Protecting our oceans: 'Int'l community and private sector need to be challenged'


Issued on: 10/06/2025 - FRANCE24


Eighteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty on Monday, bringing the total to 49 — just 11 short of the 60 needed for the ocean agreement to enter into force. The surge in support, occurring during the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France, adds momentum to what could become a historic shift in how the world governs the open ocean. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's Eve Irvine welcomes Axel Van Trotsenburg, World Bank's Senior Managing Director,

Video by: Eve IRVINE

'Protecting our oceans: Behavioural change comes from laws and changing of the system'

Issued on: 11/06/2025 - 

The international treaty on the high seas, which focuses on conservation of maritime areas beyond national jurisdictions, has received sufficient support to take effect early in 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday. Speaking at the third United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice, Macron said 55 countries' ratifications of the treaty have been completed, around 15 are in progress with a definite date, and another 15 will be completed by the end of the year, meaning that the required 60 will be achieved. FRANCE 24's Mark Owen welcomes Merijn Tinga, activist, biologist and world-renowned "Plastic Soup Surfer".

Video by:

Mark OWEN

'We can't continue to allow people to retreat from science,' John Kerry says


Video by:
Antonia KERRIGAN
01:10

© France 24
Issued on: 10/06/2025 - 

Speaking to FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, former US secretary of state John Kerry stressed that "we can't continue to allow people to retreat from science" when fighting climate change.

Niue, the tiny island selling the sea to save it from destruction

Nice, France – On a remote raised coral atoll in the South Pacific, the tiny island nation of Niue is quietly protecting one of the world’s most ambitious marine reserves. While global leaders at the UN oceans gathering in Nice debate how to scale up efforts to safeguard the seas, Niue – population around 1,700 – has already put 40 percent of its waters under full protection and is crowdfunding to help keep them pristine.


Issued on: 11/06/2025 - RFI

Niue’s conservation model is designed not just to protect the ocean, but to fund its guardianship for a generation. AP - Jacob Asher

By:Amanda Morrow

Under a marine spatial plan adopted in 2022, Niue’s entire economic zone is divided into five areas – balancing strict conservation with sustainable fishing and tourism.

“We are the astronauts of the Pacific,” says Coral Pasisi, president of the local nonprofit Tofia Niue and one of the architects of the move to sell 20-year conservation pledges for individual square kilometres of ocean.

“Our culture is shaped by the ocean around us.”

Pasisi is in Nice this week in her capacity as a scientist and regional leader. She is also director of climate change and sustainability at the Pacific Community (SPC), where she works with island governments on long-term strategies to manage the impacts of climate change and protect ocean resources.


The big blue blindspot: why the ocean floor is still an unmapped mystery

Identity and survival

Niueans depend on the sea not just for food – which supplies more than 70 percent of their protein – but for stories, identity and survival.

“We are surrounded by the ocean. We live off the ocean,” Pasisi told RFI.

When a scientific expedition with National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team filmed the abundance of life beneath their waters in 2016, it brought many residents face to face with their marine heritage for the first time.

The result was a groundswell of support to protect the island’s 127,000 square kilometre exclusive economic zone.

Coral Pasisi, president of the nonprofit Tofia Niue and director of climate change and sustainability at the Pacific Community, SPC, at the UN Oceans Conference in Nice on 10 June 2025. © Amanda Morrow / RFI

Longevity blueprint

Niue’s conservation model is designed not just to protect the ocean, but to fund its guardianship for a generation.

It centres on Ocean Conservation Commitments, which are 20‑year sponsorships that help cover the costs of monitoring, enforcement and local stewardship.

Within its waters lies the Moana Mahu Marine Protected Area – a zone covering 40 percent of Niue’s waters, where all fishing and extractive activity is banned.

Ocean’s survival hinges on finding the billions needed to save it

At its heart is Beveridge Reef, a submerged coral atoll teeming with life: schools of grey reef sharks, singing humpback whales and the katuali – a rare venomous sea snake found nowhere else on Earth.

“On every dive at Beveridge Reef, we saw sharks – up to 80 grey reef sharks at a time,” said Alan Friedlander, chief scientist at Pristine Seas.

According to the organisation, the reef has “some of the highest densities of this species found anywhere in the world”.

Under a marine spatial plan adopted in 2022, Niue’s entire economic zone is divided into five areas – balancing strict conservation with sustainable fishing and tourism. AP - Nick Perry

Generational wisdom

The conservation sponsorships treat the Moana Mahu sanctuary as a shared global asset, absorbing carbon dioxide and preserving biodiversity.

“What we basically did was democratise that area into square kilometres ... to help make sure that this is not a paper park – that we can actually protect it robustly,” Pasisi says.

Behind Niue’s ocean strategy is a deeper legacy – one rooted in lived experience and generational wisdom.

“When I take my children out to fish and spearfish, when I teach them what to shoot and what not to shoot, what to take and what not to take, it's not my Western system of education and learning that taught me that,” Pasisi explains.

“It is the knowledge that was passed down to me from my father, my mother and their parents. And that's 4,000 years of knowledge.

“The ocean made us who we are. Now we're making sure it's there for those who come after us.”