Overline: STRONG High Seas Workshop

Headline: ‘Towards Integrated Ocean Management of the High Seas: Lessons Learnt for Regional and Global Action’

Dates & times: Tuesday 29 March – Thursday 31 March 2022; each day 4:00 – 6:00 pm (CEST/ UTC +2)
Format: Online (Zoom), by invitation only
Organizer: IASS together with CPPS Secretariat and Abidjan Convention Secretariat
The workshop will be held in English, French, and Spanish, with simultaneous translation.

This workshop is part of a series of workshops organised under the STRONG High Seas project in the Southeast Atlantic and Southeast Pacific regions with the aim to bring together stakeholders to discuss current challenges as well as opportunities for global and regional ocean governance, foster exchange of knowledge and information, and build new networks. It will apply an interactive approach to enable information exchange between participants and feature action-oriented discussions with high-level actors and experts. This workshop aims to discuss lessons learnt and critical steps for regional and global action necessary to make progress towards integrated ocean management of the high seas.

Marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) cover about half of the planet’s surface, have high biodiversity and deliver important ecosystem services. While there is a growing economic and political interest in exploitation of marine resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction, there is no comprehensive legal regime for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in these areas to date. In this regard, the international community agreed in 2015 to develop a global, legally binding agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). Pursuant to UN General Assembly Resolution 72/249 of December 2017, the negotiations of this instrument started in September 2018.

The objective of this workshop is to provide a setting for States and stakeholders from the Southeast Atlantic and Southeast Pacific regions, and beyond, to identify key actions for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. In particular, the workshop will build on scientific findings from the STRONG High Seas project and reflections from key experts to suggest and discuss targeted actions to:

• Foster multi-stakeholder cooperation both between governance levels and across sectors to support the successful implementation of the future agreement on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement);
• Underpin ongoing as well as identify new regional initiatives and actions to enhance multi-stakeholder collaboration in an effort to underpin conservation efforts, such as through area-based management tools, in support of global goals; and
• Identify key areas of convergence with the implementation of the future BBNJ Agreement across issues, such as climate change, blue economy, deep-seabed mining, post-2020 CBD framework, where collaborative efforts are necessary to address cross-cutting challenges and underpin joint action.