(San José) At least 26 countries signed a “declaration of peace in the ocean” on Saturday in Costa Rica at the end of the “Immersed in change” forum, one year before the United Nations Conference on the Oceans in France.
Among the signatories are Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Israel, South Korea and Costa Rica and France, who will be co-organizers of the meeting of the UN planned in Nice (south-east).
At the end of two days of discussions, the 50 participating countries called for action to protect the oceans.
“We are committed to scaling up transformative ocean actions, to support the activities of nature-positive economies, based on the best possible science and scientific information, traditional knowledge and innovation,” they said in a document.
“The ocean can no longer endure our mistreatment and indifference. This is why we decided, in Costa Rica, that it was time for us to declare peace,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo André.
“Protecting the ocean and the sustainable use of marine resources is not a possibility, but an imperative,” said the UN Under-Secretary-General for Social Affairs, Li Junhua, at the opening of the forum.
In this 12-point “peace declaration” is a call to ratify the High Seas Protection Treaty, adopted in 2023 by more than 70 countries and aimed at protecting waters far from the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of States, or approximately 370 kilometers from their coasts.