Our planet’s oceans occupy more than 70% of its surface area or 139 million square miles. In the next five years, an initiative launched on Tuesday aims to secure 5% of it.
It may seem insignificant, but at 7 million square miles, it covers more land than the entire continent of South America. Given that only about 3% of the world’s ocean is currently completely covered, both the goal and the timeline are optimistic.
The initiative, named the Blue Nature Alliance, has “a very audacious goal,” says M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International, one of the organizations leading the program. “It’s probably the largest single conservation effort in terms of size and speed.”
Oceans play a crucial role in human survival, regulating rainfall, temperature, and even oxygen levels in the atmosphere. However, climate change, deforestation, and overfishing are putting them in jeopardy.
The Blue Nature Alliance has raised $125 million to protect the ocean from these risks, thanks to a partnership between Conservation International and other environmental and social non-profits such as The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Global Environment Facility, Minderoo Foundation, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation.
The Alliance’s initial focus is on seven ocean locations: Antarctica, Fiji, Canada, the Seychelles, Palau, the Western Indian Ocean, and Tristan da Cunha, a South Atlantic Ocean island. More than a third of the overall target is covered by these regions, which total over 2.5 million square miles.
It says it will start by concentrating on conservation in these areas, collaborating with local communities and national leaders to create new marine protected areas (MPAs) and strengthen the management of existing ones.
Sanjayan says an MPA should be somewhere where “there is no large-scale commercial fishing, there’s a management plan, there’s a monitoring plan, and there’s the inclusion of local communities.”
Around 7% of the world’s oceans have been classified as protected areas, according to the Marine Protection Atlas, but only 2.7 per cent is considered “completely protected.”
“Some are just in name,” Sanjayan tells CNN, adding that the Blue Nature Alliance wants to completely enforce and preserve these areas.
The Alliance’s activities in Antarctica’s the Southern Ocean, where it wants to preserve a region twice the size of Indonesia, are focused on preventing industrial fishing and protecting key food-chain species including leopard seals, penguins, and krill.
The Alliance is working closely with the government in the Fiji Lau Seascape, an area on the eastern side of the Fiji archipelago, to legally grant new protected areas and impose restrictions on fishing and tourism, which it claims would help the region’s indigenous population by protecting local culture and food sources.
While Sanjayan acknowledges that enforcing these measures will be difficult, he believes that technological advancements will aid enforcement. For example, advances in satellite technology have made it easier to spot illegal fishing, and local communities’ support will aid in the maintenance of protected areas.
“If people in the country understand why (the ocean) is important, they’re much more likely to want to protect it,” he says.
The Blue Nature Alliance’s efforts will help to support a global conservation plan that aims to conserve at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, a target that is expected to be ratified at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference later this year. According to research, this degree of conservation is essential to preserve biodiversity and marine habitats.
The Blue Nature Alliance’s efforts will help to support a global conservation plan that aims to conserve at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, a target that is expected to be ratified at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference later this year. According to research, this degree of conservation is essential to preserve biodiversity and marine habitats.
Former UN climate leader Christiana Figueres praised the Alliance’s launch in a press release.
“As greenhouse gas emissions continue to threaten our world, restoring and maintaining the health of our ocean through efforts such as the Blue Nature Alliance can help to preserve biodiversity and buffer the planet against the devastating impacts of climate change,” she said.
