean treaty on the table at the UN. If it’s approved it’ll open the door to creating huge new protected areas covering at least a THIRD of the world’s oceans. Let’s not forget that 22 of the 25 countries at the Antarctic negotiations supported the creation of our Sanctuary: in almost any other political forum, that would have been enough to make it a reality.
This could be a game-changer for ocean protection, and together, we can make it happen. Join the Antarctic petition and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to find out about ways to get involved.
Article Tagged as: Antarctic, Featured, Oceans, antarctic, antarctic ocean sanctuary, antarctica, marine reserves, ocean sanctuaries, penguin
