Nigeria (Commonwealth) _ Nigeria has urged all members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to join her in finding a solution to biodiversity and climate change in order to avert an environmental calamity that threatens not just the region but the entire globe.
Dr. Iziaq Salami, Minister of State for Environment, made the statement on Monday during his opening remarks at the ECOWAS Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) coordination conference in Abuja.
Our oceans need robust protection, which can only be provided by a new convention for the preservation and administration of marine organisms in the high seas. According to him, this treaty must guarantee that human activities are controlled to avoid severe negative consequences, with robust oversight systems and measures to construct completely and highly protected MPAs in the high seas.
He recognized that the approval of the high-seas pact last June brought us one step closer to our objectives. Nigeria joined 22 other nations in September this year at the High Ambition for the High Seas event on the sidelines of the UNGA to symbolically sign a pledge to ratify the BBNJ treaty. We must now get together to approve the new high-seas accord as soon as possible.
Salako went on to say that, thanks to Nigeria’s efforts, the African Union’s 55 member states have reached an agreement to support ratifying the new high-seas treaty as soon as possible, as enshrined in the Addis Ababa Declaration adopted at the 19th ordinary session of the Africa Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). Three months after the 19th AMCEN, we should shift from claiming the earliest possible date to a more concrete time frame for Africa to ratify the BBNJ treaty. ECOWAS can pave the way in this regard.
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He stated that he was glad to welcome everyone to Nigeria as we gathered once more to discover answers to the biodiversity and climate crises that is gripping our globe, including our sub region. They are both part of the same dilemma, and neither can be solved without the other, he explained.
He emphasized that the current state of the world’s oceans is a clear indication of this perilous interaction, noting that “our oceans are under threat today more than ever before with sea level rise, temperature increases, acidification, pollution, biodiversity loss, unsustainable exploitation of marine resources, depletion of fish stocks, the near extinction of coral reefs, and the destruction of fragile ecosystems.”
Because of the urgent need to confront this issue, Nigeria and its fellow ECOWAS member states have banded together and urged the international community to be more ambitious in its response. Our call for a bold global response to the biodiversity issue is both urgent and specific.
Several measures, including the global title of 30% of land and oceans areas as protected by 2030, the conclusion of a reliable new high-seas treaty, a creation of highly and fully protected areas covering 30% of the global ocean that prohibit environmentally damaging activities, and a global commitment to immediately halting human-induced extinction of wild species, were identified as critical in the urgent appeal.
The Minister admitted that only 7% of the world’s oceans are currently protected, and that there are no comprehensive legal frameworks in place to protect the high seas and deep seabed areas, which are shared international ocean areas that lie beyond national jurisdictions and cover nearly 70% of the global ocean.
Salako stated that the assembly today provides a roadmap for ECOWAS nations to help them achieve this critical aim. Prompt adoption of the high-seas pact and active participation in its implementation are critical for the preservation of our oceans.
We have a shared responsibility to act and protect the oceans because we all benefit from them and share the harm that occurs when degraded coastal and marine ecosystems threaten the physical, economic, and food security of local communities and multinational corporations.
