HOBART, Tasmania, Oct. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Last month, 7
million people took to the streets to support the youth-led Week
for Future and Climate Justice strikes. Together, they demanded
action on climate change in one of the biggest global
demonstrations in history.1
In the same week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
released a special report with an urgent message. Climate change is
severely damaging our oceans and ice-covered regions, and world
leaders must take immediate action to reduce emissions and increase
ecosystem resilience.
Today, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine
Living Resources (CCAMLR) begins its annual meeting in Hobart,
Tasmania. This is the first
international meeting related to ocean conservation since the
global youth strikes, the IPCC's report, the Climate Action Summit,
and the United Nations General Assembly.
"CCAMLR's members will be in the spotlight as they consider
proposals for large-scale marine protected areas (MPAs) in the
Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica," said Claire Christian, executive director of the
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.
In 2009, CCAMLR agreed by consensus to work toward creating a
network of MPAs throughout the Southern Ocean by 2012.
"To date, CCAMLR has failed to achieve its own commitment, or to
respond adequately to the global climate and biodiversity crises.
The Southern Ocean has a powerful influence on regulating the
world's oceans and the global climate. It is also home to nearly
10,000 species, many of which are found nowhere else on
Earth,"2,3 Christian said.
Globally, biodiversity loss is accelerating, and the extinction
rate is tens to hundreds of times higher than in the
past4. Without significant changes, more than half of
the world's marine species could face extinction by the year
2100.5 We are also in the midst of a climate crisis. The
world's oceans are being transformed rapidly by the impacts of
climate change, which is one of the main threats to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
"The science is clear: The recent U.N. report on our ocean and
the cryosphere identified networks of marine-protected areas as a
critical tool to build resilience in a changing climate," said
Andrea Kavanagh, director of The Pew
Charitable Trusts' Antarctic and Southern Ocean work.
"CCAMLR's greatest impact toward conserving our planet would be
to establish a network of robust marine protections in the Southern
Ocean," she said. "Protecting this critical ecosystem would
increase the diversity and abundance of species and help conserve
the region's function as a vital carbon sink."
Kavanagh noted that colder waters absorb more carbon than warmer
waters, and Antarctic krill, a keystone species, sequester 23
million tons of carbon in the Southern Ocean each year.
This year, CCAMLR will consider MPA proposals for East Antarctica, the Weddell Sea, and the
Antarctic Peninsula.
"Last year, despite almost 3 million calling for the protection
of the Antarctic, CCAMLR missed the historic opportunity to create
the largest protected area on Earth, leaving the incredible
wildlife in the region exposed to pressures from overfishing,
pollution, and climate change," said Frida
Bengtsson of Greenpeace's Protect the Antarctic campaign.
"We are in the middle of a climate emergency, and this time we just
can't get it wrong. We urgently need to protect the Weddell Sea by
creating ocean sanctuaries free from harmful human activities for
marine life to recover."
"Antarctica is a special place
on the planet – where we have set aside political differences in
the past creating it as a reserve for 'peace and science,'" said
Chris Johnson, WWF's Antarctic
Programme lead. "Climate change is threatening the stability of
marine ecosystems and solutions like MPAs can make a difference. We
have three proposed marine protected areas in East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and
the Weddell Sea that will be under consideration by CCAMLR. These
regions are vital to providing space for nature to adapt to climate
change. 2019 is a critical year for the future of the Antarctic and
now is the time to make the right decisions for the good of our
future generations."
The CCAMLR meeting runs for two weeks until Friday, Nov. 1, 2019.
For more information on the MPA network, East Antarctic
MPA, Weddell Sea MPA, or Antarctic Peninsula MPA, please visit PEW
WEBLINK
For further
questions and comments or to arrange an interview, please
contact:
|
|
Kimberley
Collins
|
Barb
Cvrkel
|
Communications
Coordinator
|
Communications
Officer
|
kimberley.collins@asoc.org
|
bcvrkel@pewtrusts.org
|
+64 21 049
1436
|
+1 202 510
5670
|
1
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1177991604025643009
2
https://tos.org/oceanography/article/southern-ocean-warming
3 Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS)
4
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
5
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/focus-areas/rio-20-ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-biodiversity/facts-and-figures-on-marine-biodiversity/
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SOURCE Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition