Thread by @RemiParmentier

THREAD - You're likely to see the hashtag #BBNJ pop up on yr screen in the next 2 weeks. It refers to Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction - the #HighSeas, the portion of ocean that lies beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone of coastal States - 200 nautical miles. Boring? Wait!

THREAD CONTINUES 2/2 - The term #BBNJ used by #ocean policy nerds may sound boring or complicated to laypersons, but you'll realize it's a very big deal when you know that the #highseas represent 64% of the global ocean, and...no less than 45% of our entire planet! [To follow...]

THREAD CONTINUES (3) - Humankind has been interacting with the #HighSeas for a long time, but our impact has increased in recent times. We've been sailing and shipping stuff across the high seas since time immemorial.

(🧵4) but with the contemporary trends in economic globalization, ocean-based international trade has now grown at a scale that was unpredictable not long ago. Now, more than 90% of all the goods we purchase are moved about the planet by ships.

🧵5 - We've also used the #HighSeas as a waste dumping ground until this practice was banned permanently in the early 1990s. However, pollutants from land-based activities have not abated, quite the reverse, which dramatically affects the High Seas.

🧵6 - While floating plastics are the most visible ones and the most in the public eye, micro- and nano-plastics (small & tiny particles of plastic) are the most pervasive, and have been found in every corner and crevice of the #ocean including the #HighSeas.

🧵7- If that was not enough, there are also high concentrations in the ocean, including the #HighSeas of pesticides and other organochlorine compounds, radioactive substances, and heavy metals.

🧵8 - We've been laying underwater cables since the middle of the 19th Century, first to send telegrams, then to make telephone calls & now to send data thru Internet. If you're not in mainland Europe (where I am now) you're reading this tweet after it swam across the #HighSeas.

🧵9 - We've also fished the #HighSeas for some time. Till the 1950s most fish stocks🐟were still in reasonably good shape (putting the commercial whaling episode aside - whales 🐳are not fish). Things started to go wrong soon after with the decrease of fish resources within EEZs.

🧵10- The decrease of fish resources in coastal waters (EEZs) was triggered by increased demand which lead to overfishing to meet that demand. Fishing fleets supported by rich government subsidies acquired the capacity to catch, package and freeze their prey in the #HighSeas.

🧵11- Environmentalists often quote a report by the UN FAO which estimated that 80% of fish stocks were fully exploited, overexploited, depleted or were recovering from depletion. Some dispute this figure but truth is it would be alarming even if it was the case for only 50%.

🧵12- The most recent & still emerging chapters of human exploitation of the #HighSeas concern mineral & genetic resources. Minerals found on & under the seabed have been for the mining industry in the last decades a Holy Grail becoming apparently technically feasible only now.

🧵13- There are intense negotiations within the UN's International Seabed Authority on whether deep seabed mining should be given a go ahead. France, Chile, Spain, Fiji, Costa Rica, Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau among others want to prevent it in some shape or form

🧵14-Both economic & environmental aspects remain untested with the potential damage & equity issues causing concern. According to the Law of the Sea mineral seabed resources found on and under the seabed of the #HighSeas are part of the common heritage of humankind,

🧵15- But equity concerns are not limited to the distribution of benefits; they also include the impact of mining on legitimate uses of the sea such as fishing or genuine scientific research.

🧵16- Unlike minerals, #HighSeas living resources aren't part of the common heritage of humankind under UNCLOS. Fishing in some High Seas areas is regulated by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations but these only distribute quotas, not benefits to third parties.

🧵17- Ownership of marine genetic resources found in the deep ocean is subject to debate. Genes from the deepsea, especially the precious few that have been looked at so far, are known to have important value for the medical & biotechnology sectors (hence for future human health)

🧵18- However, the exploitation of genetic resources (and even their existence) had not been envisaged when UNCLOS, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was drafted & negotiated in the 1970s and 80s.

🧵19- Developing countries (the so-called Group of 77 + China) vehemently consider that marine genetic resources are part of the common heritage & they warn against what they consider biopiracy in the #HighSeas.

🧵20- Hence it was agreed in 2011 that the sharing of the benefits from the exploitation of deepsea genetic resources would be addressed, as part of a package of issues that would be taken into consideration if/when negotiation of a #HighSeas legal instrument would take place.

🧵21- The Nagoya Protocol, a supplementary agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is meant to guard against biopiracy, but it does not apply to #HighSeas resources.

🧵22- Access & benefit sharing enshrined in UNCLOS (for mineral resources) and in the CBD (for genetic resources within national jurisdiction) is what's behind US Big Pharma & Biotech lobbying which to date has prevented the US Congress from ratifying both treaties.

🧵23- After nearly a decade of informal talks, UN member States agreed in 2016 to begin formal negotiations on an international legally-binding on the conservation & Sustainable Use of Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction [#BBNJ].

🧵24- After 6 years & 4 sessions of the International Conference for a #BBNJ Agreement, the 5th & hopefully last session begins today for 2 weeks in New York. Whether & how #HighSeas Marine Protected Areas can be designated, managed in monitored remains one of the key issues.

🧵25- Since the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted exactly 40 years ago, the political, social and economic contexts & the environmental landscape have changed immensely, in ways that no one could have predicted.

🧵26- Biodiversity, sustainable development, the ecosystem approach were concepts in their infancy when UNCLOS was adopted in 1982, let alone understanding of climate change. So, the session beginning today in NY is a key opportunity to bring UNCLOS into the 21st Century. [Ends]