Marine protected areas that protect unreachable and unexploited areas

24 November 2022

An analysis conducted by BLOOM reveals today that the marine protected areas under strict protection of the French Southern Territories, which President Macron proudly claimed to have tripled in size at the Brest Summit in February 2022, is located in an area that has never been the subject of industrial fishing. BLOOM has analyzed all fishing activities in the French Southern Territories since 2015 (over 46,000 lines of satellite data corresponding to 159,000 hours of fishing[1]) and thereby formally demonstrates that the path chosen for the marine protected areas under strict protection within the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve precisely avoids the areas that are exploited by the eight French fishing vessels of 55 to 76 meters in length targeting the Patagonian toothfish (the “golden goose” of the Southern Ocean) and the lobster.

For France to decide to put remarkable cold-water ecosystems which are strategic for biodiversity and the climate “under wraps” is an excellent thing. That the French policy of “real” protection of its waters is reduced to protecting unreachable and unexploited areas of the Southern Ocean is, on the other hand, unacceptable and says a lot about France’s “zero ambition” for its marine territory. While France has 382,855 km2 of marine protected areas (MPAs) under strict protection in its Southern Territories, this figure falls to… 94 km2 in Metropolitan France!

The French government is running a numbers policy, not a protection policy. It is official. This allows it to reach its “quantitative objectives” without ever having to confront the real issues of destruction raised by intensive industrial fishing in metropolitan France.

→ Read our full report: “Zero ambition”

On the one hand, Emmanuel Macron is passing 30% of French waters as “protected” while the so-called “protected” marine areas are devastated daily by industrial fishing. [2] On the other hand, the President has decided to “reach his target figure” of “strong protection”[3] (4% of the French EEZ) on the other side of the world, in the Southern waters, which are barely frequented or exploited, [4] instead of protecting the waters of mainland France, which are subject to constant pressure from industrial trawlers, in great need of ecological restoration, and which are only protected to the tune of 0.005% for our Channel and Atlantic fronts and 0.094% for our Mediterranean front.[5]

“Even along the Antarctic, the government has been careful not to encroach on the fishing grounds of industrial fishers“, comments BLOOM’s Advocacy Officer Swann Bommier. “Our groundbreaking study, conducted by Paco Lefrançois, confirms that according to Emmanuel Macron, a conservation policy means never putting any constraints on the fishing industry and only protecting unreachable and unexploited areas. We are far from the “pristine nature” reconquest promised by Mr. Macron.“

“During the COP15 on biodiversity“, which will be held from December 5 to 17 in Montreal, “France has the opportunity to get its act together and repair years of “zero ambition” policy regarding the protection of nature and “zero courage” in the face of industrial fishing lobbies” says Claire Nouvian, founder of BLOOM. The ocean is our Earth’s lung and the great regulator of its climate. Protecting it only provides benefits, including economic ones, thanks to the restoration of the health of fish populations and fishing activities. “We ask France to ban all industrial activities in the so-called ‘protected’ marine areas in metropolitan France and to preserve 10% of our marine territory from any human activity,” adds Claire Nouvian.“We would welcome such an announcement from President Macron before the Montreal Conference because it would allow our country, the first European maritime power, to comply with the objectives of strict protection of the EU, as the French Committee of the IUCN has recently pointed out.” [6]

 

Additional resources

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the intergovernmental panels in charge of climate (IPCC) and biodiversity (IPBES) are jointly recommending the creation of a coherent network of marine protected areas to drastically reduce the pressure exerted by industrial fishing on marine ecosystems.

In its EU Biodiversity Strategy[7] and its National Strategy for Protected Areas 2030,[8] the European Union and France have responded to these recommendations by setting a target of 30% of marine protected areas by 2030, one third of which should be under “strict protection”, without any human activity.

But France, the world’s second largest maritime area after the United States, has clearly abandoned this ambition and decided to follow a numbers policy, one in which protected areas are not improving the current situation in any way, despite the urgent need to restore depleted metropolitan waters, overexploited and destroyed by the incessant use of dragging fishing gears that have dismantled the animal structures that form underwater forests of great biological diversity

On 11 February 2022, the French President Emmanuel Macron announced in Brest during the One Ocean Summit the extension of the National Nature Reserve of the French Southern Territories, loudly claiming that France had thus created “with 1.6 million km2, the second largest marine protected area in the world”, “surpassed the objective of 30% of French maritime and terrestrial areas in protected areas (33%)” and “strongly contributed to the aim of protecting emblematic areas under strong protection.”

Now, 50% of the waters of the French exclusive economic zone of the St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands are under strict protection. Around the island of Crozet, 1.5%. And in Kerguelen, 21%. These figures should be set against the lack of ambition in creating marine areas that are actually protected (meaning no industrial activity) [9] and MPAs under “strict protection” (no human activity) in metropolitan France[10]. These figures show the blatant lack of willingness on the part of the government to confront industrial fishing, which is the main cause of destruction of marine ecosystems according to the IPBES.

France can still reverse course and announce the real protection of its waters before the COP15 on biological diversity. At a time of unprecedented degradation and extinction of life on earth, and after Emmanuel Macron’s announcement at the beginning of COP27 that France would not engage in deep-sea mining, a decision by the French President to finally take marine protection seriously would provide a glimmer of optimism regarding the political willingness to protect our future. The time is now or never for the climate and the planet’s wildlife.

 

Industrial fishing intensity in the French exclusive economic zone of the St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands (between 2015/01/01 and 2022/02/09, before the implementation of the MPA under strict protection, on a red gradient). On the right, the current area under “strict protection” of the St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands (gray).

 

Industrial fishing intensity within the French exclusive economic zone of the Kerguelen archipelago (between 2015/01/01 and 2016/12/11, before the implementation of the MPA under strict protection, on a red gradient). On the right, the current area under “strict protection” of the Kerguelen archipelago (gray).

 

Industrial fishing intensity within the French exclusive economic zone of the Kerguelen archipelago (between 2015/01/01 and 2016/12/11, before the implementation of the MPA under strict protection, on a red gradient). On the right, the current area under “strict protection” of the Kerguelen archipelago (gray).

 

NOTES

[1] Global Fishing Watch data.

[2] See the BLOOM study published on 7 October 2022 on the intensity of industrial fishing in MPAs.

[3] The “strong protection”, established by decree on 12 April 2022 is a label invented by the French government that corresponds neither to the European requirements on “strict protection” nor to the French status on “enhanced protection”. BLOOM challenged this decree on 7 October 2022.

[4] It is worth noting that industrial fishing for Patagonian toothfish and lobster takes place within the Nature Reserve, which cannot, therefore, be considered as “protected” according to the standards of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The design of the “strict protection zones” carefully avoids the fishing zones of the eight French vessels.

[5] Claudet et al. (2021) Critical gaps in the protection of the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world

[6] IUCN (2022) Strong Protection at Sea. Our recommendations for the Metropolis

[7] European Commission (2020) EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Bringing nature back into our lives

[8] French Government (2021) Stratégie nationale pour les aires protégées 2030

[9] BLOOM (2022) The assault of industrial fishing in French so-called marine “protected” areas.

[10] The “strict protection” of marine areas in metropolitan France is infinitesimal: on the French Atlantic, Channel and North Sea coasts, the surface area of MPAs under strict protection is 0.005%. In the French Mediterranean, where ecosystems are among the most degraded in the world, 0.094% of the surface of the exclusive economic zone is under strict protection. See Claudet et al (2021) Critical gaps in the protection of the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world