by Martina Fuchs
GENEVA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has urged governments and the private sector to take urgent actions to protect the world's oceans while praising China's leadership in promoting the protection of global biodiversity.
It is high time that the world preserved and safeguarded the oceans and our entire blue planet, Pepe Clarke, oceans practice leader at WWF, told Xinhua in an interview as the United Nations marks World Oceans Day Thursday.
PROTECTING OUR OCEANS
"Over the past 50 years, our oceans have been profoundly affected by overfishing, by pollution and by climate change. We've lost 90 percent of large predatory fish and more than 50 percent of the world's coral reefs, and at least one-third of the world's fisheries are overfished," Clarke said.
"By restoring the health and abundance of life in our oceans, we can deliver important benefits for people, particularly vulnerable communities, coastal communities who rely on the health of coastal fisheries and ecosystems and also to enhance the resilience of those coastal communities, of marine species and fisheries to the impacts of climate change," he added.
Falling on June 8 every year, World Oceans Day aims to raise awareness about ending overfishing and protecting the oceans. This year's theme is "Planet Ocean: Tides are Changing."
Clarke explained that the ocean is the planet's largest biosphere covering 70 percent of the planet and produces at least 50 percent of the oxygen that we breathe.
It also absorbs 25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the additional heat generated from those emissions.
According to WWF, 500 million people worldwide depend on coastal resources for food, and 90 percent of the world's seafood comes from small-scale fisheries.
THREE KEY ACTIONS
However, the oceans are now in crisis, threatened by pollution, overfishing, bycatch and the impact of climate change.
"Populations of large predatory fish have declined by more than 90 percent, and we've lost more than half of the world's coral reefs due to climate change, pollution and unsustainable fishing. Our oceans are in trouble," Clarke warned.
He listed three key actions needed to restore the health of the oceans.
"Firstly, we need to end overfishing and to rebuild wild fish populations. We need to protect 30 percent of the world's oceans by 2030. We need to eliminate illegal fishing, and we need to take action to redirect harmful fisheries subsidies towards more beneficial uses that will benefit people in nature of the long term," he said.
Secondly, he called on establishing, expanding and effectively managing national and regional networks of marine protected areas and to work together to better protect the high seas.
Lastly, Clarke said that more urgent actions to address climate change must be taken. "We need to phase out fossil fuels to improve energy efficiency and rapidly but sustainably develop renewable energy sources. We need to take urgent action to address climate change, which poses an existential threat to the health of our oceans."
CHINA'S LEADERSHIP ROLE
In 2021, China successfully organized the first part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, known as COP15, in Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province, and the second part of COP15 in 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in December 2022 and consists of global targets to be achieved by 2030 to safeguard biodiversity and set the world on a path of recovery.
"The global biodiversity framework sets up a number of targets that are relevant to oceans and life on the land, protecting 30 percent of the oceans by 2030, restoring 30 percent of degraded coastal and marine ecosystems," said Clarke.
"This action plan for nature was developed under China's leadership at the Conference of the Parties, and it sets out a really powerful agenda for governments around the world to halt and reverse the loss of nature over the course of this decade and into the future," he added.
Last year, members of the World Trade Organization also reached a deal to curb harmful fisheries subsidies. It aims to ban subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing or fishing of an overfished stock. It could have the potential to reverse collapsing fish stocks.
Clarke also mentioned that the long-awaited United Nations High Seas Treaty was due to be formally adopted later this month.
"These new policy frameworks provide a really clear pathway for action not only by China, but by governments all around the world. If we're able to, if we're able to urgently pursue the delivery of these commitments, then our oceans will be in a much better state by the end of this decade and into the future."
Based in Gland, Switzerland, WWF is an independent conservation organization with a global network active in over 100 countries. ■
