Zac Goldsmith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Zac Goldsmith on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress his Department has made on supporting the establishment of marine protected areas in the high seas.

James Duddridge

The UK led negotiations within the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources which resulted in the establishment of the world’s first high-seas Marine Protected Area (within the Antarctic Treaty area) and supports the establishment of further Marine Protected Areas within the area covered by the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The UK is also a leading member of the OSPAR Commission which has designated seven Marine Protected Areas in the high seas of the North-East Atlantic and works closely with other regional and international organisations to manage these.

The UK supports, and is fully engaged, in the work at the United Nations seeking an agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity and the need to establish a mechanism to deliver marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction.