In 2010, governments around the world agreed to protect 10 percent of the world’s oceans by 2020. Today, having just passed the halfway mark, prospects of achieving this ambitious goal seem bleak. Just over two percent of our oceans are recognized as “marine protected areas,” but a robust enforcement regime and resources are missing. Today marks Earth Day, and by creating largely unprotected “paper parks” we are failing to preserve our oceans, which has negative and long term consequences for U.S. national and global security.
The impetus for the protection of the world’s oceans and its resources is threefold – conservation, societal unrest and U.S. national and global security.
Just like national parks on land, beneath the surface you will find beauty and beast worth preserving, like the stunning array of humpback whales, Dugongs, and large Green Sea Turtles that are protected in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. However, reasons for conserving our natural maritime heritage go far beyond its breathtaking splendor.
About one billion people rely on the world’s oceans for fish as their primary source of animal protein. An estimated 880 million rely on it directly and indirectly for their livelihoods. Rising economic powers such as China have seen fish consumption rates increase 6 percent annually on average since 1990. As fishing fleets deplete stocks and expand fishing operations to every corner of the ocean, global demand for their catch only continues to grow alongside increasing populations worldwide. Some estimates even indicate that local and commercial fish populations have been cut in half since 1970 and rising powers like China worry that a shortage of fish could trigger societal instability among its growing population. This is one of the reasons why Beijing is heavily subsidizing its 2000 strong distant-water fishing fleet – the largest in the world – that is often found exploiting rich fishing grounds around the world.
There is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that our oceans are the world’s largest crime scene due to rampant illegal fishing that is estimated to represent 20 percent of all catch worldwide and represent a yearly dollar value of upward $23 billion. Indeed, the pillage of the seas’ resources represents a threat to vital U.S. and global economic and security interests.
Already in 2011, the United Nations implicated fishing vessels in the trafficking of drugs, arms, and persons – transnational crimes recognized as threats to U.S. national security.
As a recent example, in March, the Australian Navy intercepted a fishing vessel off the coast of Oman with approximately $2 million worth of arms hidden under fishing nets. It was believed that the catch – seized under authorities mandated by a UN arms embargo against Somalia – originated from Iran.
Additionally, conflict over fishing grounds in Southeast Asia is escalating in a region many see as on the verge of serious armed conflict. For example, Indonesia has blown up over 170 foreign fishing boats caught illegally fishing in its waters over the past two years. Nearly 5,000 Chinese vessels have been apprehended fishing illegally in South Korean waters, one recent apprehension leading to the death of a Chinese fisherman. Although the Chinese navy has only been involved to a limited extent, some fishing ports have increased their “maritime militias,” or armed civilian vessels.
In short, conservation, economic development, and national and global security all present critical reasons to protect oceans around the world.
In that spirit, thousands marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established in recent years. This is a positive trend that reflects a greater awareness about how the world’s oceans and its finite resources impact global affairs. Some reserves are huge, like the United Kingdom’s Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve, which measures three-and-a-half times the size of the UK itself. However, the majority of these MPAs are much smaller. Large or small, they have one thing in common: they’re extraordinarily difficult to enforce.
What do we need to do to fix this? There are some low hanging fruit. This fall in Washington, D.C., Secretary of State John Kerry will host the third installment of a summit aimed at raising awareness and inspiring more concerted efforts to safeguard the world’s oceans – including focusing on enforcing MPAs. However, before calling on other countries to do more, the Obama administration needs to get its own house in order.
For example, it was over one year ago since the release of a presidential action plan to combat illegal fishing. This plan was supposed to drive U.S. government enforcement efforts worldwide, particularly regarding collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and others. However, people familiar with the process report slow progress.
If the U.S. wants to be a leader in safeguarding the world’s oceans, before asking others to do more, Washington must model successful ocean conservation by streamlining its governmental processes and constructing innovative capacity building programs.
The environmental community must in turn recognize that success does not simply mean asking the U.S. military and broader security establishment, like the U.S. Coast Guard, for assistance with enforcing MPAs and combatting illegal fishing – a growing “fix all” tendency within the environmental community.
Before asking the Pentagon to do more with less (the military’s budget is also shrinking), quantifying the anecdotal links between illegal fishing and other transnational threats will be essential in order to make a credible case for partnerships with the U.S. and other militaries and security organizations.
Connected to better partnerships between militaries and the environmental community, while active and retired military officials recognize the importance and implications of illegal fishing and other environmental crimes, they readily admit that they do not have the understanding of and working relationships with the environmental community to form impactful and sustainable partnerships to address these issues effectively. Similar sentiments exist among environmental organizations vis-a-vis security and defense organizations. This dynamic is detrimental to leveraging each other’s resources and knowledge and needs to be fixed.
Finally, as is true in connection to many environmental challenges, a plethora of technology and innovation has emerged to manage the enforcement challenge. Several major tech projects are underway in the field, but overall the technology landscape and what technology would be the best fit for specific marine protected areas remains disparate and opaque. A major cataloguing and organizing effort is required to make it easier to access technology and invest in cost-effective solutions that fits the local conditions.
There is some potential good news on the horizon. The United Nations is working on a new oceans treaty that would make new rules and regulations including creating marine reserves on the high seas, the areas beyond individual countries’ 200-mile exclusive economic zones.
For this treaty to be effective, it needs to include clear enforcement mechanisms and resources to go with it. Otherwise the world will face the risk of having thousands of miles of supposedly protected ocean without anyone to deter and catch those stealing from mother earth. Transitioning these “paper parks” to truly protected marine areas is critically important for conservation, economic development and global security.
Johan Bergenas is a Senior Associate and Ariella Knight is a Research Assistant at the Stimson Center.
