00:00Well, Australia is one of a number of countries that have signed up to this global pledge
00:06of trying to protect 30% of land areas and 30% of ocean areas by 2030.
00:13And so each country at this conference is trying to work towards that aim within their
00:18own territorial waters.
00:20Now for Australia, we're definitely one of the countries that is very advanced in this.
00:24We have more than half of the ocean that falls under our exclusive economic zone in some
00:29level of protection.
00:30What we really want to see is 30% in a highly protected zonal area.
00:36And the government's getting fairly close towards that.
00:39It has certainly expanded the highly protected areas around a lot of the sub-Antarctic islands,
00:45for example, like Macquarie Island, Heard Island and Macdonald Islands.
00:49They're also doing a review of some of the marine protected areas closer to the coastlines
00:54of eastern and western Australia to try and look at areas where they might be able to
00:59increase protection there.
01:00But really, we have the Australian government committed to reaching that 30% highly protected
01:06and well ahead of a number of other countries.
01:08And Murray Watt is speaking at this conference in Nice's reaffirmed Australian government commitment
01:14to reaching that target.
01:15And how much progress has there been internationally?
01:18Look, there's definitely momentum.
01:20Many of the participants, both government and non-government organisations who are taking
01:24part in this conference say that in the last year or two, there's been a lot of momentum
01:28towards trying to bring about real change to get to this point of better protection of
01:33ocean spaces.
01:34But one of the real stumbling blocks is the fact that most of the ocean territory, two thirds
01:39of it, is international waters.
01:40They're not under the legal control of any one country.
01:45So, what they've been working towards is trying to get enough countries to sign up to a treaty
01:49that's being called variously the Global Oceans Treaty or the High Seas Treaty, given a couple
01:54of different names, because its real name is a very long UN-like name.
01:58But the idea is, if 60 countries can ratify this treaty, it would allow nations to put forward
02:03proposals to give protection to international waters to preserve those areas from pressures
02:11like fishing, deep sea mining, seabed trawling, other extractive industries.
02:17And that would be a big change.
02:18Now, we need 60 countries to ratify this.
02:22Australia hasn't ratified it yet, but Murray Watt, the Environment Minister, has made a commitment
02:27while he's been over at this conference, saying that the government will bring forward legislation
02:32to ratify it later on this year.
02:34So, that certainly adds to a bit of international momentum to try to make sure that this treaty
02:39becomes reality.
02:41And what practical difference would a High Seas Treaty make?
02:45Well, to give an example of how it might work, there are international waters between
02:50Australia and New Zealand that are beyond the exclusive economic zones of both countries,
02:55countries, but sit between the two.
02:57And parts of these waters in the Tasman Sea are very heavily fished for tuna and other
03:04pelagic fish.
03:05But there are also some really delicate biological areas where there are a lot of endangered
03:10sea turtles, a lot of albatross are affected.
03:12You know, they're endangered species too, and they're often bycatchers of these tuna fisheries.
03:17So, Australia and New Zealand could put forward a proposal under this treaty and say,
03:20we want to make this an internationally marine protected area.
03:23And if at least three quarters of the signatories agree, then that could ensure that those areas
03:30are marine protected areas and international waters.
03:33So, that's a bit of a long way off.
03:35There have to be enough countries to sign the treaty, and then there have to be enough treaty
03:38countries agree to an international area being protected.
03:42But at the moment, there's no legal framework for being able to look after or protect ocean
03:47areas and international waters, and this potentially could do that, and that could have pretty
03:51significant consequences in the seas around Australia and around the Pacific.
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