World Parks Congress urges action to protect marine sites

DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) Sep 17, 2003
Urgent action is required to address the lack of protection given to freshwater sites, oceans and unregulated "high seas", currently the greatest long-term threat to biodiversity, the World Parks Congress said Wednesday.

"High priority should be given to new initiatives in marine systems," stated a document adopted on the last day of the congress in South Africa's eastern port city of Durban.

"The need to extend the coverage of marine protected areas across sovereign and international waters is being pushed."

Some 2,500 delegates from 170 countries approved a so-called "Durban Action Plan" and "Durban Accord" containing the main outcomes and recommendations of the 10-day congress.

The conference has been focusing on how to manage and safeguard the world's 100,000 environmentally protected areas, as well as how to involve communities living in these sites with conservation.

An updated database of the globe's protected areas was released at the start of the meeting last week, which showed that almost 12 percent of the earth's surface is under protection, but that only 0.5 percent of that figure is marine sites.

"Continuing loss of marine, estuarine, and other aquatic habitats is one of the greatest long-term threats to biodiversity, dependent species and the viability of commercial and recreational fisheries," the recommendation document stated.

"There are concerns that more than 60 percent of the human population lives in coastal zones and they will increasingly put marine and coastal biodiversity under pressure."

Several new marine and freshwater initiatives, including six nations in the coastal zone of west Africa, were announced during the course of the congress.

The event endorsed and supported objectives set at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa a year ago, aimed at establishing a global system of effectively managed networks of protected marine and and coastal areas by 2012, and includes a 2015 target to restore depleted fish stocks.

Special attention was given to the "high seas" which make up 60 percent of the world's oceans, but are not owned by anyone.

"A priority is to develop a linked, co-ordinated system of management on the high seas, involving international collaberation," the document stated.

TERRA.WIRE