Don't call it the ‘high seas treaty’: New oceans agreement should center biodiversity, expert says

Oct 29, 2024

Elizabeth Mendenhall, an Associate Professor in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, shares her insights on the controversial BBNJ marine conservation agreement, often mislabelled as the 'high seas treaty.' She highlights its ambitious scope yet warns about its potential pitfalls. Mendenhall discusses the rich biodiversity of the oceans and the urgent need for effective governance to protect these ecosystems from climate change. She also addresses the challenges of aligning national interests with ecological requirements, emphasizing the role of academics in shaping environmental policy.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

The Depths of Ocean Biodiversity

02:32 • 5min

Navigating Ocean Governance

07:32 • 8min

Nation vs. Nature: The Challenge of Ocean Governance

15:24 • 2min

Navigating Ocean Governance Challenges

17:16 • 22min

The Role of Academics in Influencing Environmental Policy

39:40 • 2min

The new BBNJ (biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) marine conservation agreement is impressive in scope but has since been rebranded by some as the “high seas treaty,” which risks biasing its interpretation by emphasizing the historical, but outdated, freedoms enjoyed by seafaring (and largely Western) nations.

Elizabeth Mendenhall of the University of Rhode Island joins this episode to discuss the treaty with co-host Rachel Donald, detailing the fascinating and complicated nature of ocean governance beyond the jurisdiction of states. The BBNJ agreement was designed to resolve some of these governance issues, but the text contains ample gray area in how the principles of “common heritage,” the concept that something belongs to all of humanity, will apply to the protection and extraction of resources from the water column and seafloor.

“The treaty design that we ended up with [from] my perspective is not really suited to achieve what it is we say we want to do, which is to create a big network of marine protected areas that's effective in terms of protecting biodiversity,” Mendenhall says.

To learn more and find links to the treaty documents, see the commentary Mendenhall co-authored for Mongabay about the topic earlier this year, here.

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Image Credit: Baleen whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Image by ArtTower via Pixabay (Public domain).

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Timecodes

(00:00) Introduction

(02:51) How biodiverse are oceans?

(05:20) What's at stake?

(07:47) How are the oceans governed?

(10:47) How international ocean management organizations work

(17:13) What is the treaty for?

(21:21) Is it a marine protected area if you can still exploit it?

(27:55) BBNJ vs. 'High Seas'

(29:09) Principles of High Seas and Common Heritage

(35:35) Post-show

(40:13) Credits