60 nations must ratify the Treaty of the High Seas to protect Earth's oceans

Climate Change: 100+ nations signified their intent, but only 14 have ratified the treaty. Only 8 percent of our oceans are currently considered protected.

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By Teresa Tomassoni
November 16, 2024

For the Indigenous Rapa Nui people who live on Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, the high seas have played an integral role in their daily lives for at least two thousand years. These ocean areas that extend beyond any one country’s national jurisdiction connect their small island—which they also call Rapa Nui—in the South Pacific to their nearest neighbors, all of which are at least 2,000 miles away, including mainland Chile and the Galapagos islands. 

“The high seas are in our DNA,” said Rapa Nui ocean advocate Sebastián Yankovic Pakarati. “It’s where our ancestors, our gods and traditional foods come from,” he said in Cali, Colombia kicking off an event held within the margins of the world’s largest biodiversity summit, the United …