Last month’s talks fell short of what experts hoped for, but there is now real momentum for a historic agreement next year.  New protected marine areas (MPAs) and better management of Antarctica’s kri...

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In a new report, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that the European Union (E.U.) is unlikely to meet its 2030 marine conservation goals and that it’s failing to effectively protect the marine protected areas (MPAs) it has already established. “The E.U. has made some progress in designating marine protected areas, but our audit shows that the true challenge is turning designation into actual protection. Turning political ambition into tangible results for marine ecosystems will require faster action, applicable protective measures, and a more coherent network across the E.U.’s seas,” ECA Member Iliana Ivanova, who led the audit, said in a release. “To ensure that marine protected areas function effectively, we need the European Commission and member states to join forces, as well as engagement with local stakeholders.” Under its biodiversity strategy for 2030, the E.U. has set an ambitious goal of protecting 30 percent of its marine waters by 2030, with 10 percent of that area under strict protection. While the bloc has tripled the area covered by MPAs over the last 15 years, the ECA’s report found that only 13.7 percent of marine waters are currently designated as protected, and only 1 percent is under strict protection...

In a new report, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that the European Union (E.U.) is unlikely to meet its 2030 marine conservation goals and that it’s failing to effectively protect the marine protected areas (MPAs) it has already established. “The E.U. has made some progress in designating marine protected areas, but our audit shows that the true challenge is turning designation into actual protection. Turning political ambition into tangible results for marine ecosystems will require faster action, applicable protective measures, and a more coherent network across the E.U.’s seas,” ECA Member Iliana Ivanova, who led the audit, said in a release. “To ensure that marine protected areas function effectively, we need the European Commission and member states to join forces, as well as engagement with local stakeholders.” Under its biodiversity strategy for 2030, the E.U. has set an ambitious goal of protecting 30 percent of its marine waters by 2030, with 10 percent of that area under strict protection. While the bloc has tripled the area covered by MPAs over the last 15 years, the ECA’s report found that only 13.7 percent of marine waters are currently designated as protected, and only 1 percent is under strict protection...

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has once again closed its annual meeting without any krill conservation measures. Ahead of the annual meeting, multiple NGOs were pushing for the members states of CCAMLR to establish a marine protected area (MPA) in the Antarctic Ocean, adopt precautionary krill fishery management measures, and develop a roadmap to more MPAs by 2030. The regional fishery management organization (RFMO) had been working to reach a consensus to set quotas for krill but has failed to do so in one of the key krill-fishing areas of the Antarctic Ocean, Zone 48.1, despite attempting it for multiple years. The limits for Zone 48.1 would have capped krill fishing in the area to 395,000 metric tons (MT) and replaced a safeguard that lapsed in 2024 that was intended to spread krill fishing effort to more areas of the Antarctic Ocean. Despite the calls from NGOs and another two weeks of negotiations, CCAMLR failed to enact an MPA, or establish any safeguards, for the third year in a row. "CCAMLR was created to conserve Antarctic marine life, and yet, year after year, it has not delivered on its conservation mandate,” Blue Marine Foundation...

View the press release