Protecting marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction

Research spotlight: Mainstreaming biodiversity – protecting marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ)

Marine areas beyond national jurisdiction comprise around two-thirds of the ocean’s surface and 95% of its volume. The life contained within these areas are invaluable in terms of social, cultural, scientific and food-security benefits yet highly vulnerable to threats from pollution, overexploitation and climate change.

In June 2023, the BBNJ (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) Agreement was adopted at the United Nations Headquarters in NY, and opened for signature on 20 September 2023. To date, it has 90 signatories and four Parties. Once it enters into force (it needs 60 Parties to enter into force), it will provide a legal framework for a more integrated and equitable ocean management regime, including through the establishment of ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas which all Parties will adhere to.

In the lead-up to this landmark treaty, several international intergovernmental conferences and workshops were held with leading diplomats, scientific and legal experts from across the globe participating in discussions that formed the basis of the ground-breaking Agreement. A key voice throughout negotiations was Dr Daniela Diz, Associate Professor in Environmental Law at the Lyell Centre and expert in ocean governance.

Through participation in a number of international working groups and relevant meetings, Daniela’s legal expertise, supported by the Lyell Centre’s legacy of research into sustainable fisheries, marine conservation and management measures, informs scientific understanding of marine and coastal ecosystems, specifically the impact of fishing on biodiversity, which will underpin the agreement’s implementation and ongoing effectiveness.

One example is the High Seas Treaty Symposium, held in Edinburgh on 6-7 October 2023. Co-organised by Daniela, the symposium provided a platform for international experts to discuss the implementation of the agreement, ensuring a robust legal framework that can achieve its biodiversity conservation and sustainability objectives across four pillars:

· Marine genetic resources;

· Measures such as area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas (MPAs);

· Environmental impact assessments (EIAs);

· Cross-border capacity building and the transfer of marine technology, research, training and financial support;

Daniela is co-leading A BBNJ Agreement project with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction – from Agreement to implementation, funded by the Scottish Council on Global Affairs. The outputs of this project are a series of policy briefs for international negotiators and national legislators, among others, on the implementation of key elements of the BBNJ Agreement.

Daniela is a member of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) Informal Advisory Group, which provides scientific, technical and legal advice to the CBD Secretariat in matters related to the description of marine areas important for biodiversity, and she co-chaired (with Norway) the CBD legal workshop to review modalities for modifying the descriptions of EBSAs and describing new ones that took place in November 2023. The EBSA process is of fundamental importance for sustainable ocean management, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The outcomes of this workshop will feed into upcoming negotiations of the sixteenth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP 16) taking place in Cali, Colombia, in October 2024, where a decision of the COP on the adoption of these new modalities is expected to take place.

The CBD EBSA process can contribute to the BBNJ Agreement implementation and complements the procedural mechanisms contained within the Agreement. In this regard, Daniela provides expert advice to several Parties of the CBD and other international agreements including with respect to the systemic interpretation of international environmental law, with a view to achieve mutual supportiveness across international instruments and policy coherence for the conservation and sustainability of marine and coastal biodiversity.

With a focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the implementation of the CBD’s 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (she was involved in the negotiations of these both instruments), Daniela’s research is committed to ensuring biodiversity principles – protection, conservation, sustainable use, mitigation, adaptation - are safeguarded through the rollout of the BBNJ and other relevant and complementary international instruments.