High Seas Treaty enters into force with Türkiye among parties

ISTANBUL

The landmark High Seas Treaty, formally known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement, will enter into force on Jan. 17, after securing the required 60 ratifications, marking a major step toward protecting marine biodiversity in international waters.

The agreement, adopted by the U.N. in 2023, establishes a legal framework for creating protected areas on the high seas and requires environmental impact assessments for activities that could harm fragile marine ecosystems.

Until now, the high seas, which cover about two-thirds of the world’s oceans, lacked comprehensive legal protection, with conservation measures largely confined to national and coastal waters.

Globally, around 16,600 marine protected areas cover 9.6 percent of the world’s oceans, but only 3.2 percent are highly or fully protected with strict limits on activities such as fishing, according to the Marine Conservation Institute’s Marine Protection Atlas.

Bayram Özturk, head of the Turkish Marine Research Foundation, described the treaty as opening a new era for global ocean protection.

He stressed that high-seas protected areas do not ban fishing across all international waters, but instead create a strong legal framework to regulate activities, including outright bans in designated sanctuaries.

Effective implementation of the BBNJ agreement could significantly protect open-ocean biodiversity and close major gaps in ocean governance, he said.

Levent Bilgili of Bursa Technical University’s Faculty of Maritime Studies said the treaty will require vessels flagged by participating states and operations in international waters to meet higher standards of responsibility and ecosystem protection.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP31), scheduled for November, will primarily take place in Antalya on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, with a leaders’ summit planned in Istanbul.

As a party to the BBNJ agreement, Türkiye’s active involvement strengthens its position as host of COP31, where ocean-climate linkages are expected to feature prominently on the agenda, Bilgili said.