Our oceans are currently facing unprecedented challenges, including climate change and over-fishing. It is more important than ever to take action to ensure our seas are healthy, abundant and resilient.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Defra have been closely involved in the negotiation of a new UN agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. I am aware that the UK is pressing for an ambitious agreement to be concluded in 2020.
However, the UK is on course to protect over half of its waters and I join Greenpeace in calling for the UK and other countries to work together towards a new global commitment for a UN high seas treaty. This would pave the way to protect at least 30 per cent of the world's ocean by 2030.
41 new Marine Conservation Zones have recently been created. The UK now has 355 Marine Protected Areas of different types, spanning 220,000 square km. No new activities deemed damaging will be allowed to take place in these areas and existing harmful activities will be minimised or stopped to allow important habitats to recover. A review has now been launched into whether and how Highly Protected Marine Areas, the strongest form of marine protection, could be introduced in English seas.
The Government is working hard to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean and is leading global efforts to tackle the problem through support of the G7 Oceans Plastics Charter, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy and the Commonwealth Blue Charter. In April 2018, the UK launched the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance alongside Vanuatu, encouraging its 25 member countries to take steps to eliminate avoidable single-use plastics.
The Welsh Government is also contributing to this effort through the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, which places the environment at the heart of decision making and leads the way with an ambitious target to ban all avoidable single use plastic by 2025.
Finally, the forthcoming International Ocean Strategy will set out plans to work with international partners to secure a sustainable, prosperous and secure ocean future.
60% of the oceans are outside the borders of national jurisdiction. This implies a shared international responsibility. Under the overarching UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a plethora of jurisdictional rights, institutions, and specific frameworks have been set up to organise the way humans use these waters.
The forthcoming UN meeting in New York will discuss the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction UN resolution 72/249.
Mae ein moroedd yn wynebu heriau na welwyd mo’u tebyg o’r blaen, gan gynnwys newid hinsawdd a gor-bysgota. Mae’n bwysicach nag erioed gweithredu i sicrhau bod ein moroedd yn iach, yn doreithiog ac yn gadarn.
Mae'r Swyddfa Dramor a Chymanwlad a Defra wedi bod yn rhan flaenllaw o’r trafodaethau ynghylch cytundeb y Cenhedloedd Unedig ar gadwraeth a defnyddio amrywiaeth biolegol morol yr ardaloedd sydd y tu hwnt i awdurdodaeth genedlaethol mewn modd cynaliadwy. Rwyf yn ymwybodol bod y DU yn pwyso i gael cytundeb uchelgeisiol erbyn diwedd 2020.
Fodd bynnag, mae’r DU ar y trywydd iawn i amddiffyn dros hanner ei dyfroedd ac ymunaf â Greenpeace wrth alw ar y DU a gwledydd eraill i gydweithio tuag at wneud ymrwymiad byd-eang newydd i lunio cytundeb cefnforoedd y Cenhedloedd Unedig. Byddai hyn yn braenaru’r tir i amddiffyn o leiaf 30 y cant o gefnfor y byd erbyn 2030.
Mae 41 o Ardaloedd Cadwraeth Morol newydd wedi’u creu’n ddiweddar. Mae gan y DU 355 o Ardaloedd Morol Gwarchodedig o wahanol fathau, sy’n rhychwantu 230,000 km sgwâr. Ni chaniateir cynnal gweithgareddau newydd a ystyrir yn niweidiol yn yr ardaloedd hyn, a bydd y gweithgareddau niweidiol presennol yn cael eu lleihau neu eu hatal er mwyn rhoi cyfle i adfer cynefinoedd pwysig. Mae adolygiad wedi cael ei lansio i ganfod a ellid cyflwyno Ardaloedd Morol Gwarchodedig Iawn, sef y mathau cryfaf o warchodaeth forol, ym moroedd Lloegr, a sut gellid gwneud hynny.
Mae’r Llywodraeth yn gweithio’n galed i leihau llygredd plastig yn y môr ac mae’n arwain ymdrechion byd-eang i fynd i’r afael â’r broblem drwy gefnogi Siarter Plastigau G7, Economi Plastig Newydd Sefydliad Ellen MacArthur a Siarter Las y Gymanwlad. Ym mis Ebrill 2018, lansiodd y DU Gynghrair Cefnfor Glân y Gymanwlad ynghyd â Vanuatu, gan annog ei 25 o aelod-wladwriaethau i gymryd camau i ddileu plastig untro mae modd ei osgoi.
Mae Llywodraeth Cymru hefyd yn cyfrannu at yr ymdrech hon drwy Ddeddf Llesiant Cenedlaethau’r Dyfodol, sy’n sicrhau bod yr amgylchedd yn greiddiol wrth wneud penderfyniadau, ac yn arwain y ffordd gyda tharged uchelgeisiol o wahardd pob plastig untro y mae modd ei osgoi erbyn 2025.
Yn olaf, bydd Strategaeth Ryngwladol y Cefnforoedd yn cyflwyno cynlluniau i weithio gyda phartneriaid rhyngwladol i sicrhau dyfodol cynaliadwy, ffyniannus a diogel i’r moroedd.