The second United Nations Ocean Conference opened in Lisbon for the whole week. On the program, meetings between Heads of State, demonstrations by civil society and perhaps greater commitments to protect the oceans.
Pursue and put in place what is already signed, move forward on the rest. This is the objective of this lisbon ocean conferencereports our special correspondent in Lisbon, Simon Roze. Plastic pollution, for example, and especially single-use ones, is a real scourge for marine biodiversity. At the current rate, plastic pollution will triple by 2060, to one billion tonnes per year, according to a recent OECD report. Their ban was the subject of an agreement in principle at a previous UN conference in Nairobi last spring. It now remains to reach a treaty. The Lisbon meeting will make it possible to move forward.
► To listen: What governance for the oceans?
The other subject that will occupy a lot of people’s minds this week is that of overfishing. Rare fact: the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted a resolution to limit it about ten days ago. This conference should normally continue on this momentum.
Marine protected areas, seabed mining resources, conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems will also be on the agenda this week. A dense and ambitious program for this conference which will have to succeed in being a space for dialogue in order to achieve success. International by definition, the protection of the oceans requires strong multilateralism. But the organizers are optimistic: it is a subject that brings people together.
Caring for the seas, a vital resource
It must be said that the stakes are high: the seas generate half of the oxygen we breathe and represent a vital source of protein for the daily lives of billions of people. The ocean also plays a key role for life on Earth by mitigating the impacts of climate change.
But the cost is considerable. By absorbing around a quarter of CO2 pollution, even as emissions have increased by 50% over the past 60 years, the sea has become more acidic, destabilizing aquatic food chains and reducing its ability to capture ever more gases. carbonic. And, absorbing more than 90% of the excess heat caused by global warming, the ocean is experiencing powerful sea heat waves that are destroying precious coral reefs and spreading oxygen-deprived dead zones.
Ocean Alive, a “guardian” cooperative of the sea
With our correspondent in Lisbon, Marie-Line Darcy
The Ocean Alive cooperative works with the fishing communities of the Sado estuary, 50 kilometers from Lisbon. And carries out very targeted actions, such as the one concerning shellfish collectors. They use salt to bring the bivalves to the surface. ” The problem is the plastic packaging, underlines Raquel Gaspar, biologist co-founder of Ocean Alive. The shellfish collectors leave them on the sand, and in large quantities. A very old bad habit. And at the same time we clean the banks of the estuary every month with volunteers. We seek to promote this idea among fishing communities that the estuary is everyone’s business and that it must be clean. »
Ocean Alive has also created the status of guardian of the sea, fishermen’s wives who get involved in their community for the preservation of seagrass. The Ocean Alive cooperative will take part in the blue march of NGOs, scheduled for June 29 in Lisbon on the sidelines of the conference on the oceans.