After more than 15 years of informal and formal talks, the meeting is the third time in less than a year that negotiators are gathering for what is due to be the last round.
Another two weeks of negotiations ended with no agreement in August last year, but advocates and officials have expressed cautious optimism ahead of the coming session.
"There are a lot of negotiations and discussions happening between delegations trying to find middle ground on some of the key sticky issues... at a level that we haven't seen before," Liz Karan, of the Pew Charitable Trusts non-profit, told AFP.
"That gives me a lot of hope that the delegations are taking this upcoming meeting to be the final final."
This hope was bolstered in January when the United States joined the EU-led High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction in pushing for quick and robust finalized treaty.
The 51 countries in the coalition share "the goal of urgently protecting the world's oceans," said EU Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius, underscoring the new round of talks were "crucial."
The ocean's high seas start where nations' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) end, at a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from coastline, and are not under the jurisdiction of any country.
Even though these waters make up more than 60 percent of the oceans and nearly half the planet, they have long been ignored in favor of coastal areas and certain species.
But, said Nathalie Rey, the campaign lead for the High Seas Alliance non-profit, there is "just one ocean and a healthy ocean means a healthy planet."
Ocean ecosystems, threatened by pollution and overfishing, produce half the planet's oxygen and limit global warming by absorbing a large part of the CO2 emitted by human activities.
"You can't ensure a healthy ocean if you ignore two thirds of the ocean which make up the high seas," Rey said, underscoring that it would be "an absolute disaster if we ended up with nothing" from the treaty talks.
The future treaty "will be a key milestone in ensuring we achieve this 30x30 target," she added, referencing a historic agreement in December in which every nation committed to protecting 30 percent of all the planet's land and ocean by 2030.
- A deal at all costs? -
The 30x30 goal would be almost impossible without including the high seas, of which only around one percent is protected today.
One of the pillars of the future treaty on the "conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction" is to allow the creation of marine protected areas in international waters.
This principle is included in the negotiating mandate voted by the UN General Assembly in 2017, but delegations are still divided on the process of creating the sanctuaries, as well as on the terms of obligations to assess the environmental impact of potential activities on the high seas.
Another contentious issue is the sharing of possible profits from use of genetic resources found in international waters, where the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic industries hope to discover bankable resources.
Without the ability to carry out costly research, developing countries fear they will miss out on potential benefits of high seas resources.
At the August session, observers accused rich countries, including the EU, of resisting to offer compromises down to the wire.
With the complex and wide-ranging treaty, which will also have to contend with other organizations that have strangleholds on parts of the ocean, such as fishing and seabed mining, the devil is in the details, ocean advocates worry.
"It would be better to take more time and ensure a strong agreement with political momentum, rather than hurriedly adopt a subpar agreement," said Glen Wright, senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations.
Even if, he added, another delay "would be a huge disappointment."
The conservation toolkit on the table at high-seas treaty talks
United Nations, United States (AFP) Feb 17, 2023 -
With the conservation of more than half the world's oceans at stake, negotiations resume February 20 on a UN treaty to protect marine zones and assess environmental impacts on vast ocean areas that belong to no one.
Here are some of the key issues at stake:
- Exploiting while conserving -
Under a mandate agreed on by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 after more than 10 years of talks, the treaty is meant to provide for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas under no nation's control -- an area covering more than 60 percent of the world's oceans.
A draft text says the treaty will apply to the high seas -- those parts of the oceans outside nations' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ's), which reach up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from coastlines -- as well as seabeds and subsoil.
This would allow in principle for measures to apply to mining and fishing activities.
- Divided responsibility -
But the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP, comprising all signatory states) will also have to wrangle with regional and international organizations that hold sway over parts of the oceans.
Primary among those are regional fishing organizations and the International Seabed Authority, which issues licenses for exploring underseas mining resources and possibly for tapping into them in limited areas.
- Marine protected areas -
A key "tool" under discussion is the creation of marine protected areas, which now exist mainly in territorial waters.
Depending on what member states propose, the COP would create these sanctuaries in areas with vulnerable and unique ecological attributes where species are endangered.
But the crucial question of exactly how these areas are to be decided remains to be resolved.
As in other COPs, like the one focused on climate issues, decisions are generally reached by consensus.
But the high-seas treaty draft text allows for a majority of votes to create protected areas, preventing a single country or small group of nations from blocking the will of a majority.
The treaty does not specify how protective measures will be enforced over vast and remote areas of ocean. Some experts say satellites can be used to spot infractions.
The draft says each state would be responsible for activities over which it holds jurisdiction even in international waters.
- Resource sharing -
In the high seas, countries and entities under their jurisdiction will be allowed to collect animal, vegetable or microbial matter whose genetic material might prove useful, even commercially -- for example, pharmaceutical companies hoping to discover marine molecules with curative properties.
To provide a portion of the marine wealth to countries unable to conduct expensive research, the treaty would provide for sharing out benefits.
Exactly how that would work, however, remains a bone of contention between wealthy and poorer nations.
The draft suggests an initial redistribution of two percent -- eventually rising to eight percent -- of future sales of products based on the oceans' genetic resources. Still, no agreement has been reached.
More generally, the draft calls for the transfer of marine technologies to developing countries and a strengthening of their research capacities.
It would also establish an "open-access platform" for information sharing.
- Assessing impacts -
The treaty would require signatories to assess the environmental impacts of planned activities before they are authorized, but exactly how that would be done remains far from clear.
For non-governmental groups, this will be a key determinant of the robustness of the final treaty.
Among the questions: Which activities would have to be assessed, just those in the high seas or also those in national waters that could impact the high seas?
Would assessments be conducted systematically or only when a major impact is expected? And who would decide whether an activity can be authorized, the COP or the country with authority over the entity hoping to carry out the activity?
- A 'universal' treaty? -
The oceans' defenders stress that to be effective, the treaty must be "universal," supported by the greatest possible number of countries.
But it could take effect once 30 or 60 countries have ratified it -- a number yet to be decided.
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