Russia has been accused of blocking the creation of the world’s largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean, with frustrated negotiators blaming diplomatic tensions over the war in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

Delegates to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in Hobart said Russia’s obstructionist position on conservation in the Antarctic took a sharp negative turn at this year’s conference. “Everything was nyet,” said one negotiator.

The commission has now failed to come to an agreement on protecting more than 2.5 million sq km of sea off the coast of Antarctica four times in three years. The proposals are based on scientific advice that the protection of Antarctic marine ecosystems from overfishing is a key step in preserving the flagging health of the world’s oceans.

Head of the US delegation, Evan Bloom, said: “It’s really disappointing that we have once again not been able to work on what many consider to be the premier conservation issue before the organisation.”

CCAMLR is a consensus-based organisation, meaning Russia’s objection to the MPAs is alone enough to derail the proposals. Fishing nations that have been sceptical of the proposals in the past, such as Ukraine and Norway, were this year willing to accept the MPAs. But previously neutral China joined the Russians to form the last bloc of resistance to the long fought for protections.

Tony Fleming, head of the Australian delegation said he was “very disappointed” that the MPAs had failed again.

“A few nations weren’t prepared to negotiate the text of the measure, but we’ve had very frank discussions with them. The vast majority are supporting the east Antarctic proposal [put forward by Australia].”



From the outset, Russian delegates told the conference no negotiation would be possible. Delegates speculated that this was because of diplomatic tension over the Russian annexation of the Crimea and allegations that Russia was complicit in the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

Lyn Goldsworthy, an Antarctic activist and participant at the meeting, said: “Russia came into the meeting telling us that they couldn’t accept any new conservation measures because of broader geopolitics. Global tensions have stopped them from agreeing [to the MPAs].”

Other sources inside the negotiations confirmed to the Guardian that geopolitical tensions likely had some effect. “Russia said they didn’t believe that MPAs were in their interest and they didn’t believe meaningful negotiation was possible,” said one source.

Some delegates expressed privately that they felt the Ukrainian situation was a convenient excuse for Russia to push the negotiations back for another year, thus protecting its pro-fishing agenda.

The MPAs are split over two regions of the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea and the seas off eastern Antarctica. Russia was particularly opposed to the Ross Sea MPA (put forward by the US and New Zealand), which would contain a 1.25 million sq km no-take zone. The joint Australia-France-EU proposal in the east Antarctic has no mandated no-take zones, but it is intended that these would be embedded after the area is designated.

Russia indicated towards the end of the meeting that it was willing to participate in discussions to progress the east Antarctic MPA at next year’s meeting. A “glimmer of hope,” according to Goldsworthy.

Andrea Kavanagh, director of Southern Ocean conservation at Pew Environment, said the commission’s strong record of environmental stewardship was being diminished by the deadlock.

“I’d say that this year in particular there is an erosion in the conservation mission. Not because of the majority of CCAMLR, but because of a minority of countries that were able to block conservation measures,” said Kavanagh.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Richard Page agreed: “This year’s failure denigrates the reputation of CCAMLR and is symptomatic of a dangerous global trend where geopolitical interests override any genuine efforts to protect the oceans for the sake of future generations.”

The Russia delegation could not be reached at the time of publication.