Countries Hope to Bring the BBNJ Treaty or High Seas Treaty

March 9, 2024

Context:

Recently the Blue Leaders High-Level Event on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction was held in Belgium.

Key Highlights On BBNJ Treaty Or High Seas Treaty

Objective: The event was held to urge nations to ratify a new treaty to protect the high seas from pollution, climate change and overfishing.
The Blue Leaders High-Level Event on BBNJ: It decided to use the United Nations Ocean Conference to be held in 2025 as a platform to bring the BBNJ Treaty into force.
Participating countries: Belgium, Cape Verde, Greece, Monaco, Nigeria, Norway and the United Kingdom participated in the event.
India’s position: India is yet to sign the BBNJ treaty. However, it called on efforts for entry into force and implementation of the treaty at the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration held in September 2023.

BBNJ Treaty: Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

It is an 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 also known as the “Treaty of the High Seas”.
Adoption:The agreement was adopted by consensus at the 5th BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference in New York on 19 June 2023
Secretariat BBJN: Brussels.
Signatories: At present 88 countries are signatories to the treaty with two countries ie. Chile and Palau have ratified it.
- The BBNJ treaty will “enter into force” when at least 60 countries ratify it.
The agreement will be closed for signature on September 20, 2025. This means countries have given their consent to be bound to it and after the deadline,countries can no longer sign but still can accede to the treaty, which has the same legal status as ratification.
Provisions of the treaty:
- Establish Marine Protected areas in High seas: To achieve the target of effective conservation of 30% of land and sea by 2030, agreed within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Benefits sharing of marine genetic resources:The treaty ensures that profits from marine genetic resources (MGR) ie. materials of plant, animal or microbes are shared equitably and fairly.
- Rules for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA): It is to identify and evaluate the potential impacts of certain activity could have on the ocean For example, Carbon sequestration or deep-sea mining will now have to do EIAs.
- Foresees capacity building and the transfer of marine technology between the Parties

High Seas:

The high seas are areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the exclusive economic zones of coastal countries as defined in the 1958 Geneva Convention
Common Good: They lie beyond the jurisdiction of any one country and no country is responsible for managing or protecting its resources.
Extent: The high seas comprise 64 percent of the ocean surface, and about 43 per cent of the Earth.
Protection status: Despite covering more than two-thirds of the global ocean, only 1.44 per cent of the high seas are protected.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS:

Adoption: It came into force in 1982.
It lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources.
Role:
- It defines the rights and duties of countries in the oceans, the extent of ocean areas over which countries could claim sovereignty, and the legal status of marine resources.
- It also specified a set of general rules for a range of activities in the oceans including navigation, scientific research, and deep-sea mining.

Also Read: PM Unveil Blueprint For Maritime Blue Economy

News source: DTE

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