U.N. global high seas biodiversity pact
- March 6, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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U.N. global high seas biodiversity pact
Subject: Environment
Section: International Convention
Context: Governments meeting at the United Nations (UN) in New York City reached agreement on key substantive issues for a new Treaty to protect marine life in the high seas.
U.N. global high seas biodiversity pact
- Negotiators from more than 100 countries completed a U.N. treaty to protect the high seas.
- The legally binding pact to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of ocean biodiversity, under discussion for 15 years, was finally agreed after five rounds of protracted U.N.-led negotiations that ended in New York.
- The treaty is seen as a crucial component in global efforts to bring 30% of the world’s land and sea under protection by the end of the decade, a target known as “30 by 30” agreed in Montreal.
- Countries must formally adopt the treaty and ratify it as quickly as possible to bring it into force, and then deliver the fully protected ocean sanctuaries our planet needs.
What are High Seas?
- The high seas are areas of oceans that lies beyond countries’ national waters. These are the largest habitat on Earth and home to millions of species.
- The high seas are the parts of the ocean that are not included in the exclusive economic zones, territorial sea or internal waters of a State.
- The high seas are open to all States, whether coastal or land-locked. Freedom of the high seas is exercised under the conditions laid down by this Convention and by other rules of international law.
- The high seas comprise nearly 45% of the Earth’s surface.
High Sea Alliance
- The High Seas Alliance is a partnership of organizations and groups aimed at building a strong common voice and constituency for the conservation of the high seas. The Alliance is currently made up of 40+ NGOs plus the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- The objective of the Alliance is to facilitate international cooperation to establish high seas protected areas and to strengthen high seas governance. Members of the HSA share and facilitate access to information in order to promote transparency and encourage an informed public discourse related to the mission and goals of the Alliance.
- High Seas Alliance members commit to work together to achieve these goals either as members of a collaborative effort through the Alliance, or as individual organizations supported by or affiliated with the Alliance.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
- The convention is also sometimes referred to as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.
- UNCLOS came into operation and became effective from 16th November 1982.
- India became a signatory to the UNCLOS in 1982.
- It replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April, 1958, which respectively concerned the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the high seas, fishing and conservation of living resources on the high seas.
- As per UNCLOS, the sea is divided into 4 parts:
- Territorial waters
- Contiguous Zone
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
- Continental Shelf
- It defines a distance of 12 nautical miles (approx. 22 km) from the baseline as Territorial Sea limit and a distance of 200 nautical miles distance as Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) limit.
- Exclusive Economic Zone is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.