On Monday, members of the United Nations will gather in New York City, United States to resume negotiations on a long-awaited and elusive treaty that seeks to protect the world’s marine biodiversity. Nearly two-thirds of the ocean lies outside national boundaries on the high seas, and current regulations are fragmented and unevenly enforced. The Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction is aiming to produce a unified agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of these vast marine ecosystems.
Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada’s Dalhousie University, highlighted the importance of this treaty, stating that “the ocean is the life support system of our planet” and that human activities such as deep-sea fishing, mining, plastic pollution, and climate change are having a large impact on the high seas. The UN talks will focus on key questions such as how the boundaries of marine protected areas should be drawn, how institutions should assess the environmental impacts of commercial activities, and who has the power to enforce rules. Nichola Clark, an oceans expert from the non-partisan Pew Research Center in Washington D.C., expressed optimism that this round of negotiations will be successful in producing a treaty.
The aim of the talks is not to actually designate marine protected areas, but to establish a mechanism for doing so. Marine biologist Simon Ingram from the University of Plymouth in England emphasized the urgency of this accord, noting that deep-sea mining could be a real threat to biodiversity before we’ve even been able to survey and understand what lives on the ocean floor. A global oceans treaty is needed to enforce the UN Biodiversity Conference’s recent pledge to protect 30 percent of the planet’s oceans, as well as its land, for conservation.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Monica Medina said that the treaty was a priority for her country. Officials, environmentalists, and representatives of global industries that depend on the sea are also closely following negotiations. Gemma Nelson, a lawyer from Samoa who is currently an Ocean Voices fellow at the University of Edinburgh, highlighted the importance of recognizing traditional knowledge of local people and communities in order to protect both ecosystems and Indigenous ways of life. Gladys Martinez de Lemos, executive director of the non-profit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, emphasized that “half of the world is at stake these weeks at the United Nations” and that the treaty should be strong and ambitious in order to establish high and fully protected areas in the high seas.