Your report (‘Very bad precedent’: China and Russia team up to undermine krill fishing restrictions in Antarctica, 1 November) rightly underscores the urgent need to protect marine life in the Southern Ocean, but by suggesting that only China and Russia were to blame for the collapse of recent negotiations at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) ignores important context – and how we can get the talks back on track.
Over the past year, the group’s 26 member nations and the EU made significant progress on new fishing limits and a 500,000 sq km marine protected area – and, crucially, elucidated how their interests could be met in order to reach a final agreement. Unfortunately, in the end, an inability to step outside rigid party positions, often the death knell for even good-faith negotiations, derailed the meeting.
As CCAMLR’s next chair, the UK now has a unique opportunity to steer the commission towards a successful outcome for conservation. The institution’s relevance and, most importantly, the vitality of the world’s last true wilderness are on the line.
Geneviève Pons
Co-chair, Antarctica2030; CEO, Europe Jacques Delors
Pascal Lamy
Co-chair, Antarctica2030; vice-president, Paris Peace Forum
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