STATES REACH PARTIAL AGREEMENT ON MARINE GENETIC RESOURCES AT UN TALKS

STATES REACH PARTIAL AGREEMENT ON MARINE GENETIC RESOURCES AT UN TALKS
New York, Jun 30 2007 10:00AM
Countries participating in annual United Nations-sponsored talks this week on oceans and the law of the sea have agreed to some recommendations on how to manage and protect increasingly valuable marine genetic resources.

In a meeting that wrapped up today, countries attending the UN Open-ended Informal Consultation Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea recognized the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea as the legal framework for all activities in the oceans and seas. But they disagreed on how the Convention applies to marine genetic resources beyond areas under national jurisdiction.

While the G-77 group of developing countries and China said these areas are governed by the Convention's provisions relating to the "Area," which considers these resources as "the common heritage of mankind," Japan, the United States and some other developed countries said marine genetic resources fall under the provisions of the Convention relating to the high seas. The European Union argued for a middle position.

The issue of marine genetic resources beyond national jurisdiction will now be taken up early next year at the UN Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction.

In their recommendations, countries acknowledged that vulnerable marine genetic resources were threatened by pollution, climate change, destruction of habitats, destructive fishing practices, overexploitation and other factors. They stressed the need to support collaborative efforts to research, access and use these resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction so as to realize their potential, and emphasized the needs to share the results of marine scientific research. These recommendations will feed into the General Assembly's resolutions on the law of the sea and sustainable fisheries.

Participants raised several related concerns. An expert from Indonesia said the country had already lost 26 islands to climate change, while several countries stressed that destructive fishing practices, and especially bottom trawling, was damaging fragile marine genetic resources.
2007-06-29 00:00:00.000

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