Governments meeting at the United Nations in New York reached agreement late on Saturday evening on key substantive issues for a new Treaty to protect High Seas marine life - the new Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty will enable the establishment of large-scale marine protected areas on the high seas.

For the first time, the Treaty will also require assessment of the impact of economic activities on high seas biodiversity.

Developing countries will be supported in their participation in and implementation of the new treaty by a strong capacity-building and marine technology transfer component, funded from a variety of public and private sources and by an equitable mechanism for sharing the potential benefits of marine genetic resources.

The High Seas, the area of ocean that lies beyond countries’ national waters, is the largest habitat on Earth and home to millions of species. With currently just over 1% of the High Seas protected, the new Treaty will provide a pathway to establish marine protected areas in these waters.

Conclusion of the Treaty, which was agreed at the 5th Intergovernmental Conference in New York, follows more than a decade of global engagement to find solutions for this crucial global environmental issue.

Now the negotiations are over, the agreement will enter into force once it has been ratified by 60 States.

The EU and its Member States have been leading the BBNJ High Ambition Coalition which played a key role in reaching the agreement. The coalition of 52 countries are committed at the highest political level, to achieve ambitious actions for the protection of the ocean. It was launched at the One Ocean Summit 2022 in Brest by President von der Leyen together with the French Presidency of the Council.

To ensure the hard won progress is not lost, the High Seas Alliance is now calling for the UN to conclude the formalities of adoption as soon as possible in the final resumed session.

Rebecca Hubbard, Director of the High Seas Alliance commented:

“It’s been a very long journey to get to a Treaty. We will be looking to the 52 states that make up the High Ambition Coalition to lead the charge to adopt, ratify and identify important High Seas areas to protect.”

The agreement is also a key tool to help deliver the recently agreed Kunming-Montreal target of at least 30% protection of the world’s ocean by 2030 that was just agreed in December- the minimum level of protection scientists warn is necessary to ensure a healthy ocean. But time is of the essence.

Lisa Speer, Director of the International Ocean program at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) commented:

“This text provides the basis for protecting key biodiversity hotspots in the High Seas. We now have a pathway to achieve the goal of meaningfully protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, a goal that scientists tell us is crucial to maintaining ocean health in the face of ocean warming, acidification and other impacts of climate change.”

According to Susanna Fuller, VP Conservation and Projects at Oceans North, because Canada’s waters are bounded by three international ocean basins, it has an outsized role in ensuring that the Treaty is fully implemented, once formally adopted.

The new Treaty will bring ocean governance into the 21st century, including establishing modern requirements to assess and manage planned human activities that would affect marine life in the High Seas as well as ensuring greater transparency. This will greatly strengthen the effective area-based management of fishing, shipping and other activities that have contributed to the overall decline in ocean health.

The issue of sufficient financing to fund the implementation of the Treaty, as well as equity issues surrounding the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources was one of the key sticking points between North and South throughout the meeting. However, the governments were able to reach an agreement that provided for equitable sharing of these benefits from the deep sea and High Seas.

According to Andrew Deutz, Director of Global Policy, Institutions & Conservation Finance, The Nature Conservancy, the Treaty still leaves room for improvement. He commented:

“Whether this has arrived in time to slow the accelerating ecological crisis happening in our ocean will depend on how quickly countries can ratify the Treaty at national level and start mainstreaming ambitions like 30x30 into both their own decision-making, and that of the global bodies which manage human activity on the High Seas. If they can do so swiftly, putting people and planet above politics, we may yet have a chance to move beyond the damaging status quo and into a new era of nature-positive stewardship for this most critical of ecosystems.”

Click here to download the draft Treaty Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction