Ryan Dolan: Bold Action is Needed to Meet Global Targets for Protecting 30% of the World’s Oceans
Blog
In the face of climate change and the growing impacts from overfishing, a global commitment to protect 30 percent of the world's ocean by 2030 calls for high ambition to reach this crucial milestone in the next six years. To date, just over eight percent of the ocean is protected, with under three percent as highly or fully protected.
That is why I am in New York City this week with my Blue Nature Alliance colleagues during the High-Level Week of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a pivotal event for advancing global cooperation on conservation.
The Blue Nature Alliance is a global initiative designed to accelerate ocean conservation's pace, scale, and effectiveness through partnership. With more than 100 partners, we are catalyzing effective and equitable large-scale protections of critical ocean ecosystems for the benefit of nature and people in 42 ocean areas—and counting.
Why it Matters
In ocean advocacy work, our eyes are often trained to see the world in strangely shaped polygons covering the blue areas on a map or the curved lines of an exclusive economic zone. It’s easy to breathe in square kilometers and measure success on the size of an area protected. Or to talk about percentage targets established by world leaders and sobering statistics that tell us most of the world's marine ecosystems are in decline.
But more importantly, and perhaps too rarely, we, as environmental advocates, have the opportunity to step away from the computer screens and email threads to visit the areas we are working to protect—whether in populated coastal areas or in the far reaches of the high seas—to breathe in the ocean air, to see the faces of people who rely on the ocean for their survival and livelihoods. We can learn from Indigenous and local communities who have cared for the ocean for many generations and meet the scientists exploring beneath the ocean surface to help us understand what secrets our planet is trying to tell us.
While statistics, maps, and global targets are the vessels we have to navigate an uncharted future, those moments face-to-face with humans and nature bring to life the meaning of our work and help us truly understand what is at stake.
I am fortunate to have many examples to choose from. Still, my two expeditions to Antarctica over the past decade were undoubtedly my most formative – first, on a research vessel surveying to monitor changes in Antarctic krill distribution, and second, as an observer on a tour vessel. The two experiences were vastly different—one in the dark August winter away from all signs of humanity, hauling samples from the sea and examining them under a microscope, and the latter on a luxury cruise with catered meals and a wine selection in between site visits to see penguins, seals and other creatures that call this remote region home.
While those experiences couldn't have been more different, a few aspects were the same. Flanked by the imposing white cliffs of the Antarctic continent juxtaposed with a vast ocean slowly undulating under sea ice, the world felt unfathomably large and improbably small. The scale and significance of our work felt as tangible and beautiful as a tiny penguin purposing on the water's surface and as overwhelming and terrifying as an open horizon bobbing with melting glaciers as far as the eye can see.
Our planet and oceans are changing, and people’s livelihoods and way of life are under threat. While humans are the main cause of these changes, we are also the only hope of a turning tide.
Political Action is Needed
According to a study by the World Bank, almost 90 percent of global marine fish stocks are now fully exploited or overfished. It now includes more than 150,000 species, of which more than 42,000 are threatened with extinction. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) lists over 1,500 of the nearly 18,000 marine animals and plants assessed are at risk of extinction, with climate change impacting at least 41% of threatened marine species. Science has proven that one of the best ways to safeguard biodiversity in the ocean is by establishing marine protected areas (MPAs).
This week in New York, we turn back to familiar numbers and targets and to hear stories that tell us of places, people, and nature. We will meet decision-makers to advance conservation objectives and advocate under key global agreements to protect our oceans, like the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the High Seas Treaty (also known as BBNJ – Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction), a crucial agreement in ocean conservation.
Once ratified, this treaty holds the potential to safeguard biodiversity in international waters, build ecosystem resilience to adapt to climate change, maintain sustainable food systems, and improve livelihoods for a growing population. It could be a turning point for the planet's stability and the health of all ecosystems. Most of the world's marine biodiversity lives in the high seas, but only 1% of these areas are protected. Seven countries have ratified the High Seas Treaty so far, with a threshold of 60 needed to go into force.
Efforts to protect large areas of the high seas have been underway long before the recent High Seas Treaty was adopted. In Antarctica's Southern Ocean, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has paved the way for establishing high seas MPAs, including the designation of the world's largest protected area in the Ross Sea in 2016. Working in partnership with the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Conservation International, the Blue Nature Alliance hopes to achieve a shared vision to protect 30% of the Southern Ocean by 2030.
G20 leaders reaffirmed their commitment last year to designate four marine protected areas (MPAs) under consideration at CCAMLR, one of the largest environmental conservation actions in history. If adopted, they would cover a cumulative area nearly twice the size of Greenland. Together with 13 percent of the Southern Ocean already protected, this would bring the total area of protection in the Southern Ocean to 26 percent, or 2.6 percent of the global target.
The Antarctic is living proof that world leaders can overcome geopolitical tensions in the spirit of conservation, and the political momentum to designate new protected areas is building here, elsewhere on the high seas, and in national jurisdictions.
My presence near the world's most prominent political stage might be as insignificant as a tiny penguin in a vast sea—but returning to scale, I am not alone. Coalitions of environmental NGOs, government champions, and ocean ambassadors are helping to steer this ship. And together, we can make waves on a path to a better future. We are here to celebrate government leadership to protect the biodiversity of the oceans, offer our ongoing support and commitment to take on this monumental task, and hold world leaders and each other accountable for our commitment to protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 for nature and people.
This article was initially posted in Ryan Dolan’s LinkedIn profile. He is the Blue Nature Alliance’s site engagement co-lead and was part of the delegation that attended the 2024 UNGA High-Level week.