THE UN HAS CONCLUDED AN AGREEMENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HIGH SEAS

"The ship has reached shore," conference president Rena Lee said.

After more than 15 years of discussions, including four years of formal negotiations, the third "last" session in New York was finally the right one, or almost. Delegates finalized the text with content now frozen in substance, but it will be formally adopted at a later date after it has been vetted by legal services and translated to be available in the six official UN languages.

"A major step"

Despite everything, “this is a major step”, commented before the agreement Veronica Frank, of Greenpeace, stressing that care should however be taken that this process is not “a back door to reopen questions”.

With the progress of science, proof has been made of the importance of protecting these oceans, teeming with an often microscopic biodiversity, which also provides half of the oxygen we breathe and limits global warming by absorbing important part of the CO2 emitted by human activities.

But the oceans are weakening, victims of these emissions (warming, acidification of the water, etc.), pollution of all kinds and overfishing.

The high seas begin where the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the States end, at a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coasts and are therefore not under the jurisdiction of any State.

The new treaty, when it comes into force, after being formally adopted, signed and then ratified by enough countries, will create marine protected areas in these international waters.