For the 61% of the ocean that lies in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the development of a new international agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is now underway (BBNJ agreement): the UN’s Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic meant the postponement of the culmination of these negotiations until 2021; so, in order to maintain momentum during this period, DOSI and IUCN hosted a series of webinars tackling specific areas of the High Seas Treaty.
Building ambition for the High Seas Treaty: June IUCN/DOSI webinar series. You can now watch them here:
Webinar 1 – Marine Genetic Resources
Webinar 2 – Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) / Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs)
Webinar 3 – Marine Protected Areas and other Area Based Management Tools
Webinar 4 – EIAs & climate change.
Webinar 5 – Key tools to strengthen ocean resilience
Webinar 6 – Fishing in the Twilight Zone, Illuminating challenges at the next fisheries frontier
The goal of the six sessions was for all to better understand the High Seas Treaty, to address potential points of divergence, and to build ambition for the Treaty. Presenters included DOSI Executives Lisa Levin (co-lead of the Climate Change working group), Kristina Gjerde and Harriet Harden-Davies (co-lead of BBNJ working group).