- IMPAC5 began Friday and runs through February 9.
- Scientists say the summit is critical for establishing a framework to achieve the COP15 aim.
- Scientists have discovered biodiversity hotspots.
In fewer than ten years, how do we go from conserving 8% of marine regions to 30%? This is the central subject at a worldwide summit in Canada this weekend aimed at saving marine ecosystems threatened by overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
Following the historic biodiversity agreement signed at COP15 in Montreal late last year, approximately 3,000 officials, scientists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Indigenous groups are gathering in Vancouver for the fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5), which began Friday and runs through February 9.
Scientists say the summit is critical for establishing a framework to achieve the COP15 aim of safeguarding 30% of the planet’s lands and oceans by 2030.
It’s a huge step forward for ocean conservation, with a tripling of regions designated as off-limits to most human activity in order to protect fragile ecosystems and endangered species.
The summit, which is normally held every four years, is being conducted two years later than usual owing to the COVID-19 epidemic.
“We must re-think our policies, economies, priorities, and processes in ways that reflect the important role nature plays in our own health, equity, well-being, and economic sustainability,” said host Canada, which has some of the world’s longest coastlines.
Oceans, which cover over three-quarters of the earth’s surface, is home to a quarter of all known species and absorb 30% of CO2 emissions from human activities.
“COP15 marked a historic inflection point in conservation efforts for nature… but the pressure is on now not just to reach the numerical target, but to make sure that we do it right, that our marine protected areas are in the right places (and) that they’re managed well,” Pepe Clarke of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) told.
Some experts fear the “politics of figures.”
Resistance to climate change
Scientists have discovered biodiversity hotspots or extremely endangered places that require immediate conservation actions.
Now it is vital to conduct discussions to “create a worldwide network, ecologically representative and which effectively preserves the complete spectrum of ecosystem types,” according to Clarke.
Especially since better safeguarding and managing our oceans will make them more resistant to climate change.
But even if the world achieves “the ambitious target of protecting 30% of the oceans by 2030 within high-quality (marine protected areas), the goals of the framework cannot be fully met without appropriate management of the other 70% of the oceans,” said the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit.
For Sian Owen, director of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), “it is crucial that both existing and emerging industries that threaten our deep ocean are quickly and unequivocally rejected and that we sustainably manage the remaining 70%.”
The UN member states will meet again at the end of February to try to hammer out a convention for the protection of the high seas, in what should be the final session.
International seas, which cover about half of the earth, must be protected for the health of the entire ocean and its biodiversity, as well as to minimize global warming.
“Governments must restrict activities that destroy and disturb vital ecosystems that support life on Earth,” said DSCC.
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