Progress report for
Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS)
Achievement at a glance
The Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) designates all ocean space north of the Arctic Circle as an international marine protected area, thereby ensuring protection in perpetuity from all exploitation and militarization. MAPS safeguards the vulnerable ecosystem that keeps our planet cool, and catalyzes a global shift to renewable energy. MAPS also encourages countries and businesses to pivot from short-term profit for a few to supporting the long-term good of all.To realize MAPS immediately, Parvati Foundation has created the MAPS Treaty as an addendum to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, translated it into the six official languages of the UN, and provided it to all 193 UN member states. We have brought it to COP21, 22, 23, 24 and 25, as well as UNGA 72, 73 and 74, and UNEA-4. With the signatures of 99 countries, the MAPS Treaty enters into force. It has already been signed by Samoa and the Cook Islands and other countries are following suit.
MAPS has been endorsed by a growing SignMAPS.org coalition that includes scientific luminaries like Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Roger Payne.
Challenges faced in implementation
For millions of years, the ice of the Arctic Ocean has kept our planet cool. But today, it is melting rapidly, threatening all life on Earth. The oldest and thickest ice has declined by 95%. The result is more frequent and intense weather events around the world, which threaten global food production and water supplies for everyone. Poverty and disease create climate refugees, leading to humanitarian and environmental disasters of catastrophic proportions. There is no place on Earth that is not adversely affected.  Yet, despite its pivotal role in regulating our global climate, the melting Arctic Ocean is under threat as never before from exploitation, which would exacerbate suffering worldwide. Scientists have warned that Arctic seabed oil and gas must stay buried to limit global warming to 2C or less. But multiple companies are planning oil and gas operations above the Arctic Circle. Commercial shipping is already happening, with more routes planned, harming the remaining sea ice we depend on for our survival. Fishing with trawlers is already happening, with more commercial fishing planned, damaging the seabed and critical ecosystem. Military presence is building up in ways not seen since the Cold War, creating political unrest.  Taking economic and military advantage of the Arctic Ocean in its current state of emergency breaks up the fragile ice that remains and inhibits the essential restructuring of new ice. Simply put, exploitation of the vulnerable Arctic Ocean is not compatible with life on Earth. This is a humanitarian and environmental crisis that threatens our very survival. The greatest challenge in realizing MAPS lies in shifting the mindsets of those who seek to exploit the Arctic Ocean for short-term personal gain, at the expense of the long-term health and wellbeing of all.
Beneficiaries
MAPS is for everyone. What is happening in the Arctic Ocean is an ecological and humanitarian crisis, with implications for all life on Earth. The Arctic glaciers and sea ice are the air conditioning system for our planet. As sea ice is lost due to anthropogenic climate change and human activities, the exposed water absorbs 90% of the suns radiation, further heating up the ocean water and breaking down this air conditioner. Parts of the Arctic ocean are now 4 degrees Celsius too warm, and scientists predict that we may have ice-free summers as early as 2026. Arctic glaciers are melting at a rate of 14,000 tons per second, which is adding precipitously to sea level rise, thereby threatening the hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal cities.
By ensuring the Arctic Ocean is not accessible to commercial shipping, fishing, or military traffic, MAPS protects remaining sea ice from being broken up and befouled, and provides a safe haven, and the possibility, for new ice to form. Furthermore, by prohibiting exploration and extraction of Arctic seabed oil and gas, MAPS will keep an estimated 148 trillion kilograms of CO2 emissions from being released into the atmosphere. With a single vast and comprehensive initiative, MAPS helps achieve almost every single United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, protecting all life on Earth now, and for generations to come.
Actions
The current global humanitarian and ecological crisis of the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice is a symptom of our lost connection with ourselves, each other and our world. The actions of the one affect the whole, and plans to exploit the precious, vulnerable Arctic Ocean for its resources, threaten all life. To produce a global reawakening to our inherent interconnection in these urgent times, Parvati Foundation has created its multi-faceted GEM (Global Education for MAPS). At each level, GEM informs and educates about the crisis of the melting Arctic sea ice; it reinforces that no matter where we live on Earth, we are directly impacted; and it declares that there is an immediate, practical and effective response found in MAPS. Using a variety of different messaging in order to reach the broadest audiences possible, Parvati Foundation has launched three campaigns in support of GEM. Finding Your Inner Peace Sanctuary is an invitation to change the way we think about ourselves, each other and the world, to inspire action for MAPS. Our Superpower reminds people everywhere that we are inescapably and wholly interconnected with nature. Taking action to protect the world through supporting the protection of the Arctic Ocean, is in fact, taking action to protect ourselves. Why MAPS is a series of 11 thought-provoking graphics with impactful messaging that explains in no uncertain terms why MAPS must be realized now for our very survival.