With the extension of its perimeter to all the maritime spaces of the archipelagos Crozet and Kerguelen and the Saint Paul Islands and Amsterdam, this nature reserve will now cover 1.6 million square kilometers.
Le Monde with AFP
Emmanuel Macron, host of the One Ocean Summit summit, organized as part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), in Brest, in Finistère, in the presence of about twenty other heads of State and government, announced the expansion of the scope of the Nature Reserve of the Southern Lands of France, and pleaded for several measures, on the last day of the summit, Friday, February 11th.
France will expand the perimeter of the nature reserve of its southern lands
The French President announced the extension of the national nature reserve of French Southern Lands, which will become the second largest marine protected area of the world.
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With the extension of its perimeter to all the maritime spaces of the archipelagos Crozet and Kerguelen and the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, administered by French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF), this nature reserve will now cover 1 , 6 million square kilometers, is it specified in a statement.
An international coalition for a protective treaty
The 27 Member States of the European Union and 13 other countries have trained a coalition to conclude a treaty to protect the high seas, currently in negotiations, announced Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen Friday at the Summit in Brest . “We are very close but we have to give impulse to conclude this year,” she insisted. The initiative is also supported by Australia, Canada, Chile, Comoros, India, Monaco, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Republic of Congo, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The high seas begins where the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the States stop, at a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370 km) of the coast, and is therefore under the jurisdiction of any State. It represents more than 60% of the oceans and almost half of the planet.
Negotiations focus on four areas: the creation of marine protected areas, marine genetic resources and the sharing of their benefits, the realization of environmental impact studies, as well as capacity building and technology transfers. , in particular to developing countries, but sensitive points remain to be settled.
A Treaty on the High Sea has been formally negotiated under the aegis of the UN since 2018, but the discussions have been interrupted by the CVIV-19 epidemic. The fourth, and theoretically last, negotiating session is scheduled for March in New York.
Advocacy for an agreement to the WTO against overfishing subsidies
Emmanuel Macron called for the conclusion of an agreement, the World Trade Organization (WTO), against public aid to overfishing and illegal fishing. “Taxpayers’ money, from our taxpayers, should not be used to continue finance the actions that are also condemned,” he launched.
“This agreement could be the first under the aegis of the WTO with the main purpose of the protection of biodiversity,” he said, advocating again for the coherence between trade policies in environmental.
WTO discussions about fisheries, in progress over the past two decades, focus on global fisheries grants, $ 14 billion at $ 54 billion a year, according to the WTO. The head of the organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who took office last March, made the conclusion of an agreement on fishing a priority. The E WTO Conference, scheduled for the end of 2021, which was to consider this file, was postponed Sine Die for sanitary reasons.