The proposal for a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea (Atlantic part of the southern Ocean) was developed by Germany and was submitted by the European Union to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). CCAMLR members have to approve this proposal unanimously.
The Commission, which comprises representatives from 24 Member States and the European Union, is currently engaged in a multiannual process to develop the scientific basis for a representative network of marine protected areas in the Antarctic Ocean. The Weddell Sea is one of a total of nine planning regions in the CCAMLR convention area which covers the entire Southern Ocean. The German proposal refers to an area of around 1.8 million square kilometers. It would be the world's largest marine protected area.
When preparing the Weddell Sea protection proposal, hundreds of thousands of scientific data and information were compiled and analyzed from a 4.2-million square kilometer planning area with the aim to determine the most vulnerable regions.
Progress reports
By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
Type of commitment
- Marine Spatial Planning
- Large Marine Ecosystem approach
- Ecosystem-based Adaptation
- Other (please specify): management and protection of areas beyond national jurisdiction
Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
Type of commitment
- Scientific research and cooperation to address ocean acidification knowledge gaps
By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
Type of commitment
- Compliance, monitoring and enforcement
- Reduction and elimination fishing practices and gear that destroy/degrade marine habitat
- Science-based fisheries management plans
- Ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF)
- Reduction of fisheries by-catch and product waste/losses
- Other (please specify): management and protection of areas beyond national jurisdiction
By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
Type of commitment
- No take marine protected area
- Marine protected area with partial protection
- Multiple use marine protected area
- Locally or community managed marine areas
- MPA management and/or enforcement
- Other (please specify): Suppoprt to other CCAMLR members to ioncrease scientific knowledge to develop research capacities on marine technology for MPA management
Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want
Type of commitment
- Activities to raise awareness of the comprehensive legal and policy framework for the sustainable development of oceans and seas, in particular UNCLOS, its Implementing Agreements and other relevant ocean-related instruments and promote their effective im
- Activities to develop the capacity of States towards broader participation in and effective implementation of UNCLOS and its implementing Agreements
- Strengthening ocean governance, for example through the development of a national ocean policy or regional ocean policy
January 2018
