Protecting the World’s Oceans: A collection of personal accounts

Harry Wright (Co-Deputy Chair of UNA-WYP) is founder of The Conservation Project, a unique charity which aims to use collaborative ideas to ensure environmental conservation. Below are some testimonials from the project’s important staff, and why they believe their mission is so important.

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“Do we really care so little about the earth on which we live that we don’t wish to protect its greatest wonder from the consequences of our own behaviour” Sir David Attenborough

 Harry Wright: Lawyer and founder of The Conservation Project 

For thousands of years the world’s oceans have held a special place in our imagination. Without them life would never have evolved.

Today some 4 billion years after they were formed, our oceans continue to dictate life on earth. They flow over nearly three quarters of our planet, hold 97% of the planets water, regulate the earth’s climate and weather systems and produce half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Nearly 3 billion people rely on fish as a major source of protein and they generate economic benefits worth over $3.2 trillion annually.

Tragically this most precious of assets is under greater threat. As the human population exceeds 7 billion, our oceans are struggling to cope. We have lost 49% of our marine vertebrates since 1970, three quarters of the planets fish stocks are depleted and only 3.4% of the ocean is protected.  At the current rate of decline we will lose the world’s entire coral reef systems by 2050 and there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

Our oceans are the most precious thing we have, by jeopardising the future of our oceans we are also putting our own future in balance.

Tom Rainey: Adventurer and Olympic Sailor  

The Ocean to me is a living animal, the absolute mother of the world. She can change in an instance and swallow you up good and proper, but treated right and you’ll be blessed with the most soulful experience. I work and play in the seas of the world, rowing, sailing and surfing the salty waters filled with animals that continue to amaze us all. The connections I’ve made with the deep dwellers will stay with me for life, especially with those of the true seadogs– the grand old turtle.  For me, what makes the ocean so special though, above all is that it’s the resting place for my dad. I know he’s out there taking on the waves like a true captain and I’ll continue to join him for the rest of my life. I just hope and pray that the world will appreciate how important and lucky we are to be blessed with such incredible oceans, and especially the mind blowing creatures that live within them.

Tom Young: Surf Photographer

The feeling I get when floating in the ocean, is like no other. It’s a constant reminder of how insignificant I am and how powerful Mother Nature is, a force not to be reckoned with. As a surf photographer, I’ve travelled extensively and documented hundreds of waves across the globe. This has been a real eye-opening experience. I’ve swam in some of the clearest waters in Tasmania and also dodged rubbish in some of the filthiest water I’ve ever seen in Indonesia. This is a sign of the times, a depressing reminder that we need to do more to protect our beautiful planet and prevent its rapid decline before it’s too late.

Abi Croker: Ecology and Conservation student

The ocean, that seemingly infinitely bountiful, ever awe inspiring blue, covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface. Yet despite the enormous benefits that the ocean brings to us, we ignore the ever increasing issues that are affecting a very large number of the earth’s species.

Coral reefs support approximately 25% of all marine life yet only cover less than 1% of the ocean floor leading to many believing that they are the most biodiverse biome in the world. These magical reef systems have survived for thousands of years but cannot sustain the current rates of climate change. Scientists have recently predicted that a quarter of the world’s coral reefs have been ‘damaged beyond repair’ due to an unprecedented increase in anthropogenic impacts. Staggeringly, 93% of the entire Great Barrier Reef is now severely damaged through coral bleaching.

In the future there is the potential that we will lose one of the most diverse biomes on the planet. This needs to be stopped through people getting involved in marine conservation and educating others on how they can live more sustainably.

Together we can all help make a difference, before it’s too late.

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If you would like to help or learn more visit The Conservation Project today or join their Facebook page

You can also follow Tom Young on Facebook to view some more amazing shots.

Passionate about film and current affairs? Then check out The We The Peoples Film Festival!

Since 2006, The We The Peoples Film Festival has captivated audiences from around the world by inspiring individuals with its astonishing films on human rights, international development, security and peace. The festival initiated the UK’s first peace-themed film season and has screened over 150 films, becoming the world’s first festival of films on international development by young directors.

The festival seeks to raise awareness about the UN’s Three Pillars of Freedom and the Millennium Goals as well as inspire new audiences to make a positive difference to people’s lives in the UK and across the world. The United Nations Association Westminster Branch is proud to sponsor such a great event.

The festival this year will run from the 7^th to the 20^th of November and screen a number of powerful films covering issues ranging from the Syrian crisis to the genocide in Rwanda. The opening night will be held at the prestigious Century Club on Shaftsbury Avenue and the subsequent screenings will be held at venues around Central London.

The trailer for the 2016 WTPFF

For full details about the Festival’s schedule and how to register, please visit here: http://www.wethepeoples.org.uk/programme_2016.html

You can also follow the festival on Facebook and twitter to remain up-to-date!

The myth of a ‘less nasty’ form of FGM

In June The Economist met with a great deal of controversy for its piece “An agonising choice”, which advocated replacing total abolition campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with promotion of “the least nasty version”. This meant instead of advocating for a blanket ban of FGM activists should instead encourage parents to choose to have their daughters undergo a ‘symbolic nicking’ in place of more severe forms of FGM such as infibulation or excision. Unsurprisingly, advocates and NGOs were quick to condemn the piece, with CEO of the FGM Charity the Orchid project calling it a “highly regressive step” that “puts discussion back by decades”.

The response to the piece in such a prominent and influential publication has placed renewed emphasis on the ‘medicalisation’ debate surrounding FGM. Medicalised FGM, as defined by the World Health Organisation, refers to FGM procedures carried out anywhere by a health care provider, with broader definitions by groups such as ‘28 Too Many’ also including actions taken to only minimise the health risks of FGM such as facilitation of access to medical equipment or training. Most relevantly to the Economist’s piece, another key component of their medicalisation definition is replacing severe forms of FGM with “more symbolic types of cutting to reduce the health complications”.

The broader definition that ’28 Too Many’ provides hits the nail on the head when it comes to facing the challenges of FGM and how to best combat them. Whilst it is clear that the terrible risks of infection or, in worse cases, death are some of the worst outcomes surrounding FGM medicalisation campaigners fail to tackle the key nature of the issues involved. The Economist piece makes passive acknowledgment to the “good arguments” for a blanket ban; that medical procedures with no health benefit are arguably unethical and that there is revulsion at the’ misogynist roots’ of the practice which is often done to make women appear pure and desirable to men. However, the author actually fails to make reference to the key point which underpins the issue, which was highlighted recently by the UNFPA chief Dr Babatunde Osotimehin. All types of FGM violate a young women’s human right to their own body and by extension, can be called a form of child abuse.

Medicalised FGM has been a trend in recent years which campaigners and governments have been trying to combat, admittedly with mixed success. This has come in part as an unintended result of previous FGM campaigns that primarily focused on health risks, as some development practitioners have tried to reduce harm to women through infection or botched medical procedures by facilitating the use of clean equipment and staff training. Whilst these actions have come from a compassionate desire to protect young girls from harm many say the short-term nature of the approach has inadvertently leant legitimacy to the practice and the impression that, when done medically, FGM is safe and routine.

This is far from the truth, as just in May an entire hospital in Cairo was shut down by the Government after 17 year old Manar Moussa died undergoing FGM secretly by two medically trained doctors. Egypt, where an estimated 95% of women have undergone some form of FGM according to a 2005 study, introduced a law passed in 2008 forbidding FGM in all forms and saw its first prosecution under the law in 2013 when 13 year old Soheir El Batei was killed undergoing the procedure. Initially found not guilty, after campaigning by anti-FGM groups the girls’ father, who had forced her to have the procedure, and the doctor who carried it out were both arrested for manslaughter.

Whilst the author of the Economist’s piece claims that the prevalence of FGM in current times demonstrates that blanket ban policies are not working, they overlook the rapid progress which has been made in recent years. FGM has recently begun to lose its taboo and the public is more prepared to discuss it openly, with the Guardian calling 2015 “the year the world woke up” to FGM thanks to the campaigning efforts of people such as Bristol campaigner Fahma Mohamed and the BAFTA nominated “The Cruel Cut” documentary by survivor Leyla Hussein. More governments are also legislating and prosecuting every year, with 50 arrests made in Uganda in 2014 alone. The prevalence that still exists may in fact be an outcome of ‘harm reduction’ strategies from earlier years. To return to this emphasis is dangerous and apathetic, and one must wonder if the author would find ‘less nasty’ forms of FGM so harmless if they or a woman in their life were to undergo it.

Medicalising FGM does not guarantee safety, as the high numbers of women who have died by the hands of health care professionals (two in one week in August alone) reflects. Whilst it is often sourced in a desire to protect women’s health it risks being short-sighted, ignoring the huge psychological impact upon women and the difficulties still caused in later life from physical complications which affect menstrual cycles, sexual health and fertility.

The same month that Mannar Moussa died undergoing an FGM procedure in Cairo the national TV network of Saudi Arabia aired a video on how to ‘properly and humanely’ beat and discipline one’s wife. The video and its misdirected approach to the ‘humane treatment of women’ was rightly met with ridicule and condemnation. So too should arguments for medicalised FGM. The video equally misses the point, that a women’s right to the body, and by extension their life, is fundamentally the crux of the issue at hand. “Harm reduction strategies” may lessen the amount of blood spilt but do little to protect the rights of young women by guarding against the psychological scarring and physical complications that the procedure entails. It also perpetuates the idea that a woman’s right to their body is not their own. As best put by the Orchid’s project petition “belief in a ‘safer’ cut through medicalisation or a ‘lesser’ cut, does not constitute progress” as “lives are at risk and rights continue to be violated.” 2015 might have been the year woke up, but we must ensure that 2016 isn’t they year we apathetically pressed the snooze button by failing to tackle the issue at its core.

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