BBNJ Agreement a new era for ocean governance

BBNJ Agreement signals a new era for ocean governance

The BBNJ Agreement's entry into force marks a pivotal new development in international environmental law. Can ambitious vision be translated into practical action for ocean conservation?

Published on the 23 October 2025 by Eliza Northrop

Eliza Northrop

photo: Ritter Zahony | Ocean Image Bank

On September 19, 2025, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement* (BBNJ Agreement), crossing the threshold to bring the Agreement into force.

It now becomes legally binding 120 days later, on January 17, 2026.

Since Morocco, an additional 15 countries have deposited instruments of ratification, bringing the current total to 75 Parties to the Agreement.

At a time when international cooperation faces mounting challenges, the rapid ratification of the BBNJ Agreement sends an encouraging message.

, this achievement demonstrates what is possible "when nations unite for the common good," providing "a lifeline for the ocean and humanity" as we confront the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

After nearly two decades of negotiations, the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty will now enter into force a little over two years after its adoption in June 2023. This is remarkably fast: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) took more than 12 years to enter into force after adoption.

The high seas—64% of the global ocean—constitute about 95% of Earth's occupied habitat.

Yet before this agreement, less than 1% of the high seas were protected.

These vast waters beyond national jurisdiction produce half the oxygen humans breathe and help absorb excess CO2 and are home to key migratory mammals and fishstocks.

The BBNJ Agreement provides a legally binding framework for collective governance of these critical ecosystems that no single nation can manage alone. The continued momentum of ratification demonstrates both the potential for effective multilateralism and the importance that countries place on protecting marine biodiversity in international waters.

However, reaching the threshold for entry into force is just the beginning.

A new era for high seas governance

When the Agreement enters into force in January 2026 it will trigger the establishment of a new institutional and governance architecture that will fundamentally reshape how we govern and protect the high seas.

The BBNJ Agreement provides a framework for the protection, conservation and sustainable use of the extensive biodiversity in the high seas more comprehensively. It strengthens specific UNCLOS provisions related to marine biodiversity conservation in international waters. Although out of sight for most people, these waters serve as migration corridors and breeding grounds for numerous species, including whales, sea turtles, sharks, and tuna. The health of high seas ecosystems directly affects coastal and national waters worldwide – particularly the fish stocks that provide protein for millions of people globally.

Marine protected areas

Perhaps most significantly, the Agreement creates a governance regime for establishing area-based management tools (e.g. marine protected areas) in the high seas. The area-based management tools, combined with extensive environmental impact assessment requirements, create a comprehensive framework for improving biodiversity conservation in the high seas.

Already, governments are identifying potential areas for high seas marine protected areas, including sites like the , the , and areas of the. These early proposals will set important precedents for how area-based management will work in practice. The success of these first high seas MPAs will likely influence the pace and scope of future conservation efforts. This includes their role in meeting international biodiversity targets, such as the pledge to protect 30 percent of land and sea areas by 2030 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Environmental impact assessments

The Agreement also introduces a comprehensive and mandatory regime for environmental impact assessments (EIA) for activities that may have more than a minor or transient effect on the marine environment—a threshold that captures everything from deep-sea mining and large-scale fishing to underwater cable laying and marine scientific research. The BBNJ Agreement significantly strengthens the existing EIA process under UNCLOS by establishing a clear, consistent and operational process for EIAS that includes screening, scoping, impact assessment, and monitoring. This represents a fundamental shift: for the first time, activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction will be subject to consistent environmental scrutiny, with strategic environmental assessments also required for broader plans and programs.

Marine genetic resources

Lastly, the Agreement offers a framework for improving equitable access and use of marine genetic resources (MGRs) - the biological material from ocean organisms that holds enormous potential for pharmaceutical, industrial, and biotechnological applications. Currently, only a handful of countries with advanced research capabilities and funding can afford to explore, collect, and commercialize MGRs from the high seas, creating a system where the genetic wealth of the global ocean commons flows primarily to wealthy nations and corporations. The BBNJ Agreement offers an opportunity for redistribution by establishing a benefit-sharing mechanism that requires Parties to share both monetary benefits (such as royalties from commercialised products) and non-monetary benefits (including access to research data, and technology transfer) from MGRs with all Parties, with special attention to the needs of developing States.

This mechanism embodies the principle that the high seas and their resources are the common heritage of humankind—not a frontier for exclusive exploitation.

As marine biotechnology becomes increasingly valuable, with applications ranging from cancer treatments to industrial enzymes, getting the MGR benefit-sharing framework right will determine whether ocean genetic resources serve as a tool for global equity or further entrench existing disparities.

Implementation: the challenges and opportunities

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the main decision-making body of the BBNJ Agreement. All countries that have ratified the BBNJ Agreement become Parties and participate in the COP. Under the Agreement, the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) must convene within a year of entry into force, meaning it will likely happen in late 2026.

This timing creates a strategic opportunity for integrated global action. If COP1 happens in late 2026 it will align with COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity scheduled for October 18-30, 2026 in Yerevan, Armenia and COP31 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (likely in late 2026 and potentially hosted by Australia and the Pacific) .

This temporal alignment offers the opportunity for Parties to pursue a coordinated global agenda that weaves together high seas protection with climate and biodiversity action through what has been called the "blue thread" of global environmental governance.

Recent decisions and political statements have explicitly recognised these critical interlinkages, with the 2025 overlap of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) submissions and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) providing a concrete opportunity to align strategies at the national level.

At the , world leaders underscored that the ocean and its ecosystems face compounding threats from climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, calling for enhanced and coordinated global action to minimise these impacts. One of the key messages from Parties to the was the importance of integrated ocean governance beyond national boundaries, recognising the urgent need to address climate-driven biodiversity loss through climate-resilient marine protected areas and enhanced capacity-building for adaptation. With the treaty entering into force in January 2026, early ratification by nations will enable the first Conference of the Parties to establish vital synergies between ocean protection, climate action, and technology transfer mechanisms.

This coordinated timing of the three COPs creates a unique window to operationalise these connections, moving from fragmented sectoral approaches to integrated ocean-climate-biodiversity governance and perhaps charts a new path for multilateralism.

However, this timeline leaves less than 12 months to establish the institutional architecture needed to make this agreement operational.

Representation and participation

Several implementation challenges lie ahead. Who will be in the room to adopt the final decisions at COP1 will shape the future of the regime.

Universal participation remains the goal, yet key maritime nations and major economies still need to ratify the Agreement. Of the 75 States that have ratified the BBNJ Agreement since it opened for signature on September 20, 2023–twenty-five are Small Island Developing States (SIDS), nine are least developed countries and 16 African nations.

While early ratifications have been highly effective in building global political momentum, the effectiveness of the Agreement rests on its ability to engage with all major players–especially those that have the greatest access to the high seas or extensive activities in the high seas. States with large deep-sea shipping fleets—such as China, Greece, Germany, Japan, and Singapore—depend heavily on high-seas routes for global trade. While high-seas fishing is confined to a relatively small group of countries due to its high costs and energy intensity, these include China, Japan, Spain, South Korea, and Taiwan. Meanwhile, nations such as China, France, India, Germany, and Russia are positioned to benefit from emerging deep-seabed mining activities.

Funding mechanisms

Undertaking protection and conservation activities in the high seas is not simple or cheap. Broad country participation also increases the ability to effectively fund implementation of the Agreement. Existing funding mechanisms for ocean conservation face limitations in addressing areas beyond national jurisdiction. Most focus on national waters or specific sectors, with access barriers and fragmentation creating inefficiencies. This underscores the urgent need for additional, accessible, and diversified funding sources.

The Agreement establishes a financial mechanism designed to provide “adequate, accessible, new and additional and predictable financial resources” through three distinct funding vehicles: a voluntary trust fund to support participation of developing countries in meetings; a special fund; and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) trust fund to support the implementation of the Agreement.

The BBNJ Agreement’s financial mechanism – particularly the special fund – offers a unique opportunity to establish financing approaches specifically tailored to high seas conservation.

Being able to access sources of private financing to “expand the pie” will be a critical marker of success for the Agreement and unlock the ability of all countries to engage in the establishment and management of protected areas in the high seas.

The UN General Assembly established a Preparatory Commission (PrepCom) to prepare for the entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement and ultimately the set of decisions that the Parties to the Agreement will be expected to take at COP1. There has already been two sessions of the PrepCom, with the third and final session planned for 23 March to 2 April next year. This preparatory work is crucial—without proper institutional foundations, rules and guidelines even the best-designed treaty can struggle to achieve its objectives.

Ocean’s health is humanity’s health

As Secretary-General Guterres emphasized, "the ocean's health is humanity's health". The next twelve months will determine whether this historic agreement can translate its ambitious vision into practical action for ocean conservation. The institutional foundations being laid now through the PrepCom will largely determine whether COP1 can launch effective high seas governance or whether implementation challenges will slow progress toward the urgent conservation goals that motivated this Agreement's establishment.

* Formal title is the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction it is an implementing agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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