About
The ocean is a vast space, with the high seas (the ocean area starting beyond a country’s exclusive economic zone) covering nearly half the planet and nearly two thirds of the ocean. While protections have existed under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other ocean-related resolutions, conventions and agreements, for the first time in history, an agreement will be focused exclusively on the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources in the high seas.
In June 2023, the United Nations formally adopted a historic agreement designed to protect life in the high seas, which is increasingly under threat from pollution, climate change and overfishing. During the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, 80 countries and the EU signed the Agreement, taking it a step closer to entering into force. This agreement is called the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, otherwise known as the BBNJ Agreement.
Why Does it Matter?
For the first time, the pact extends environmental protections to the two-thirds of the ocean that lie beyond national jurisdictions. The BBNJ Agreement creates a cohesive framework for governance and decision-making in international waters, and for the first time will enable countries to apply area-based planning and management tools, including marine protected areas, outside national jurisdiction.
Among other things, it will allow for the creation of marine protected areas – safe havens for fish, plants and other vulnerable species – and the use of other so-called "area-based management tools" to more sustainably manage ocean resources.
The BBNJ Agreement offers an updated framework to The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that came into force in 1994.
The new agreement comes with the ocean, which plays a vital role in everything from the economy to regulating the climate, labouring under a triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Its entry into force will also accelerate the accomplishment of many other SDGs - as world leaders stated in ‘Our ocean, our future: call to action’ at the first UN Ocean Conference - because ‘our ocean is critical to our shared future and common humanity in all its diversity’, playing a vital role in climate regulation, food security and nutrition, peace and justice and more.
What We Do
The BBNJ Agreement officially opened for signing and ratification at the UN General Assembly on 20 September 2023, making it possible to achieve SDG14 across the entire ocean and deliver Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to protect at least 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030.
UN Member States, civil society and others are working to urge at least 60 countries to sign and ratify the Agreement as soon as possible so that it can enter into force, and action can be expedited to create marine protected areas, introduce environmental impact assessments for human activities in the high seas, ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources and build the capacity of countries to implement the agreement.
The race for ratification of the BBNJ Agreement is the perfect example of how, by working together around the world, we can accelerate action to deliver the SDGs.
