The high sea Treaty

                 *💧 TODAY'S INSPIRATION 💧*

Nights are short for them who love dreaming…and days are short for them who love to make their dream come true!

👉 *TODAY ONWARDS LET'S* make proper use of every second of our life to make our dream come true…

                 🍃💫🍃💫🍃💫🍃💫🍃💫🍃

A quick overview:-

The ‘Treaty of the High Seas’, also known as the ‘BBNJ Treaty’ is an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction within the framework of the UNCLOS. What does the Treaty of the High Seas say? Why is it significant? Read this article to understand . 

According to treaty on high seas  parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial waters or the internal waters of a country are known as the high seas It is the area beyond a country’s high zone that extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline) and till where a nation has jurisdiction over living and non-living resources. No country is responsible for the management and protection of resources on the high seas

Background:- 

In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), was adopted, which delineated rules to govern the oceans and the use of its resources. However, there was no comprehensive legal framework that covered the high seas.As climate change and global warming emerged as global concerns, a need was felt for an international legal framework to protect oceans and marine life. The UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) decided in 2015 to develop a legally binding instrument within the framework of UNCLOS.Subsequently, the IGC was convened to frame a legal instrument on BBNJ.There were several hold-ups due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hampering a timely global response. In 2022, the European Union launched the High Ambition Coalition on BBNJ to finalize the agreement at the earliest.

Recent Developments:- 

Recently, negotiators from almost every country finalised a global treaty meant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources in the high seas. In terms of its significance and impact, this treaty is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on cli- mate change. High seas are open ocean areas that are outside the jurisdiction of any country - the reason why the treaty is commonly known as the agreement on "biodiversity be- yond national jurisdictions", or BBNJ.Once the treaty becomes international law after ratification by member countries, it will regulate all human activities in the high seas with the objective of ensuring that ocean resources, including biodiversity, are utilised in a sustainable manner, and their benefits are shared equitably among countries. Oceans are an integral part of the global climate cycle, and perform a range of ecolog- ical services including absorption of carbon dioxide and excess heat, because of which this treaty is also being considered as a landmark in the efforts to keep the planet habitable.

The laws of the seas :-The high seas comprise 64 per cent of the ocean surface, and about 43 per cent of the Earth. These areas are home to about 2.2 mil- lion marine species and up to a trillion different kinds of microorganisms, according to the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), a network of global experts on oceans.

Many regional, multilateral and global legal frameworks exist to govern the activities in the oceans, the most important of which is the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS), a 1982 agreement that has near-universal acceptance. Among other things, UNCLOS defined 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 re- sources. It also specified a set of rules for ac- tivities in the oceans, including navigation, scientific research, and deep-sea mining.

The treaty established exclusive eco- nomic zones (EEZ), ocean areas up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline, where a country would have exclusive rights over all economic resources such as fish, oil, minerals, and gas. The high seas are the areas beyond the EEZ of any country.

The UNCLOS came into being much be- fore climate change and biodiversity became major global concerns. Though it asks coun- tries to protect the ocean ecology and con- serve its resources, it does not provide the specific mechanisms or processes to do so. Climate change is already influencing, and is being influenced by, ocean systems, and is exacerbating the pressures on marine biodiver- sity from unregulated human activities. It is these specific challenges - a combination of climate change, biodiversity, and pollution- that the High Seas Treaty seeks to address.

The High Seas Treaty will work as an implementation agreement under the UNCLOS, much like the Paris Agreement works under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Key provisions of Treaty :-

The High Seas Treaty has four main objectives:

• Demarcation of marine protected ar- eas (MPAs), rather like there are protected forests or wildlife areas;

• Sustainable use of marine genetic re- sources and equitable sharing of benefits arising from them;

• Initiation of the practice of environ- mental impact assessments for all major ac- tivities in the oceans; and

• Capacity building and technology transfer.

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS:-

 Marin protected areas are where ocean systems, including biodi- versity, are under stress, either due to human activities or climate change. These can be called the national parks or wildlife reserves of the oceans. Activities in these areas will be highly regulated, and conservation efforts similar to what happens in forest or wildlife zones, will be undertaken. Only about 1.44 per cent of high seas are currently protected, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).In December last year, at the meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD)in Montreal, Canada, countries had agreed to put at least 30 per cent of degraded coastal and marine ecosystems under effective restoration by 2030. MPAs can become an important vehicle to achieve that goal.

MARINE GENETIC RESOURCES:-

Oceans host very diverse life forms, many of which can be useful for human beings in ar- eas like drug development. Genetic informa- tion from these organisms is already being extracted, and their benefits are being investigated. The treaty seeks to ensure that any benefits arising out of such efforts, including monetary gains, are free from strong intellectual property rights controls, and are equally shared amongst all. The knowledge generated from such expeditions are also supposed to remain openly accessible to all.

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENTS: 

The high seas are international waters open for use by all countries. Under the provisions of the treaty, commercial or other activities that can have significant impact on the marine ecosystem, or can cause large scale pollution in the oceans, would require an environmental impact assessment to be done, and the results of this exercise have to be shared with the international community.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER:

 The treaty lays a lot of em- phasis on this, mainly because a large num- ber of countries, especially small island states and landlocked nations, do not have the re- sources or the expertise to meaningfully participate in the conservation efforts, or to take benefits from the useful exploitation of ma- rine resources. At the same time, the obliga- tions put on them by the Treaty, to carry out environmental impact assessments for ex- ample, can be an additional burden.

Difficulty ahead:-

The treaty is the result of more than 20 years of protracted negotiations. The details of all the major contentious provisions, includ- ing environmental impact assessments, shar- ing of benefits from genetic resources, and mobilisation of funds for conservation activ- ities, are still to be worked out. Many issues remain unaddressed, including the mecha- nisms for policing the protected areas, the fate of the projects that are assessed to be heavily polluting, and the resolution of disputes.

The process of ratification won't be easy. It took UNCLOS 12 years to become interna- tional law because the necessary number of ratifications was not reached. The Kyoto Protocol, the precursor to the Paris Agreement, also took eight years to come into effect.

                            ◦•●◉✿Related✿◉●•◦

What are the Other Conventions related to Seas:-

• Convention on Continental Shelf 1964:
  • It defines and delimits the rights of States to explore and exploit the natural resources of the continental shelf.
• Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas 1966:

      It was designed to solve the problems involved in the          conservation of living resources of the high seas,               considering that because of the development of                    modern technology some of these resources are in             danger of being exploited.

           London convention 1972::

• • Its objective is to promote the effective control of all sources of marine pollution and to take all practicable steps to prevent pollution of the sea by dumping of wastes and other matters

• MARPOL Convention (1973):
  • It covers pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes.
  • It lists various forms of marine pollution caused by oil, noxious liquid substances, harmful substances in packaged form, sewage and garbage from ships, etc.