Last weekend, it was announced everywhere as a top news story: a third of the oceans are to be placed under protection. What does this mean? The 30/30 target is an ambitious one: by the year 2030, 30% of the entire ocean is to be protected. Marine and species conservation organisations have long been calling for this; ElasmOcean has also campaigned for it from the very beginning. But what does "marine protected area" actually mean? Nations can establish marine protected areas within their own EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) — these are generally coastal areas up to the EEZ boundary at 200 NM (about 370 km) — beyond which lies the high seas, which belong to no nation. However, this national protection is structured completely differently from country to country. An MPA (Marine Protected Area) can have a very low protection status or a high one: if it is established as a "No-Take Area" — i.e. a zone in which no human use such as fishing, shipping, tourism, and resource extraction may take place — the protection for the ocean is fundamental and sustainable. With a lower protection status, however, it can happen that a tunnel is allowed to be built through a protected area, as with the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark. Another example is the widespread permission of bottom trawling throughout the entire North Sea and Baltic Sea, even though dozens of protected areas are located there; unfortunately, they only have that low level of protection. Around 40% of the German EEZ in the North and Baltic Seas is designated with a protected status — which makes little difference, as it actually permits almost everything humans disrupt in the marine environment. From this perspective, Germany achieved the 30/30 target long ago, but only on paper, as it offers hardly any real protection and thus does not truly live up to the term "marine protected area". If one demands the (necessary) high protection status of "No-Take Areas", the German rate is actually 0%. On Saturday, the UN, with 193 member states, decided to consistently implement the 30/30 target in international waters as well. "The ship has reached the shore": so announced the President of the UN Conference, Rena Lee, with relief after a 40-hour negotiation marathon. Negotiations had been underway for years; now the breakthrough has succeeded in a serious effort to protect the ocean and, above all, the largely unexplored deep sea. Russia and China had attempted to weaken the enforcement of the agreement by pushing for unanimous decisions. This would have meant that any individual country could single-handedly cast a veto, preventing all countries from implementation. Based also on relevant experience from other UN bodies, this was not adopted: the agreement provides for many decisions by a three-quarters majority, with a procedure for dispute resolution — positive and practical steps. The resolutions must now be translated into the official treaty languages and ratified by the member states, which will certainly take a few more months. We hope that the agreed 30% of all oceans to be placed under protection will indeed receive the necessary high status of a "No-Take Area". We will also monitor and advocate to ensure that no "mineral resources" such as manganese nodules may be extracted from the deep sea. As is so often the case, it will now depend on the concrete implementation whether humanity once again decides something on paper, or whether a real will of the majority of states exists to protect our oceans, their marine life, and thus humanity! Nevertheless, shortly before this breakthrough, extensive funds for ocean protection were approved at the "Our Ocean" conference in Panama: a total of 18.8 billion euros, of which 7 billion alone from the USA and over 800 million euros from the EU, are to further strengthen marine conservation in future. That too is not bad news.
``` bad news.
