Abstract
Growing human activity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is driving increasing impacts on the biodiversity of this vast area of the ocean. As a result, the United Nations General Assembly committed to convening a series of intergovernmental conferences (IGCs) to develop an international legally-binding instrument (ILBI) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of ABNJ [the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement] under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The BBNJ agreement includes consideration of marine genetic resources (MGR) in ABNJ, including how to share benefits and promote marine scientific research whilst building capacity of developing states in science and technology. Three IGCs have been completed to date with the fourth delayed by the Covid pandemic. This delay has allowed a series of informal dialogues to take place between state parties, which have highlighted a number of areas related to MGR and benefit sharing that require technical guidance from ocean experts. These include: guiding principles on the access and use of MGR from ABNJ; the sharing of knowledge arising from research on MGR in ABNJ; and capacity building and technology transfer for developing states. In this paper, we explain what MGR are, the methods required to collect, study and archive them, including data arising from scientific investigation. We also explore the practical requirements of access by developing countries to scientific cruises, including the sharing of data, as well as participation in research and development on shore whilst promoting rather than hindering marine scientific research. We outline existing infrastructure and shared resources that facilitate access, research, development, and benefit sharing of MGR from ABNJ; and discuss existing gaps. We examine international capacity development and technology transfer schemes that might facilitate or complement non-monetary benefit sharing activities. We end the paper by highlighting what the ILBI can achieve in terms of access, utilization, and benefit sharing of MGR and how we might future-proof the BBNJ Agreement with respect to developments in science and technology.
Highlights
Areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) lie outside of the exclusive economic zones of coastal States covering 61% of the ocean surface and 73% of its volume (O’Leary et al, 2019)
For purposes of access and benefit sharing for investigation of Marine Genetic Resources (MGR), the aim is more likely to be to gain access to samples for study. Key to both marine scientific research and access and benefit sharing of MGR is that individual specimens or samples are assigned a globally unique identifier (GUID) and that data on the location of sampling as well as any environmental data associated with the sampling event and subsequent processing remains linked to the specimen/sample record
Given our overview of aspects of MGR, access and benefit sharing as well as capacity building, we summarize what elements of best practice in marine scientific research are already in place that would assist in the implementation of access and benefit sharing provisions in the BBNJ agreement and what still needs to be developed
Summary
Areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) lie outside of the exclusive economic zones of coastal States covering 61% of the ocean surface and 73% of its volume (O’Leary et al, 2019). (ii) To identify what is practically required to enable access and benefit sharing of MGR without compromising marine scientific research under the BBNJ agreement and to outline current best practices, risks, potential problems, and their solutions including: pre- and post- research cruise notification; sharing of information and technology
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