The UN will resume next Tuesday, at its headquarters in New York, the talks to complete a high seas protection treatya vital but fragile resource that covers nearly half the planet.
Many non-governmental organizations and affected countries consider that the pact is necessary and urgent to improve the environmental management of this vast areastill poorly regulated, which faces new challenges, reported the AFP news agency.
The coronavirus pandemic delayed negotiations for two years.
The new cycle of talks that begins next Tuesday will take place at the UN headquarters in New York until August 26.
Sources close to the negotiations maintain that it is not certain that the dialogue will conclude in this round.
A source from the High Ambition Coalition, which groups some 50 countries, told AFP: participants must find a compromise between “two big ideas”: protecting the environment and regulating human activitywithout neglecting the freedoms on the high seas.
The oceans cover three quarters of the surface of the ? and contain 97% of the planet’s water.
Countries are meeting this week at UN headquarters in New York to work on an agreement to better protect them: https://t.co/ZUnqpOQLbJ #SaveTheOceans pic.twitter.com/gx6I47ot0L
— United Nations (@ONU_es) September 5, 2018
The area they seek to regulate
The high seas begin at the limits of the exclusive economic zones of nations, to a maximum of 370 kilometers (200 nautical miles) from the coast, according to international law, outside of state jurisdictions.
Though the high seas represent more than 60% of the oceanshas long been ignored in favor of coastal areas, AFP added.
Only 1% of the high seas have legal protectionHowever, scientists have shown the need to protect ocean ecosystems in their entirety, since they produce half of the oxygen that humans breathe and mitigate global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide.
