Marine issues, as expected, were of high priority and sensitivity at the CBD CoP 8 in Curitiba in March 2006.

To give some background, the CBD COP 7 in Kuala Lumpur, 2004, had decided on several measures to protect the high seas biodiversity, including the establishment of a representative Network of Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) outside the areas of national jurisdiction. COP 7 had also decided to establish a Working Group on MPA’s in order to agree on recommendations to the COP 8 on this issue, including the development of criteria for MPAs beyond national jurisdiction.

At its meeting in Montecatini, in June 2005 the Working Group could not reach a consensus on a proposed recommendations. Indeed there were many points of disagreement or reservation. In the meantime the ad-hoc informal Working Group on Marine Biodiversity beyond Areas of National Jurisdiction’ in the framework of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), established by a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution of Nov 2004, met in New York, in February 2006, and discussed issues related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, including MPAs.

The CBD COP 8 in Curitiba provided the first opportunity to discuss the outcome of the New York meeting and the Montacatini disagreements (the text presented in Montecatine and never agreed upon).

Whereas the majority of the countries supported the continuation of these discussions under the UNCLOs, there were different views and disagreements as to the role that CBD should play. Most countries wanted the CBD to be mainly supporting national MPAs capacity building and scientific input to the UNGA process; others saw a combination of technical and scientific advice, recognizing the specific role of CBD with regard to the 2010 targets. There were some isolated positions, such as Venezuela defending the “key” role of CBD, Tuvalu highlighting indigenous practices on the high seas and Palau calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling in the high seas. These had an important impact. The final outcome gave CBD the scientific and “where appropriate, technical” role for the time being with the expectation that the UNGA 61 later this year will start a follow up process on deep sea biodiversity and tackle destructive fishing practices. If action by the UN General Assembly is considered insufficient in two years time the EU managed to keep a window open for considering the CBD’s role in CBD COP 9.

April 2006. Despina Symons is Director of the European Bureau for Conservation and Development and Co-ordinator of the European SUSG Fisheries Working Group. She was a member of the IUCN delegation at CBD CoP 8. Despina.symonsebcd.org

Sustainable, June 2006, contents page