20 Jun 2023

The world’s first international treaty to protect the high seas was adopted at the United Nations on Monday 19th June. The commonly referred to ‘High Seas Treaty’, or more fully the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ / ABNJ), is the legal framework that aims to ensure the conservation and […]

21 Feb 2023

After more than 15 years of formal and informal talks, this is the third time in less than a year that negotiators have converged on New York in what, yet again, is supposed to be a final and conclusive round of negotiations aimed at reaching a treaty to protect vast areas of the world’s ocean. […]

22 Mar 2022

The United Nations failed to finalise a landmark treaty to preserve the biodiversity of the high seas – the 60% of the ocean beyond any nation’s jurisdiction. Observers, though, expect an agreement to be reached by year’s end as pressure builds to protect marine life from the growing impacts of climate change, overfishing and pollution, reports Bloomberg. The two-week meeting […]

20 Aug 2018

It is an Area Beyond National Jurisdiction and important for many marine species and this is an interesting development given the interest in securing greater protection for the high seas. The OSPAR Commission has agreed to seek views of on the site nomination proforma for the proposed ‘North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Seamount Marine Protected […]