Beyond the waters that every country has the right to exploit and control are vast oceans that generate most of the earth's oxygen; providing food, water and life-saving medicine, even ingredients for beauty products; and providing for recreational areas and inspiration.
Our oceans regulate the climate that nurtures life and is home to the region's coral reefs which constitute 77% of the 800 reef-building coral species, and in total, 34% of the world's corals. The highly popular tuna and other migratory species swim these oceans and the territorial waters of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
But today, the world's oceans are threatened by overfishing, use of destructive fishing practices, deep sea mining, bioprospecting (or the search for plant, animal and micro-organism from which medicinal drugs and other commercially valuable compounds can be obtained), pollution, siltation, warming waters, coral bleaching, and other impacts from climate change.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, around 80% of the world's fisheries are fully exploited, over exploited or significantly depleted. Some species have already been fished to commercial extinction, with 90% of the top predators already wiped out from the oceans ecosystem. The World Bank estimates the lost economic benefits due to overfishing at US$50 billion (1.6 trillion baht) annually. The value of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on the other hand is currently estimated at $10–23.5 billion per year.
Still, industrial fishing is expanding into deeper and more remote areas to fish down what remains of the food web for short-term profit. Deep sea also is being threatened by the search for new sources for oil, gas, metals, precious materials and commercially useful genetic resources. Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change are causing dead zones in the ocean, increasing temperatures and causing acidification.
For the people of Southeast Asia, this crisis manifests in declining fish catches, dying coral reefs, and worsening poverty in the region and missed opportunities to access and benefit from the richness and diversity of life and resources beyond its water borders and beneath them.
Given all these, one would think that there is a clear cause for protecting large areas of our oceans to secure our future. Yet less than 3% of the world's oceans have some form of protection. More appalling, only 1% of the high seas is protected. Clearly a global response is needed to arrest this alarming situation.
From tomorrow until Thursday, world governments will come together in New York to talk about the crisis of the oceans and debate the scope and feasibility of a new implementing agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) to address the problem. The UNCLOS is widely regarded as the constitution for the world's oceans. If most governments recommend this agreement, then a decision will be made in September at the General Assembly of the United Nations to launch a formal negotiation that will elaborate on the contents of the agreement.
There is a debate because a few governments like the United States, Canada, Russia, Iceland and Japan are against negotiating for a new implementing agreement under UNCLOS on arguments, among others, that the crisis of the oceans can be adequately addressed by existing fisheries and other regional organisations, international laws and principles, and a simple commitment by concerned states to prevent or apprehend industries involved in destructive fishing, mining and bioprospecting practices.
In addition, there is nothing in the discussions about sharing benefits among states from bioprospecting because the UNCLOS's principle of freedom of the high seas consisting of freedom of navigation, fishing, to lay submarine cables, pipelines and overflight applies.
For some nations, the fact that this crisis continues to unfold in the waters beyond countries' borders, the existing governance arrangements, geographically by region or by sector, prove that they are not enough to protect the oceans.
They are also not convinced that the principle of the freedom of the high seas applies in the case of bioprospecting; instead, the other UNCLOS principle, the common heritage of mankind, is appropriate such that the diverse marine genetic resources on the sea bed, ocean's floor, its subsoil and in the waters under the high seas must be explored, used, and protected for the benefit of all, and not just for the profit of some technologically capable corporations or a few governments. If this will be the case, then there should be a governance structure and a system of ensuring access and sharing of monetary and other benefits among States, coastal, archipelagic and landlocked alike.
Granting that either or neither principle applies, gaps in UNCLOS exist.
The Asean governments and peoples have a high stake in these oceans talks in New York. The region will benefit most from a new implementing agreement that will provide for:
An explicit mandate for the protection, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction;
Implementation tools, such as a mechanism to establish, monitor and control marine reserves; and to undertake environmental impact assessments and strategic impact assessments in areas beyond national jurisdiction;
Harmonisation and coordination among relevant instruments or regional, international and intergovernmental bodies;
A mechanism for the access and equitable benefit sharing of the utilisation of marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction; and
A strong monitoring, control and compliance system for activities on the high seas.
The devastation that huge corporations — some supported by their governments — are doing to our oceans affects us all.
This is not the time to delay action by hiding behind agreements that are designed more to exploit the oceans rather than protect them.
Now is the time for world governments to show resolve and agree that we need a new implementing agreement for the protection of our common oceans. Now is the time to care about and act on a crisis unfolding beyond our waters' borders and affecting everyone and every living thing.
For those who would like to call on governments to support this new agreement, you may sign on this petition through www.greenpeace.org/seasia/ph/getinvolved/Take-action-online/SOS-Oceans/
Zelda Soriano is the legal and political adviser at Greenpeace Southeast Asia.