Coroner & Legal
Antarctic marine reserve threatened by sunset clause. Vigil/Rally, Hobart, Monday
Talks to create the world’s two largest marine reserves in the Antarctic could be undermined by a last-ditch push for a “sunset clause” that would allow protections from fishing and oil drilling to be stripped away in the future, conservationists have warned.
Negotiations at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) began in Hobart on Wednesday, with delegates from 25 member nations thrashing out details of the exact scope of the two reserves.
A proposal backed by the US and New Zealand would create a 1.3 million sq km “no take” zone in the vast Ross Sea, one of the last pristine bodies of water in the world.
A separate plan, put forward by Australia, France and the European Union, proposes to establish a 1.6 million sq km sanctuary in East Antarctica’s marine environment. Combined, the two reserves will be equivalent to the size of India and will double the 1% of the world’s oceans that are currently protected.
The reserves have to be agreed by consensus. The Hobart meeting is the third time the plans have been discussed since October last year. The Ross Sea protected zone has been shrunk by 40% in order to reach agreement.
A coalition of 30 conservation groups say the reserves are needed to provide long-term protection to the seas around Antarctica from oil drilling and fishing. The waters are home to more than 10,000 unique species, including the vast bulk of the world’s penguins, whales, seabirds and the Antarctic toothfish.
However, there are concerns that a “sunset clause”, put forward by New Zealand, could allow future exploitation of Antarctic waters.
“We are worried about the permanence of the marine protected areas as there is talk of 15 years or 50 years as a sunset clause,” Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ southern ocean sanctuary campaign, told Guardian Australia.
Read the rest, The Guardian here
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