UN High Seas Treaty ratification draws close amid marine nutrition scarcity concerns

25 Jun 2024 --- The final countdown to the ratification of a High Seas Treaty to protect Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) has begun, signaling nations to secure 60 ratifications for it to enter force by June 2025 at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in France. The High Seas is the least protected area on Earth, with around 1.5% thoroughly conserved. The High Seas Alliance is spearheading a campaign to push the ratifications along and Nutrition Insight caught up with its director.

“The High Seas make up around two-thirds of our global ocean, which is the support system for all life on Earth. It drives a functioning water cycle, has absorbed over 90% of human-caused excess global heating, which would result in over 32 C degrees hotter air temperature,” Rebecca Hubbard, professor of Biostatistics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, US and director of the High Seas Alliance, tells us.

“It is the largest natural source of organic carbon and supports billions of lives through food provision, jobs and well-being. We all rely on the High Seas even if we have never seen the sea.”

 Conservationists have worked tirelessly for 20 years to bring an international law to fruition that will better manage crucial resources in the High Seas, often characterized as “a lawless wilderness.” According to Hubbard, a range of regulatory bodies have been poorly managing ocean biodiversity.

“The lack of coordination, fragmented coverage and dearth of clear rules on how to effectively protect this global common has left it vulnerable to overexploitation and pollution, compounded by the effects of climate change. While UNCLOS established a general obligation on nations to protect the marine environment, there have been major gaps in its provisions and their implementation,” she says.

Consequences for nutrition
UN member states formally adopted the Treaty in June 2023. The countdown began ahead of UN member states convening at the headquarters in New York, US, this week to plan for the Treaty’s entry into force at the first Preparatory Commission BBNJ Agreement meeting between 24–26 June. 

The High Seas, which refer to the ocean beyond countries’ maritime borders, cover half the planet and regulate the climate by absorbing about 30% of the CO2 produced by humans annually. While this vast area supports critically endangered ecosystems, a lack of governance has left it vulnerable to human overexploitation. 

Having a formal Treaty is a critical step to securing international goals to reverse the most pressing effects of climate change. One of the critical targets is to protect 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030, which was agreed during the UN Biodiversity Summit of 2022.Without an international Treaty the high seas can be exploited with abandon robbing millions of vital nutrition. 

Hubbard explains: “Protecting marine biodiversity and ecosystems supports healthy fish populations, which are needed if we are to have secure and sustainable sources of fish protein for people into the future. Many marine species in the High Seas breed or live for part of their lives in coastal waters, so ensuring that they have increased protection on the High Seas will increase their chances of survival and conservation in nearshore waters.”

 She points out that there have been incidents where fisheries management has failed at national and international levels to sustainably manage fish populations, negatively impacting locals who rely on those fish for nutrition. 

“High Seas Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a key complementary tool to sustainable fisheries management. If underpinned by independent science, traditional knowledge and cultural values, respect of local communities and transparent monitoring and enforcement of rules, they can result in a system of marine protection and management that both protects marine biodiversity and supports communities,” says Hubbard.

“Once the High Seas Treaty has been ratified by at least 60 countries and enters into force as an international law, it will support people who depend on fish for nutrition because it will complement their local management conservation measures in supporting healthy marine ecosystems, healthy fish populations and minimizing damaging activities to the ocean.” 

Earlier this year, a marine food production systems study by researchers from the University of Bergen, Norway, revealed an alarming trend where the global number of fishers has steadily risen since the 1990s despite considerable technological advancements. 

Marine protected areas
The High Seas Treaty needs to be ratified by 60 countries to come into effect. It will be the first global international law to mandate the conservation and management of biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions, enabling the establishment of marine protected areas in the High Seas and the regulation of potentially harmful activities using detailed environmental impact assessments.

Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF-US) launched the Oceans Futures platform to identify marine areas at the highest risk for future conflict.

Once 60 countries have ratified the Treaty, starting a 120-day countdown to its entry into force. Within one year of its entry into force, a Conference of the Parties meeting must be held to make decisions about the Treaty.The High Seas Alliance will help rally support to ratify the High Seas Treaty in time for next year’s UNOC3 meeting in France.

“At these COP meetings, countries will be able to propose MPAs, receive applications for activities that may instigate an environmental impact assessment and have meetings of the various committees, which will review other activities and decisions on the High Seas,” Hubbard underscores.

“For example, if a company is conducting research into marine genetic resources in the High Seas, they will need to make that data available to a Clearing House Mechanism, which will then make it available to all parties to the High Seas Treaty.” 

“Essentially, once the High Seas Treaty enters into force, we can start to better protect biodiversity, more cautiously manage damaging activities and more equitably share the benefits from resources in our shared High Seas.”

So far, 90 nations have signed the Treaty, and many are currently undergoing the ratification process. However, since the Treaty was adopted, only seven countries — Palau, Chile, Belize, Seychelles, Monaco, Mauritius and the Federal States of Micronesia — have formally ratified it.

 According to the High Seas Alliance, political momentum is still building and 34 nations are committed to securing the ratifications needed.  

The power to protect 
Once the Treaty has been ratified, governments, regulatory bodies and conservationists will be able to create protected areas on the High Seas. These will be dedicated to protecting biodiversity and can include the management, restriction or prohibition of certain damaging activities. 

“It will also enable us to step up protections across the High Seas by setting out more consistent assessments of human activities that could cause harm to life in these vast ocean areas,” Hubbard notes.

“The conservation community regards the High Seas as a continuation of our coastal and national waters. While they may seem a long way away to many people, there are no borders in the ocean, and what happens in the high seas can affect what happens in our coastal waters and our atmosphere,” she concludes.

Meanwhile, coastal communities in developing nations rely on small-scale fisheries for 15–30% of their nutrient intake. However, researchers from WWF, University of California Santa Barbara and Harvard University found that an average of 50% of these people have an inadequate intake of essential nutrients.

By Inga de Jong