IUCN World Conservation Congress strengthens global resolve to end deep-sea destruction

Reflections on the wins and momentum generated for the deep at the Congress.

By Matthew Gianni

Earlier this month, governments, scientists, Indigenous peoples’ organizations, civil society organizations, and academic institutions from around the world came together at the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Abu Dhabi and delivered major victories for the deep. 

Notably, the Congress adopted Motion 32 to protect seamounts, proposed by WWF Australia, supported by the DSCC and championed by France and Canada, with support from Germany and Pacific Island States. This motion builds on years of advocacy by the DSCC and our members and partners to protect the deep from destructive bottom contact fishing practices and safeguard our ocean’s vital lifelines – seamounts. These unique underwater mountains, teeming with extraordinary life often found nowhere else on Earth, are still targeted by bottom trawlers, which can turn ancient coral forests into rubble in a single sweep. IUCN members’ emphatic endorsement of a transition away from bottom trawling on seamounts by the end of 2026 sends a strong signal to the few remaining countries and high seas fisheries management organizations that this is a vital and achievable step governments must now take to safeguard some of the ocean’s most unique and vulnerable ecosystems.

The adoption of Motion 32, which will now become a recommendation, was decisive, with over 95% of IUCN members voting in its favour, reflecting broad recognition that ending bottom trawling on vulnerable marine ecosystems in our deep sea is a global priority.

WCC also saw the adoption of other motions that will be pivotal in protecting the deep. Motion 35, proposed by DSCC member the Marine Conservation Institute, was adopted to protect the mesopelagic zone (200-1000 meters in depth) – a vital part of our ocean making up only 20% of its total volume, but sustaining 50-90% of our ocean’s life. This ocean “twilight zone” plays a critical role in maintaining the health of our global ocean through daily vertical migrations of organisms, supporting vast oceanic webs of life, which serve a key function for our survival by drawing down carbon from the surface waters of the ocean and locking it away in the deep sea. 

The DSCC has a proud history of engagement with the IUCN, playing a pivotal role in driving progress to conserve and protect the deep ocean through IUCN motions and resolutions. The DSCC worked with the European Parliament in 2018, together with DSCC member Seas at Risk, and the European Union’s distant-water fishing industry in 2019, both of which adopted resolutions calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters. Building on these resolutions, and the DSCC’s own position statement calling for a moratorium, the DSCC proposed and helped to secure the adoption of the first-ever global call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining at the 2021 World Conservation Congress in Marseille. Working with our members Fauna & Flora International, WWF, NRDC, Marine Conservation Institute, Fundacion Marviva, and others, the DSCC built broad support amongst the member organizations of IUCN to recognise deep-sea mining as one of the greatest threats to ocean health, placing deep-sea mining squarely on the international conservation agenda. This motion, now Resolution 122, has since catalysed a wave of global action. 

Since 2021, 40 governments now formally support a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, along with many banks, insurance companies, tech companies, manufacturers of electric vehicles and other green transition technologies, international organizations, fishers’ associations, civil society organizations, Indigenous peoples’ organizations, and almost 1000 marine scientists and policy experts. 

The tide is turning for the deep. With global consensus from governments and civil society at the World Conservation Congress to defend the deep, governments must now translate this ambition into swift, decisive action at the United Nations and international regulatory bodies to protect the ocean’s most fragile and vital ecosystems for present and future generations.