Three of the four sub-targets set for 2020 of the UN sustainable development goal on the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans (SDG 14) will not have been met by the end of this year, warns the NGO WWF in a report published on Tuesday 3 March.
In respect of EU Member States, the NGO is of the opinion that they are not fulfilling their commitment to biodiversity conservation, healthy marine ecosystems, and sustainable and viable fisheries.
In particular, WWF points to the lack of effective protection in place for marine ecosystems through sustainable management plans, the failure to align the capacity of the EU fleet with fishing opportunities, the reintroduction of harmful fishing subsidies, and the persistence of sustained overfishing.
All of these examples indicate, according to the NGO, “critical gaps in compliance with existing EU legislation”.
Within the framework of the Green Deal, the NGO is therefore hopeful that the Union will now be able to keep to its commitments and really set an example.
“The EU has a genuine opportunity to mitigate the disastrous impacts of the climate and biodiversity crises by stressing ocean action as an integral component of the European Green Deal”, said Samantha Burgess, head of marine policy at the WWF European office.
The four sub-targets that should normally be achieved by 2020 are: (1) sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems; (2) effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices; (3) conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas; (4) prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies.
Read the report: http://bit.ly/3cxHsS3 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)