The member states of the UN have been trying for nearly two weeks to agree on a text to protect the high seas, a fragile and vital treasure, which covers almost half of the surface of the planet.
It hides behind the acronym BBNJ. The “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction” (or “Biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions”) is a treaty on the high seas under negotiation at the UN since February 20. Before the end of the talks, Friday March 3, the scientific community, personalities and NGOs called for an ambitious text to urgently protect this environment which starts where the exclusive economic zones of the States stop, i.e. 370 km sides.
“The sea is not just flip flops and the beach, it’s much bigger than that. And humans are very dependent on this sea that they don’t see. Without it, we can’t live”, claims Catherine Jeandel, director of research in oceanography at the CNRS. What are the issues surrounding the protection of the high seas? Franceinfo asked the question to several researchers.
Biodiversity protection
It represents more than 60% of the surface of the oceans and almost half of that of the planet. “The high seas are by far the biggest ‘habitat’ in terms of volume”, describes Joachim Claudet, researcher at the Center for Island Research and Environmental Observatory (Criobe). It is home to between 500,000 and 10 million species, reports the National Sea Center (Nausicaa).
However, this ecosystem is threatened by many human activities. Deep-sea mining, maritime traffic, cable laying, fishing… Ocean mining has exploded since the 1970sas shown in an article published in 2020 in One Earth. “IPBES – the IPCC for biodiversity – has shown that the main factors of erosion of biodiversity at sea are fishing and change of use [le fait qu’une zone naturelle soit exploitée par l’homme]“explains Joachim Claudet.
Given the weight of this environment – which plunges up to 11,000 meters – for biodiversity, “the treaty will include provisions to create marine protected areas” And “force States to carry out environmental impact studies of their activities on the high seas”, described from New York Glen Wright, researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). Objective: protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, as agreed by all governments in December at COP15. An almost unattainable goal without including the high seas, of which only about 1% is protected today, specifies the alliance of NGOs High Seas (in English). “It is one of the few places that has not yet been overexploited by man. This treaty may be the beginning of a paradigm shift, in which we would be careful about our activities before they are have an irremediable impact”assures, full of hope, Joachim Claudet.
Resource Sharing
Another highly political issue: the distribution of possible benefits from the exploitation of resources of the high seas. Pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic industries hope to discover exploitable molecules there. A potential windfall which developing countries fear being deprived of, for lack of the means to carry out this costly research. It is “one of the major blockages” discussions at the UN, reports Glenn Wright. “Developed countries have finally accepted the obligation to share the benefits, but there is no agreement on a mechanism to implement it”he reports.
A proposal on the table suggests that the future high seas COP will come back to this subject at a later date, when the benefits will actually be there, and a compulsory financial contribution to the operation of the treaty will be put in place in the meantime. The European Union has also promised 40 million euros to facilitate the ratification of the treaty.
The EU also announced on Thursday 2 March in Panama, during the Our Ocean conference, more than 800 million euros devoted to the protection of the oceans in general for 2023. John Kerry, special envoy of the White House for the climate, also promised during this meeting that the United States will commit them 6 billion dollars in 77 projects (without specifying over which period).
The fight against climate change
The high seas are also one of the cogs in the climate system, both threatened by global warming and essential in the fight against the phenomenon. Since rising temperatures in the 1970s, “the ocean has absorbed 93% of the excess heat emitted by humanity is due to the combustion of fossils”exposes Catherine Jeandel.
By warming up in this way, it has largely limited the rise of mercury to the surface. And, like forests, it is a huge carbon sink that absorbs a quarter of our CO2 emissions. However, during this process, the ocean acidifies, “severely impairing the development of calcified organisms”, that is to say those that are formed thanks to limestone, such as shells, explains the researcher. She cites the example “billions of billions of microalgae that fix carbon to grow and thus drag it down, sequestering it”.
In view of the urgency of combating climate change, the high seas therefore represent a major challenge. If it is not directly mentioned in the treaty, Joachim Claudet quickly makes the link: “If we protect ecosystems, they will be richer. And therefore more resilient to climate change”.