Land reform for the seas

Land reform for the seas

Berlin conference on marine protected areas in European waters and high seas calls for better management of the world's oceans

Berlin, Germany, 20 April 2007 (IUCN): Europe should lead worldwide efforts to protect the oceans to prevent collapse of commercial fisheries by 2050. With three-quarters of the world's fish stocks already fully exploited or depleted, the oceans urgently need better regulation of fishing and other commercial activities. This was the main message of the conference "Countdown 2010 for Marine Ecosystems", closing today in Berlin.

Around 100 high-level experts from European member states, UN organizations and regional conventions agreed on the message "Countdown 2010 for Marine Ecosystems", emphasizing the importance of the European Union in improving the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.

"We can learn a lot from lessons of landscape management," says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme. "If we restrict trawling and other destructive activities to certain areas, this will give marine habitats a chance to recover."

Marine protected areas, currently covering less than 1% of the world's oceans, have been proven to boost fish stocks; five years after the creation of marine reserves in the Egyptian Red Sea, fish catches in neighbouring areas increased by 66%.

"In the coming year, the EU Maritime Policy will determine the future of our oceans," explains Tamás Marghescu, IUCN Regional Director for Europe. "We need to put the environment at the centre to safeguard our marine resources and their major contribution to people's income and national economies."

On a European level, Natura 2000 sites provide an effective mechanism to create marine protected areas. In the high seas, the Berlin conference recommends a UN-based implementing agreement to protect vulnerable ecosystems.

The conference was organized by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the German EU Presidency. It built on the IUCN Marine Protected Areas Summit in Washington D.C. earlier this month in which experts called for 30% of marine areas to be protected.

European governments have promised to halt the loss of biological diversity on land and in the seas by 2010. Governments worldwide have committed to create a global network of marine protected areas by 2012. The initiative Countdown 2010 - hosted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) - supports these and other ambitious conservation targets in collaboration with governments and civil society.

ENDS

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