Negotiator's toolkit

Environmental externalities, underwater cultural heritage, test mining, regional environmental management plans, environmental compensation fund, royalties, safety measures… The list goes on. New elements continue to be added to the already complex and interlinked group of elements that need to be

Collaboration between the Treaty and relevant international instruments and organizations came into the spotlight as the Governing Body worked through its agenda, including enhancing the Treaty’s Multilateral System of access and benefit-sharing, farmers’ rights, and the impact of technological developments

Delegates continued work on the development of exploitation regulations for seabed mining, following a roadmap adopted in July 2023. However, regulating commercial exploitation of deep-sea minerals is no easy task, and there is no real indicator of progress for assessing

The meeting is expected to clarify possible scenarios given the rapid approach of the deadline triggered by Nauru’s request to apply for approval of a deep-sea mineral exploitation plan.

The pressure is on as negotiators face impending deadlines for whether to adopt regulations, rules, and procedures to move forward with commercial exploitation of the deep sea or whether to call for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea

Meeting at a crucial moment for the future of the Treaty, parties relaunched negotiations on measures to enhance the functioning of the Treaty’s Multilateral System of access and benefit-sharing. Parties further addressed farmers’ rights and issues related to “digital sequence

Despite more progress at this two-week session than over the last decade, delegates were unable to reach consensus on a new high seas treaty addressing marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and, instead, suspended the session, to be resumed

As environmental concerns continue to grow, the prospect of extracting mineral resources from the deep seabed has generated quite a debate, which permeated the work of the Assembly.

At the most productive meeting so far, “unprecedented progress” was made in discussions on marine genetic resources, including benefit sharing, area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and capacity building and the transfer of marine technology.