The international agreement, almost two decades in the making, supports the goal to protect 30% of the world's marine environments by 2030.
The new treaty establishes an official mechanism for creating more marine protected areas in international waters for the first time. Currently, just 1.2% of Earth’s high seas are protected,The agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the U.N. to go into effect, establishes a legal framework for upping that protected percentage to a full 30% of the world’s marine ecosystems.
, another Woods Hole marine scientist, told Earther in a phone call that he was happy to see the agreement coalesce. “It’s great news,” he said. “I fully support it. I think it’s a great thing.”Though the 30% protection goal might seem like a lot, Reddy noted that “it’s not an excessive burden.” Managing to achieve that level of marine protection worldwide will be tough, and “there are significant challenges” ahead, the marine chemist noted. “There’s a lot of work to be done.
“This is not somebody sitting around with a map and just circling areas to protect. [With this agreement] we are choosing areas that need to be protected from human activity using science.” Sheltering the most vulnerable areas from things like marine pollution and oil spills, which Reddy studies, means that sensitive marine ecosystems will have more of a chance to survive and thrive.Just because countries were able to decide on text doesn’t mean it’s been implemented yet.
From there, participating nations can start proposing new marine protected areas, which will need to be individually approved.
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