29 Oct 2024
Image: Dimitris Vetsikas/Pixabay The High Seas Treaty currently fills a key gap in international governance by establishing a mechanism for governments to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the high seas. But funding is needed to kickstart the work of accelerating these MPAs, with a focus on supporting the Global South leadership ambitions and […]
22 Oct 2024
As global leaders head to the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP16) , a new report has issued a stark warning: The world is falling short of its pledge to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. The “30×30” target, agreed at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in 2022, is the most ambitious conservation commitment ever made. However, the report […]
15 Oct 2024
Biden-Harris Administration announced that NOAA is designating 4,543 square miles of coastal and offshore waters along 116 miles of California’s central coast as America’s 17th national marine sanctuary. Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will conserve the area’s diverse range of marine life and celebrate Indigenous peoples’ connections to the region. It is the third largest sanctuary in […]
07 Oct 2024
The annual update from Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) into progress in England on the target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (the “30×30 target”) has been published. Campaigners are calling for a rapid rescue package for nature – including designating more English waters as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). The annual […]
01 Oct 2024
The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group has published a series of seven reports. Commissioned by the leaders of the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru through the 2021 Cooperation Agreement, the reports aim to renew and rapidly accelerate Wales’s approach to achieving net zero. The Group is led and Chaired by the former Welsh Assembly […]
24 Sep 2024
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has submitted advice to the Defra Secretary of State on reviewing and updating Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan. Steve Reed, Secretary of State Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has announced a review of the EIP with the intention of developing ‘ambitious new plans to save nature’. He has formally requested […]
03 Sep 2024
A new paper titled “Over 80% of the European Union’s marine protected area only marginally regulates human activities” has assessed how protected marine protected areas (MPAs) really are in the EU. The researchers looked at the level of protection of 4,858 EU MPAs based on the MPA Guide and found that in 2022, MPAs covered […]
06 Aug 2024
A Private Members Bill to regulate and limit bottom trawling in MPAs, introduced by Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick, has had its first reading in the House of Lords. As currently drafted it states that the regulations must prohibit bottom trawling in MPAs. These are defined as including Marine Conservation Zones, Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas, […]
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