R19: Protection of the South Atlantic Ecosystems

Important initiative.

While this resolution presents what is perhaps the most viable method of addressing this important problem in the current state of the world (see R15) it is unwieldy and cumbersome. It would have been easier to address this problem effectively if there was effective global governance (See R16 and R17)

The "Reason" section was deleted in the review process. It's important for context:

1) The Green Party of Argentina makes an appeal against the situation that threatens the ecosystem in the South Atlantic, from the limit corresponding to the coasts of southern Brazil, Uruguay, mainly Argentina, which corresponds to the largest Atlantic extension of All the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, given their projection towards the Antarctic corresponds to the richest fishing ground on the planet, at present.

In the Atlantic extension that projects the waters of the Argentine sea and of our territory that extends towards Antarctica, the theft of marine resources through the exercise of unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the most serious on the entire planet. Its consequences affect our marine resources and those of the Atlantic Ocean, in general, due to their interconnection through the continuous movement of species and the survival dynamics of marine fauna.

Asian, particularly Chinese, and European fleets, among others, are responsible for this irreparable damage for influencing the extinction of species, besides, unregulated fishing has crew members who are workers subjected to practices contrary to human rights, in addition to those ordered by the International Labor Organization.

Fishing is done mostly outside of the satellite tracking system, because such vessels turn it off, in general. At the end of the 1990s, these fleets became avid, numerous Chinese fishing boats were incorporated, especially off the Argentine Patagonian coast. There are more than 400 vessels in the South Atlantic and a little less in the
South Pacific dedicated to squid fishing.

The Chinese fleet is the largest, notwithstanding the fact that fleets from Taiwan, South Korea and Spain fish, which are the largest in the surrounding South American waters. Off Patagonia there are between 550 to 600 boats.

The Chinese fleet is subsidized in fuel, satellite technology and assistance to detect controls and not be observed, and the construction of fishing boats. International claims are constant and the work of the Argentine Navy to try to prevent this crime against fishing resources does not stop hundreds of Chinese vessels that are fishing illegally in the Argentine sea; this poaching could deplete the species of toothy squid in this area.

The InSight Crime study, with the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies of the American University (CLALS), discovers that the Asian country's boats carry out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing 201 nautical miles from the coast, which it is the limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) line and in international waters and they catch tons of squid. Hundreds of these boats use maneuvers and violate the limit to continue fishing outside the allowed zone.

The head of the Argentine Naval Maritime Observatory, Daniel Coluccio, published that "beyond mile 200 there is no control" and these boats take the opportunity to fish there "what they can day and night", for which he considered that "at some point the resource will decrease. When Coluccio listens to the radio at sea, the messages are in Portuguese, Russian and, above all, Chinese.

The Argentine marine shelf provides fertile feeding grounds for life below water and also has a relatively shallow depth of 200 meters. There are large amounts of plankton there, and southern cod, or toothfish, lobster, squid, and other valuable species thrive. These fishing vessels use trawl nets, which are not used at 5,000, 6,000 meters,
but are used at 200, 250 meters”.

The environmental impacts are not only limited to overfishing, but also to the capture of endangered species, marine mammals, shark finning, tons of waste and oil that are dumped into the sea without any control. To human rights, all the semi-slave work of this fleet, the impacts on the health and situation of these
crew members is very serious, to the social and economic aspects of the countries of the region, on their fishing economies since this fleet operates in the same resources needed for local artisanal fleets. This harms the entire marine ecosystem because the squid or squid is one of the most important species in the entire ocean food chain, which is at the center of the food chain of the entire Pacific and South Atlantic ecosystem.

The ecosystem is threatened and the danger is serious.

2) The "Question of the Malvinas Islands", a dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, has been present in the United Nations since the very origins of this organization.

At the San Francisco conference, the Argentine delegation presented a reservation of rights according to which the Argentine Republic did not accept, in any case, that the Trusteeship system – which supervised the administration, with a view to its independence, of the so-called “territories non-self-governing” - may be applied to, or over, territories belonging to it, whether they are subject to claim or controversy, or are in the possession of other States.

On December 16, 1965, the General Assembly adopted resolution 2065 (XX), the first to refer exclusively to the Malvinas Islands Question, through which it recognized the existence of a sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom and invited both countries to negotiate to find a peaceful solution to the dispute. Malvinas Islands case is one of the forms of colonialism that must be ended, there is an underlying sovereignty dispute between the Argentine and British governments, and the way to find a solution is through bilateral negotiations between both governments.

After the adoption of this resolution, a bilateral negotiation process began regarding sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces, in which both Parties proposed different solution alternatives that did not reach agreement and in 1973 the General Assembly declared the need to speed up the ongoing negotiations, and urged the two governments to continue them without delay by resolution 3160 (XXVIII).

After the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, the General Assembly in November 1982 adopted resolution 37/9 that asked the two governments to resume negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute, reiterated by subsequent resolutions of the Assembly relating to the Question of the Malvinas Islands.

It is very important that the resumption of negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom respond to the need to find a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute, which includes the issue of the conservation of fishing resources and the defense of ecosystems.

3) The ocean is the source of the world systems that make the Earth a habitable place for humanity, the rain, the drinking water, the weather, the climate, the coastlines, our food, the oxygen in the air we breathe in a an immense
proportion is provided and regulated by the sea.

It is necessary to stop the attack against the fishing resources, the UN and international organizations have a commitment to their conservation. We demand that the issue be addressed at the highest level, in all forums where environmental issues are discussed.

Final text agreed on 8 June. Ready to be voted