Historic declaration on high-seas MPAs may be scuttled by last-minute defections
Hamburg, Germany: Last minute reservations from four countries may sink the historic announcement of a network of marine protected areas over key areas of the mid-Atlantic Ridge and basin which was scheduled for the North-East Atlantic environment summit later this month.
The declaration, foreshadowed by the OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic since 2008, would have been the world's first declaration of a suite of protected sites in waters outside any national jurisdiction.