CARICOM must ensure high seas remain health, protected – Regional Workshop hears

(Barbados Government Information Service) CARICOM should do everything in its power to ensure that the high seas – two-thirds of ocean space over which no one state has authority – remain healthy and protected.

This is according to Barbados’ Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Juliette Babb-Riley, who was speaking at the third CARICOM workshop on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

Regional representatives attended the three-day workshop held at the Tamarind Hotel, in St. James, to discuss a new international agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which focuses on the protection of the high seas.

“We are negotiating a treaty with over 100 developed and developing countries from different regions, and we are trying to reach consensus on what would be the test of this new instrument.

“Biologically and ecologically, there are no boundaries. Marine species move between areas that are under the jurisdiction of states and those that are outside the national jurisdiction of states. So, if you want to properly conserve your marine resources which fall under your area, you need to pay attention to what is happening beyond areas of national jurisdiction. This agreement is seeking to do that, to make sure we do what is in our power to have a healthy ocean,” she explained.

Read more at: Barbados Government Information Service 

Source: CARICOM TODAY