Canada is joining an international cohort to advocate for protecting 30% of oceans by 2030.
On Thursday, fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan, announced that Canada has joined the United Kingdom and other countries in the Global Ocean Alliance. The Alliance’s goal is to advocate with international partners to protect at least 30 per cent of the global ocean through the establishment of marine protected areas and other effective area-based marine conservation measures by 2030.
The Alliance was established by the U.K. in 2019 and to date, 22 countries have joined.
“Canada is proud to join the Global Ocean Alliance, working alongside like-minded countries to advocate for our shared vision of sustainable, healthy oceans around the world,” Jordan said in an emailed statement. “We have made exceptional progress on protecting our own waters, and it is time to move the goal post ahead and reach even farther.”
Since 2015, the federal government has been working with provinces and Indigenous peoples and the scientific community towards the goal of protecting 10 per cent of Canada’s oceans by 2020. Having met and exceeded that target -- Canada has achieved 13.81 per cent ocean conservation -- it is now moving forward with a goal of conserving 25 per cent by 2025 and is already nearly halfway to its international target of 30 per cent by 2030.
