Legislation to protect ocean areas beyond national borders dangerously progresses slowly.
The meeting noted that many ocean resources such as fish stocks, minerals and coral reefs need to be protected by law as soon as possible.
Marine resources are covered in many areas by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but it does not contain a provision for the resources in the sea areas beyond national jurisdictions, commonly called sea. Because of this, these resources are especially vulnerable to exploitation, and are not governed by specific laws.
Another concern is that developing countries could miss out on the resources of the deep sea as this area is often accessible only to countries with advanced technologies and harmful extraction.
It is true that there has been some progress on the issue, with the establishment by the UN of the International Seabed Authority, which has granted at least 26 mineral exploration licenses in the deep sea to seven countries in 2014.
After the summit of the Organization for Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) it has begun a process coordinated by the Fund for Global Environment Facility (GEF in English), to determine whether it would be useful creating a law more extensive protection to sea.
But it does not expect this committee to make recommendations by the end of 2017. Only then did the UN decide sometime in 2018, if you want to formally begin the development of a legal framework.
The deterioration of ecosystems in the ocean waters beyond national borders disproportionately affects small island states, whose marine biodiversity depends on healthy open seas. According to FAO, some 300 million people depend on deep sea for their livelihoods, and protection of these resources is part of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals.
The smaller states, without the ability to access resources deep beneath the high seas, also lose out scientific discovery, exploitation of fishing resources and warned participants of the summit.
This is becoming a problem, as the new high-tech activities such as mining in the deep sea, oil extraction and geoengineering damage the environment before the less developed nations have the opportunity to explore them.
One problem is that offshore resources are defined only as mineral resources under the current law of the sea, says Charles Eden, UN Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago. “But much of the biodiversity in these areas,” he says. “They must be explored and exploited sustainably, for the benefit of the international community as a whole”.
Meanwhile, the UN negotiations on the establishment of a legal framework for offshore could stagnate even before the committee report recommendations.
Source: http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2015/06/29/pdfs/BOE-A-2015-7229.pdf
