New Analysis Explores Potential Financing Solutions for Protecting the High Seas
Photo credit: PLAINVIEWBy Michael McGreevey, Director of Conservation Investments
A healthy and thriving ocean is essential to all life on Earth. Yet ocean health is in decline, largely due to damaging human activities driving the collapse of fisheries, exacerbating the impacts of climate change, and accelerating the loss of habitat and biodiversity.
To reverse this downward slide, science points to the need to conserve more of the world’s ocean. In fact, scientists, governments, and civil society organizations around the world are increasingly calling for 30% of the global ocean to be protected by 2030, with the rest managed and used sustainably.
Meeting this challenge will require political will and close partnerships as countries work to conserve their territorial waters. But much of the ocean lies outside the jurisdiction of any one nation. A full 64% of the ocean’s surface and 43% of the earth’s surface lie in areas beyond national jurisdiction, in the so-called high seas. But less than 1% of that vast area is protected.
Next week in New York, governments—at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction—will work to finalize negotiations of a comprehensive treaty that could enable greater conservation and sustainable management of high seas ecosystems.
A successful treaty must include sufficient financing for the establishment and ongoing management of new marine protected areas (MPAs) on the high seas. Recognizing the need for structured thinking on how to support sustainable financing on the high seas, the Blue Nature Alliance recently conducted a review of potential financing mechanisms, with pro bono economic analysis from McKinsey and Company. This assessment of possible financial solutions can inform the IGC negotiations.
The analysis examines the value of the high seas, the expected costs of the establishment and management of high seas MPAs, and the various structures that could be used to finance such MPAs. Robust protection, management, and monitoring of MPAs covering 30% of the high seas could cost the global community up to about $7 billion in establishment costs and slightly more than $1 billion per year in annual operating costs. Financial structures set up by the treaty likely would cover a portion of the operating costs, but other finance mechanisms will be needed to fund the bulk of the price tag.
This investment is likely outweighed many times over by the multiple ecological benefits high seas MPAs may generate, including spillover benefits to fisheries in national waters, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services. The exact value of many of these benefits is difficult to quantify, but the analysis estimates they could total tens of billions annually, delivering a substantial return on the investment of the start-up costs of establishing MPAs and the ongoing management costs.
Supporting the establishment, management, and monitoring of high seas MPAs will require new thinking about how to effectively, efficiently, and transparently finance these activities. The analysis compares the pros and cons of a centralized financing structure similar to those that support the delivery of other global environmental treaties, as well as decentralized approaches. The goal of the analysis was not to recommend a specific financial structure, but to equip IGC negotiators and decision-makers with information on the advantages and disadvantages of different finance mechanisms.
High seas MPAs offer a powerful way to help conserve marine life and habitats while delivering countless global benefits. World leaders have an opportunity to advance the IGC negotiations and deliver an ambitious and equitable treaty that enables MPAs on the high seas, increasing ocean health for the benefit of people and nature across the globe.