The Legal Protection of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Where Do We Stand?

Abstract

Where do we stand in the negotiations of the BBNJ agreement, prior to the commencement of the first session of the intergovernmental conference in September 2018? The basis for the intergovernmental conference (IGC) negotiations will be the Report to the General Assembly made by the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), that ended in July 2017. The mandate of the PrepCom was to – while exhausting every effort to reach agreement on substantive matters by consensus – make “substantive recommendations to the General Assembly on the elements of a draft text” regarding the following 4 issues: area based management tools, including marine protected areas; marine genetic resources, including questions on the sharing of benefits; environmental impact assessments; and capacity building and transfer of marine technology. But that didn’t happen. Although the PrepCom Report was adopted by consensus, it clearly states that its recommendations “do not reflect consensus”; and it didn’t contain real “substantive” recommendations on the elements of a draft text. Given that, we can expect that the IGC will have to work from ground zero on almost every single issue, confronting all over again the same challenges that the PrepCom did.