We can’t afford to wait for Rio+40

By Daniela Diz, Consultant, Conservation Approaches Specialist, WWF-Canada
Twenty years ago, the world was a better place. During the Earth Summit in 1992, Canada was perceived as a progressive country, embracing a strong environmental agenda based on the principle of sustainable development under which “environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it” (Rio Declaration, Principle 4).
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case anymore.
 

(C) Peter Green

Oceans are one of the critical issues at this week’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20); Rio+20 is also a real opportunity to launch a negotiation process for a new implementing agreement to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), seen as a key element for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Areas beyond national jurisdiction comprise about 70% of the world’s oceans and due to increasing human pressure, biodiversity components and ecosystems’ health are rapidly declining. Humans depend on the health of those ecosystems and their biodiversity components to survive.
Most of the world, including G77 and China, as well as the European Union, supports a strong commitment to the negotiations of this implementing agreement. However, Canada is one of only a handful of countries (e.g. the US, Russia and Japan) who oppose such a commitment to be reached in Rio this week. Such an agreement would deal with remaining gaps  and fragmentation of the current oceans governance regime in areas beyond national jurisdiction, which hinders sound implementation of area based tools agreed 20 years ago or more, such as high seas marine protected areas and environmental impact assessments. The implementing agreement would also deal with unresolved issues related to access and benefit sharing of marine genetic resources in those areas, as this is an intrinsic issue related to sustainable development.
WWF is a member of the High Seas Alliance, a coalition of up to 28 organizations that represent civil society worldwide. The High Seas Alliance strongly supports “efforts to close existing legal gaps and enhance current ocean management so that it provides a more integrated, equitable and accountable framework. Without the legal framework in place to ensure that marine areas beyond national jurisdiction are effectively protected, the ocean – Earth’s life support system – will face continued degradation and unsustainable exploitation, jeopardizing the ocean’s potential to provide essential ecosystem services for current and future generations.”
Under UNCLOS, State-Parties, including Canada, still have the obligation to cooperate on the conservation of living resources of the high seas and on the protection and preservation of the marine environment. When most of the world is calling for the negotiations of such an implementing agreement, Canada should be expected to, at least, comply with its obligation to cooperate under international law and be a team player, after all, this is our natural wealth.
And we can’t afford to wait for Rio+40.
 
 
For further information and broadcasting direct from Rio, see: https://www.oceansinc.org/