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Peru's political crisis leaves the future of one of the ocean's great treasures in uncertainty

2021-04-30T01:34:30.767Z


The Government, under pressure from the fishing industry, would allow deep-sea fishing on the seamounts of the Nasca Ridge


Several specimens of hammerhead shark in the middle of other species.

The biodiversity of the Nasca Ridge. Alex Rush / Shutterstock

A few days ago, the Peruvian people went to the polls to elect a new president, a position that has been filled by four different people in the last three years.

The result was predictably polarizing and indeterminate.

Of the 18 candidates who competed, far-left union leader Pedro Castillo and right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori obtained the highest number of votes - 19.09% for Castillo and 13.5% for Fujimori - and the two will meet in a runoff on June 6. of June.

Francisco Sagasti, the current president of Peru, did not compete in the elections.

He came to power last year after the hasty vacancy of Martín Vizcarra and the subsequent resignation of Manuel Merino.

With a 34% approval in January, just two months into his term, Sagasti has had a complicated mandate.

But Peru and the history books have not closed for President Sagasti.

Today he faces a monumental decision that will impact the health and biodiversity of the ocean, and with it the well-being of millions of people of various generations.

As one of the world's leading fishing nations, Peru's fate is clearly tied to the health of its ocean, making it both paradoxical and disappointing that it lags so far behind the rest of the world in marine protection.

Peru currently protects less than 0.5% of its sea, well below neighbors such as Ecuador, which protects 13% of its marine surface, and Chile, one of the global leaders in this matter, with 42%.

This can change dramatically soon, just one signature is enough, depending on the decision Sagasti makes in relation to the Dorsal de Nasca National Reserve.

For two years, public servants, scientists, members of the fishing sector and civil society organizations have worked together to create the Nasca Dorsal National Reserve. This proposal would create a five million hectare marine protected area, located in the Peruvian portion of the Nasca Ridge, a huge underwater mountain range that has been called a "priority area for global biodiversity conservation" in a recent article in a of the most relevant scientific publications in the world. The process included the participation and advice of expert scientists, and, thanks to that, came to a balanced, equitable and technically sound proposal.

Unfortunately, the Government, under pressure from the fishing industry, introduced changes to the proposal at the last minute that would allow deep-sea fishing on the seamounts of the Nasca Ridge, right in the area that has been identified as having the greatest protection. , as well as industrial fishing on the sea surface. These changes, in addition to putting at risk precisely the seamounts that the reserve tries to protect, would put at risk Peru's ability to comply with its international commitments, by not complying with the IUCN standards for protected areas. This would transform the Nasca Ridge into a "paper park", protected only in name, and leaving threats to the ecosystem intact.

In the months left to him in power, Sagasti faces a decision: he can protect the mountains of the Dorsal de Nasca National Reserve, which are globally important and relevant to the well-being of millions of Peruvians, or he can, as others have done in his position before him, succumbing to the interests and greed of the fishing industry that often acts, in Peru as in many parts of the world, as if the sea were its property.

By ensuring that the Nasca Dorsal National Reserve is protected from destructive commercial fishing, Sagasti would raise the proportion of the Peruvian sea that has protection to almost 8%, one step away from its international commitments, while establishing a conservation legacy for his brief term in office.

The oceans are threatened all over the world.

The Nasca Dorsal National Reserve offers a rare opportunity to protect a globally important marine habitat for the long-term benefit of Peru.

The clock is ticking and the end of the Sagasti administration is near.

We encourage you to make the right decision and to make history.

César Gaviria

is former President of Colombia and former Secretary General of the Organization of American States

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-04-30

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