Two thirds of the seas and oceans are beyond national jurisdiction. At present, the protection of this high sea and the seabed is only regulated in a very general way by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982). For example, there is no procedure for designating marine protected areas, there is no regulation for genetic resources that are present in abundance and the obligation to carry out environmental impact assessments has not been elaborated.
The so-called "Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction" (BBNJ) process aims to change this. Through Resolution 72/249 of 24 December 2017, the United Nations General Assembly created an Intergovernmental Conference to consider the drafting of a text for an international legally binding Convention under UNCLOS on the protection and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.
The first session of this conference took place in 2018. Three further sessions will follow, 2 of which in 2019.
As the conference on 14 February 2019 will go into the details of the treaty, the FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and the FPS Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, in charge of this dossier, wish to inform and consult Belgian stakeholders on the four key topics of the future treaty:
More information about the BBNJ process can be found at: https://www.un.org/bbnj/.
A formal invitation and a detailed programme will follow.
For more information, please contact:
antoine.misonne@diplobel.fed.be or sophie.mirgaux@milieu.belgie.be
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee | InnovOcean Campus | Jacobsenstraat 1, 8400 Oostende, België
Tel.: +32-(0)59-33 60 00 | e-mail: compendium@vliz.be
