Policy Statement: BBNJ (PDF) - Pew Environment Group

Policy Statement
Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group
to study issues relating to the conservation
and sustainable use of marine biological diversity
beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ).
31 May – 3 June, 2011

The Pew Environment Group urges the international community to take decisive action at the 2011 BBNJ meeting
by making strong and concrete recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for action on
high seas ocean governance for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond
national jurisdiction.
BBNJ can also help ensure progress towards the development of new governance measures for the conservation of
marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction at the upcoming United Nations Informal Consultative
Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP) and ongoing consultations in the lead up to UNCSD 2012 (Rio+20).
Key challenges in the governance of marine
biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction
include:
Conservation: The status of marine ecosystems
and associated resources continues to deteriorate;
around 1% of the ocean is currently fully protected
Sustainable management: Unsustainable and
destructive fishing practices, illegal, unregulated,
and unreported (IUU) fishing, and overfishing
continue to negatively impact marine living
resources
Integration: Sustainability requirements are not
successfully integrated in other policy areas, such
as fisheries, trade and development
Financing: Resources for enhancing sustainable
management and associated capacity building
remain insufficient, while existing financial flows
and harmful subsidies continue to contribute to
unsustainable activity
Institutional reform: Institutional mechanisms for
sustainable marine governance are absent or in
urgent need of reform
The BBNJ must work to address these challenges over
the course of its meeting so as to meet its mandate
(agreed under UNGA resolution 65/73) to address:
a. Past and present activities of the UN and other
relevant international organizations
b. Scientific, technical, economic, legal, environmental,
socio-economic and other aspects
c. Key issues where more detailed background
studies are needed
d. Options to promote international cooperation and
coordination
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e. Marine genetic resources in areas beyond national
jurisdiction
As such, in line with the broad subject matter of the
BBNJ and the agenda for this meeting, the Pew
Environment Group urges States at the BBNJ meeting
to adopt the following recommendations which call on
States to:
1. Highlight the importance of biodiversity in areas
beyond national jurisdiction in relation to sustainable
development and the further establishment of a
Green Economy.
Ecosystem services provided by the marine
environment are of crucial importance for food
security and poverty eradication. Without healthy
oceans there can be no “Green Economy”.
Restoring the health and economic viability of
ocean systems should be recognized as a critical
priority for sustainable development.
2. Initiate a process towards a new implementing
agreement under the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) addressing
governance gaps in areas beyond national
jurisdiction.
This could be accomplished by recommending
that the UNGA initiates a negotiating conference
for a new implementing agreement under
UNCLOS for the protection and conservation of
the marine environment in areas beyond national
jurisdiction based on the precautionary principle
and ecosystem approach that ensures the long
term conservation and sustainable management of
marine biological diversity and marine ecosystems.
Such an outcome could provide crucial momentum
towards more complete implementation of the
Convention and stimulate cooperation between
existing international institutions that manage the

marine environment.
Current gaps which could be specifically addressed
include:
• Comprehensive prior environmental assessments
and strategic environmental assessments, together
with ongoing monitoring of the marine environment;
• Identification, designation and management of a
global representative network of high seas marine
reserves;
• The establishment of a regime for access to, and
sharing of benefits derived from, marine genetic
resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction;
• The provision of access to and dissemination of
information, and transparency in decision-making
processes;
• The establishment of an effective centralized
monitoring, control, surveillance, compliance and
enforcement mechanism for human activities in
areas beyond national jurisdiction;
• New targets and financing mechanisms; and
• Institutional reform including of regional fisheries
management organizations and agreements (RFMO/
As) including international oversight and mechanisms
for agreement and effective implementation of
conservation and management measures at the
national and regional levels.
3. Identify and establish marine protected
areas (MPAs) in international waters, including
representative networks by 2012.
Marine protected areas and no-take marine
reserves are an important tool for ensuring
continued marine biodiversity, and it is vital that
they be established on the high seas as well as
within national jurisdictions. MPAs, including
marine reserves, help build marine ecosystem
resilience and flexibility in the face of existing and
emerging threats. Unfortunately, only around 1%
of the world’s ocean is currently under any kind of
protection.
BBNJ should recommend that the UNGA call upon
appropriate international organizations, including
Regional Fisheries Management Organizations
and Arrangements (RFMO/As) and regional seas
organizations where they exist, to identify and
protect areas of importance for the conservation of
biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
The decision of the tenth meeting of the
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) (COP10) to establish a
repository of ecologically or biologically significant
areas (EBSAs) provides a first important step
towards developing representative networks of
MPAs. Target 11 of the CBD Strategic Plan agreed at
COP 10 calls for at least 10% of coastal and marine
areas to be conserved through effectively and
equitably managed, ecologically representative
and well connected systems of MPAs and other
effective area-based conservation measures by
2020. In the meantime, the JPOI called for the
establishment of MPAs by 2012, as well as time/
area closures for the protection of nursery grounds
and periods. While 10% was the goal agreed at
COP-10, scientists advise that 10% is not nearly
enough to achieve necessary management of the
oceans.
4. Require prior environmental impact assessments
and strategic environmental assessments to prevent
or minimize anthropogenic impacts on the ocean for
new and emerging activities in ABNJ.
BBNJ should recommend that standards be
adopted requiring States and relevant organizations
to assess whether individual activities would have
adverse impacts on marine biodiversity in areas
beyond national jurisdiction, and ensuring that
if it is assessed that these activities would have
adverse impacts, that they are managed to prevent
such impacts, or not authorized to proceed. Such
a framework has been previously endorsed by the
UNGA in Resolution 61/105 for destructive fishing
practices, including deep sea bottom trawling, and
is in place for Antarctica in the Madrid Protocol,
and this framework should be extended to cover
other activities in ABNJ.
5. End destructive fishing practices, including
preventing damage to vulnerable deep-sea species
and ecosystems from high seas bottom trawling and
other destructive fishing practices.
A series of UNGA resolutions have been negotiated
and agreed to over the past several years setting
out a regime to protect the biodiversity of the deep
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sea which included a compromise for high seas
fishing states to enable them to comply with the
agreed to regime. The failure, by some countries
which authorize deep-sea fishing on the high
seas, to ensure that the resolutions are effectively
implemented is undermining the credibility of
the UNGAs oversight of high seas biodiversity
conservation issues. There was a clear negotiated
call to action in 2006 through resolution 61/105
with additional actions agreed through resolution
64/72 in 2009, but implementation to date has
been patchy at best. These commitments must
be implemented. As is made clear in resolution
64/72, States should not authorize bottom fishing
activities until complying measures have been
adopted and implemented.
6. Advance international co-operation and coordination
for the conservation and sustainable
use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond
national jurisdiction through RFMO/A review and by
specific provisions for oversight by the UNGA.
Currently, much of the governance over issues
relating to the conservation and sustainable use
of marine biological diversity in areas beyond
national jurisdiction is managed though RFMO/
As. Unfortunately, despite the importance of the
resources governed by RFMO/As, there is little
oversight of their decisions or actions. Moreover,
some areas of the high seas do not have an RFMO/A.
In others, RFMO/As manage only a subset of the
biodiversity in their designated areas. Not all UN
Member States are members of all RFMOs, yet
conservation of the marine living resources of the
high seas is the solemn responsibility of all.
The UNGA should adopt decisions which enable
it oversight of the work of RFMO/As. This
would facilitate transparency, accountability and
the sustainable management of marine living
resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction in
the interest of the entire global community.
PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103
Tel. +1 215 575 2000
Washington, DC 20004
Tel. +1 202 552 2000
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel. +32 (0) 2 274 1620
www.pewenvironment.org/ip
international@pewtrusts.org
ABOUT THE PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP
The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental
organization that works globally to establish pragmatic, science-based policies that protect our oceans,
preserve our wildlands and promote clean energy.
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