Marine protected areas and toads threatened by global climate change after the Paris Climate Change conference in Washington, D.C., April 22 – A major triumph of the new Paris agreement
More than 190 countries agreed to protect 30 percent of Earth’s land and water by the end of the decade. The historic deal was struck before dawn today after nearly two weeks of negotiations in Montreal.
The NRDC’s International Oceans program director told the A Martnez on Morning Edition that the biggest triumph of the new treaty is that it paved the way for large-scale marine protected areas.
The most at risk groups are the salamanders and corals. A global assessment shows that more than 40% of amphibians are threatened with extinction1, including the critically endangered bleeding toad (Leptophryne cruentata), which lives in Mount Gede Pangrango National Park in Java, Indonesia.
Some toads were found in 2000 by a team led by a herpetologist at an Indonesian university. The researchers believe that the parasites that caused the global amphibian populations to be wiped out were chytridiomycota. The tiny toad, which got its common name from the splatter of spots on its body, is probably having a harder time with climate change. Warm weather can shift the timing of toads breeding season, which can be dangerous for the animals.
How well do we survive in the ocean? Answers of Shahid Naeem, an ecologist at Columbia University, New York City
These waters provide the habitat for a wealth of unique species and ecosystems, support global fisheries on which billions of people rely and are a crucial buffer against the climate crisis – the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the world’s excess heat over the last decades.
It’s difficult to predict, because doing so requires knowledge of which species are present in a particular ecosystem, such as a rainforest, and what functions they have, says Shahid Naeem, an ecologist at Columbia University in New York City. Many of the information is not known. However, scientists have shown3 that ecosystems with less biodiversity are not as good at capturing and converting resources into biomass, such as happens when plants capture nutrients or sunlight used for growth.
The less-diverse environments are better at decomposing and recycling. Studies show that dead organisms can be broken down and recycled quickly if a lot of plant litter is on the forest floor. Naeem says that the resilience of environments with low biodiversity is not as good as systems with more diversity.
“If we lose parts of our system, it simply won’t function very efficiently, and it won’t be very robust,” he adds. “The science behind that is rock solid.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04370-4
A Framework for Biodiversity Restoration and Protection: Reconciling the Status of the Sustainable Future of the Global Ecosystem and of its Implications
There areecosystems that provide clean water and are able to stop diseases from spreading. When species are lost, these services deteriorate, Kusrini says. The majority of salamanders eat insects, many of which are considered pests. There have been studies that show a rise in cases of Malaria in areas that have fallen victim to the mosquito-borne disease. insect numbers rise and people start using more pesticides to kill them, so you know when they disappear.
Eradicating invasive species is another important conservation strategy, and the framework’s draft currently calls for cutting the introduction of such species in half. Cats and rats are believed to account for half of all extinctions of birds, mammals and reptiles.
It’s important that nations agree on a framework with at least some quantifiable targets, so that progress can be measured, and so that countries can be held accountable if they fail to meet their targets, researchers say. The long list ofaffle will be something that will happen, Pimm says. We need some kind of quantitiveness.
The newly adopted framework says protected areas should be created “recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including over their traditional territories.”
Still, some human rights advocates are skeptical, calling the 30×30 target a “big green lie” on social media. “It’s a huge land grab that’ll force millions of #Indigenous peoples off their ancestral lands,” nongovernmental organization Survival International posted on Facebook over the weekend.
Large groups of people celebrated the adoption of the new framework. Andrew Deutz, a director at The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement that the eyes of the world could have been focused on Montreal if people had comprehended the pace, severity and long lasting consequences of biodiversity loss.
The task of making headway on the ground is even harder now that the framework has been established, as it is attempting to avoid harms that occurred in the past.
“To return to World Cup metaphors – it really did feel like a championship game heading into extra time in knife-edge fashion,” Deutz said. “The big difference is … for the global biodiversity community, the next phase of hard work already beckons.”
U.N. Negotiations on the Conservation Law for the World’s Oceans and the Role of Fishing and Mining on the High Seas
United Nations members gather Monday in New York to resume efforts to forge a long-awaited and elusive treaty to safeguard the world’s marine biodiversity.
Commercial fishing and oil gas drilling can’t be done in about 30% of the world’s oceans.
Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada’s Dalhousie University, said that the ocean was the life support system of our planet. “For the longest time, we did not feel we had a large impact on the high seas. But that notion has changed with expansion of deep sea fishing, mining, plastic pollution, climate change,” and other human disturbances, he said.
The U.N. talks will focus on key questions, including: How should the boundaries of marine protected areas be drawn, and by whom? How should institutions look at the environmental impact of commercial activities? The power to enforce rules is up to the person.
Nichola Clark is an oceans expert who follows the negotiations for the nonpartisan pew research Center in Washington, D.C. “We are optimistic that this upcoming round of negotiations will be the one to get a treaty over the finish line.”
Commercial fishing and mining have resulted in pollution and exploitation of the high seas. According to a Biologist at Rutgers University, the ocean is not a unlimited resource and it requires global cooperation to use it sustainable.
Nearly 200 countries have agreed to protect marine life in international waters which cover half of the planet, but have been essentially lawless for many years.
“We need a legally binding framework that can enable countries to work together to actually achieve these goals they’ve agreed to,” said Jessica Battle, an expert on oceans governance at World Wide Fund for Nature
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Monica Medina said the treaty was a priority for the country. She said that the agreement sought to establish marine protected areas on the high seas for the first time. “It’s time to finish the job.”
Small Pacific and Caribbean island countries were particularly vulnerable to global ocean issues, such as pollution and climate change, which generally they do not cause or have the resources to easily address, says a lawyer who is currently an Ocean Voices fellow.
A Two-Dimensional Treaty of the Unification of the High Seas in South America, signed at the United Nations headquarters in New York
“Getting the traditional knowledge of local people and communities recognized as valid” is also essential to protect both ecosystems and the ways of life of Indigenous groups, she said.
Gladys Martnez de Lemos is the executive director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense and she said the talks are really important because of the amount of high seas on the planet.
The agreement was signed on Saturday evening after two weeks of negotiations at the United Nations headquarters in New York ended in a mammoth final session of more than 36 hours – but it has been two decades in the making.
“This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics,” Laura Meller, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, said in a statement.
Human activity on the ocean is putting added pressure on itself, including the race to harness the ocean’s “genetic resources” for use in industries such as pharmaceuticals.
“Currently, there are no comprehensive regulations for the protections of marine life in this area,” Liz Karan, oceans project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, told CNN.
There are huge gaps between the puzzle pieces. It is truly that bad out there,” Douglas McCauley, professor of ocean science at the University of California Santa Barbara, told CNN.
There were points during the negotiations where some worried that agreement would never happen, as conflicts threatened to derail talks. It has been a roller coaster ride.
Major sticking points included nailing down the processes for creating marine protected areas and ensuring costs and benefits were shared equitably – especially as many developing countries may not have the technology or capacity to do their own scientific exploration of the high seas.
“If we want the high seas to be healthy for the next century we have to modernize this system – now. And this is our one, and potentially only, chance to do that. And the time is short. Climate change is about to rain down hellfire on our ocean,” McCauley said.
An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled. The unified agreement treaty was reached late Saturday.
“It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
Many marine species are able to migrate across national borders and the high seas. It has been difficult to protect them and human communities that rely on fishing or tourism because of a confusing patchwork of laws.
Battle said that the treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns.
The Oceanic Law of the Sea and its Treaty of Atmosphere and Oceanography for the Sustainable Development of Latin American Regions and Regions
That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.
“Governments have taken an important step that strengthens the legal protection of two-thirds of the ocean and with it marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal communities,” she said.
Commercial fishing operations span more than half the world’s ocean and have been detrimental to species and their habitats. More than a third of all sharks, rays and shark-like fish are at risk of extinction because of being fished too much.
“There was no way to coordinate between these kinds of organizations,” said Elizabeth Mendenhall, a marine affairs professor at the University of Rhode Island who researches ocean governance.
“So areas get overburdened, overexploited, they get more than they can handle because there isn’t like a coordinated, holistic perspective,” she added.
There is no international body that is committed to preserving biological diversity in regions outside territorial seas or where there is ground rules on accessing genetic resources found in international waters.
In addition to this, the treaty will regulate countries and companies who have access to the commercialization of marine genetic resources which can be useful for the creation of pharmaceuticals or cosmetics.
According to Speer, who was part of the U.N. negotiating team, ensuring those resources will be shared in a fair and equitable way was a major point of tension in the negotiations.
The goal of the treaty is to make research in international waters more accessible and inclusive for developing countries.
A fourth major component of the agreement is setting global standards for environmental impact assessments on commercial activities in the ocean. Cumulative impact, combined and incremental impact, and resulting from different activities will be considered in these evaluations.
Speer from the NRDC said that implementing the treaty is not only crucial for the waters outside national jurisdictions, but also for the regions and countries within it.
“It’s important because billions of people around the world rely on the ocean for basic needs — their food, their jobs, their income, their sustenance, culturally as well as economically,” she said.
For example, the U.S. has yet to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was the last international treaty on ocean protection signed over 40 years ago.