The High Seas Treaty will enter into force this Saturday, 17 January—120 days after its ratification by 60 countries on 19 September. Morocco and Sierra Leone were the 60th and 61st countries to ratify the treaty, and they have since been joined by around twenty other countries, including China.
This process began in June 2023 at United Nations headquarters, when the text of the so-called BBNJ agreement was adopted. Officially named “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction,” the treaty aims to preserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity in areas located beyond national waters—that is, nearly two-thirds of the ocean’s surface.
“This text is the first binding treaty to apply to 50% of the Earth’s surface and 65% of the seas. Until now, this space was unregulated, apart from regional fisheries conventions,” said Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, Ambassador for the Poles and Maritime Issues, who personally worked toward the treaty’s ratification, notably during the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) held in Nice last June.
International marine protected areas
According to all experts, this treaty is essential if the international community is to achieve the objective set at COP15 on biodiversity in 2022: protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. This target corresponds to protecting more than 12 million square kilometers each year over the next five years—an area larger than a country like Canada.
To achieve this, the BBNJ treaty authorizes states to create marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters. Like national MPAs, these zones are intended to be sanctuaries where any activity—particularly extractive activities—that disturbs marine fauna and flora is prohibited.
The High Seas Alliance, which brings together 70 NGOs and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has identified areas that could form the first generation of MPAs on the high seas, including the Salas y Gómez and Nazca seamounts in the deep waters of the southeastern Pacific, the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic.
Sharing genetic resources
Beyond international MPAs, the treaty is also intended to improve the sharing of marine genetic resources that could be exploited in international waters. It also provides for the transfer of marine technologies to developing countries. “It is a treaty that is protective, remunerative, and based on sharing,” summarizes Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.
For now, the types of exploitable resources, the sharing of revenues, and the safety rules to be respected by signatory states have not yet been fully defined. These issues will be addressed at the first Ocean COP (COP1), expected to take place in early 2027 in New York.
Another COP, therefore, at a time when major international summits on climate and biodiversity are already considered too frequent and sometimes redundant—even by France’s Minister for Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut. “This COP will be very different from the climate and biodiversity COPs. It will be a kind of co-ownership COP, with a defined territorial space to manage and rules of conduct to establish. It will be far more practical and concrete,” argues Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.
Record ocean heat
To be truly effective, the treaty will also need to broaden the base of its ratifications. While 145 states have signed it, only 81 countries have ratified it so far. Major absentees include Germany, the United Kingdom, India, as well as the United States and Russia.
Yet ocean protection is a priority and a major climate issue. In 2025, ocean heat content reached a record level for the ninth consecutive year.
Oceans absorb around 90% of the excess heat caused by human greenhouse gas emissions—a phenomenon that contributes to sea-level rise, hurricane formation, and coral degradation.
