New Greenpeace report on ocean protection

A new report by Greenpeace, published on Monday, October 19, highlights that it will take an additional 265 years to fully protect 30 percent of the planet's oceans. This comes as the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations on biodiversity opens in Yerevan, Armenia.

Global target for ocean protection

The Kunming-Montreal agreement, signed in 2022 during the COP15 biodiversity conference, sets a target of achieving 30 percent protection of marine and coastal ecosystems by 2030. Currently, only 3.5 percent of the planet's oceans are completely or strongly protected from destructive human activities, such as bottom trawling, according to the Italian environmental specialist website Green & Blue.

Progress in marine protection

Titled Well connected, the report notes that since the countries initially agreed to establish a network of protected marine areas following the Rio Earth Summit, the areas actually protected have increased by an average of only 0.1 percent per year over thirty-four years. Some countries are more active than others in this area.

Need for faster action

Creating a network of marine reserves, Sarah Champion, president of the multi-party parliamentary ocean group in the United Kingdom, stated in Business Green, "I welcome the progress of our government, but ocean protection remains too slow." The report authors have identified 17 sites to protect—or which are already protected areas and whose level of protection should be strengthened—that could be connected to create a network of sanctuaries in the Atlantic.

Importance of connected marine reserves

"Only a tightly connected network of fully protected marine reserves can preserve migratory species, such as whales or turtles, throughout their journey, and thus prevent them from being killed by industrial fishing or colliding with cargo ships," stresses Lukas Meus, head of the oceans campaign at Greenpeace International, in Green & Blue. It is the only way to allow them to move, feed, and reproduce safely.

Other developments at COP17

COP16 reached an agreement on ocean protection and another on the role of indigenous peoples. Nearly 11,700 new viruses were discovered in the deep waters of the Pacific. White coral healed by contact with a healthy coral in just a few days. Populations of vertebrates are declining, but this is not irreversible.