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Dear <<First Name>>
The focus on World Ocean Day in June 2023 was a hopeful one, gearing attention to changing tides for the better. Yes! There was no going slow during the summer months. The response of Mundus maris groups and our partners together with countless others was to draw attention to what needs to improve and what we can improve together. We know that stopping harmful fisheries subsidies for good through agreements at the World Trade Organization (WTO) would be a major building block to restore the ocean and its resources. That would give small-scale fisheries a new lease of life in contrast to fossil fuel guzzling and destructive industrial distance water fleets of few countries. We invite all readers and their networks to support that ongoing process to make it happen.
We also know that establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) work to restore marine and coastal ecosystems and, when fully functioning, spill over excess production into neighbouring waters. Fishers exploit this for harvesting bigger catches at the margins. A big risk today is, however, the proliferation of paper parks. They are being declared but not enforced. This way the European Union declares such protected areas, but still currently allows super-destructive bottom trawling that eliminates all life-giving habitat and may even remobilise CO2 previously buried in soils. France for that matter has with one stroke declared a huge MPA around New Caledonia in the Pacific, in order to meet its obligation under the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in December 2022 to protect 30% of marine and coastal waters. But does it? During the negotiations France vehemently opposed any agreement to define 10% as strongly protected and set monitoring and reporting targets. That begs the question about the true commitment for action of the co-hosting country with Costa Rica of the forthcoming UN Ocean Conference in Nice in 2025.
These are quite well defined and feasible measures where governments in the WTO and under UN Agreements have the mandate to deliver. We clearly need not only to keep up the pressure that they deliver effectively and in an equitable manner, but even step up public calls for action. Together with others, we are already planning activities for World Food Day (16 October) and World Fisheries Day (21 November). The ocean is too precious for all our lives to let it be emptied of renewable resources and further destroyed by deep sea mining instead of investing for example in waste reduction and circular economy approaches.
An even bigger challenge is to transform our economies away from their addiction to fossil fuels, which continue to receive more public subsidies than those mobilised for the development of renewable sources of energy. Notoriously, according to surveys, a majority of European citizens wants action taken for nature protection and against climate change. Are our governments staring immobilised at the fossil lobbies like the rabbit at the snake?
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