SA joins high seas treaty to protect oceans in crisis

South Africa showed its blue colours this week, by signing the High Seas Treaty at the UN Ocean Conference co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in Nice, which ended on Friday.

South Africa played an active role in negotiating the agreement said forestry, fisheries and the environment minister Dion George.

The treaty will allow marine protected areas (MPAs) to be established in international waters, which are at risk from industries harming marine life such as bottom-trawling fisheries and deep-sea mining.

MPAs are “critical to stop the extinction of species, prevent further degradation of the oceans and halt climate change” said WILDTRUST director of campaigns Lauren van Nijkerk.

By Friday midday, 55 countries had ratified the High Seas Treaty (officially the BBNJ agreement) but five more states are needed before it comes into force as international law. The next step for South Africa is for parliament to ratify the treaty.

Ecological sustainability is only possible when paired with socioeconomic prosperity

—  Dr Jean Harris, ocean programme lead at WILDTRUST 

George told TimesLIVE Premium: “UNOC in Nice was an important economic and strategic opportunity for SA as a maritime nation. Signing the treaty places us among like-minded nations who want to sensibly protect oceans beyond individual nation jurisdictions.”

He encouraged all UN member states and regional organisations to sign and ratify the treaty without delay “in the shared interest of safeguarding marine biodiversity for present and future generations”.

“The BBNJ agreement addresses critical gaps in the governance of the two-thirds of the ocean that lie beyond national jurisdictions,” he said, describing South Africa as “a bridge-builder between global ambition and local action in the ocean space”.

The US, which did not send a delegation to UNOC3, has not ratified the treaty and President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to fast-track deep-sea mining within US and international waters.

This conflicts with calls by UN secretary-general António Guterrez and French President Emmanuel Macron to put a moratorium on deep-sea mining. Guterres has urged the world not to allow a “Wild West” on the high seas.

South Africa — which has committed to the global biodiversity 30x30 goal to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030 — has only 15.4% of its ocean territory protected, WILDTRUST noted. “This underlines the need for accelerated ambition and action in our home waters,” said Van Nijkerk.

The ocean is a life source “essential for climate regulation, food security, livelihoods and economic development”, said George. “Unfortunately, the world’s oceans face escalating threats from climate change, biodiversity loss and marine pollution. These impacts demand urgent, inclusive and science-based action.”

South Africa was among the parties supporting the Nice Ocean Action Plan presented on Friday — 10 years after the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Nice action plan sets out voluntary commitments to halt and reverse ocean degradation, climate change and the extinction of marine species.

Inside the Baleine (whale) pavilion in the “green zone” in Nice, environmentalists, activists, NGOs, donors and other representatives of civil society welcomed the progress made at UNOC3, while also flagging the worsening threats facing the ocean, which holds 97% of the planet’s water and covers 71% of its surface.

Dr Jean Harris, WILDOCEANS programme lead at WILDTRUST, noted: “Ecological sustainability is only possible when paired with socioeconomic prosperity, especially in vulnerable coastal communities, where lasting marine conservation depends on both nature and people thriving together.”

Why do we need the ocean? It produces 50% of the oxygen needed by us to survive, absorbs 30% of carbon emissions and captures 90% of the heat of excess emissions.
Globally, more than 3-billion people are dependent on healthy marine ecosystems which create some 150-million jobs.

Coastal indigenous people and communities face difficult challenges living on the shore and should be given a role in marine policy and governance, UNOC3 heard.

A starfish barometer of ocean health was presented for the first time at UNOC — with five legs that reflect human pressures, protection efforts, opportunities for humanity and societal harm — illustrating this. For example, more than a third (38%) of fish stocks are overexploited and 1,677 marine species are threatened by extinction.

The ocean and marine species have an extraordinary capacity to rebound to life if they are not pushed past a tipping point, science has found. Destroyed coral reefs have come back to life and whale populations, such as humpbacks have been thriving since whaling was banned.

But finance, co-operation and multilateralism are needed to turn promises into reality and environmental activists and advocates have called on developed countries to support the Global South in its efforts to protect biodiversity by putting their money where their mouth is.

Deep-Sea Mining Moratorium Campaign executive director, Sian Owen, said: “Multilateralism is the bedrock of deep-sea protection. Whether banning bottom trawling of our ocean’s most vulnerable ecosystems, such as seamounts, or confirming a moratorium on deep-sea mining, governments must act together, with urgency and courage, to ensure that the deep ocean is protected for the benefit of all humankind.”