New York (VNA) – The UN’s freshly-adopted agreement on theconservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyondnational jurisdiction (the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty, also known as the Treaty of the High Seas) marks a new development milestone ofinternational law, said Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Vietnam’s PermanentRepresentative to the UN.

It is the third treaty to enforce the 1982 United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), following the UN Fish StocksAgreement and the Agreement on Part XI of the UNCLOS. 

The ambassador said the UNCLOS stipulates the freedom of navigation and fishingon the high seas beyond exclusive economic zones of states, and that seabedresources on the continental shelf of a state are the common heritage ofmankind. It also outlines a mechanism for licensing and distributing benefitsfrom seabed mining on the high seas, but has yet to have a similar mechanismfor marine genetic resources.

The high seas treaty, comprising 17 chapters with 76articles and two appendices, develops the UNCLOS on this aspect.

Regarding the main content of the treaty,  Ambassador Giangstated that on the basis of the principle that marine genetic resources fallwithin the scope of the common heritage of mankind, the treaty establishes aframework and method of benefit sharing to help developing countries enjoyequitable sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, including thedigital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources. “Benefit sharing” notonly refers to financial benefits, but also opens up more opportunities fordeveloping countries to participate in marine scientific research, capacitybuilding and technology transfer.

The High Seas Treaty also stipulates the use of Area-BasedManagement Tools (ABMTs) to balance conservation and sustainable use ofprotected areas. Besides, regulations on environmental impact assessments are expected to better balance the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.

Giang said that as Vietnam wants to become a strong, sustainably developing,prosperity and safe maritime nation, which takes part in solving internationaland regional problems in sea- and ocean-related issues in an active andresponsible manner, the country needs to make the most of capacity-building andtechnology transfer measures, as well as the financial resources of thebenefit-sharing fund from marine genetic resources beyond national jurisdictionto access and optimise advanced science and technology.

According to the ambassador, the agreement will be open for signature in New York for two years starting on September 20, the day following a summit on the UN sustainable development goals. It will take effect after 60 countries ratify the agreement./.