Various representatives and organizations stress the treaty’s significance, while acknowledging challenges and calling for swift implementation and accountability.

A media kit is available with Q&As, briefing notes, and an MPA factsheet to help disseminate information.

The High Seas Treaty, the world’s first legally binding agreement to protect marine life in international waters, took effect and is now in force after securing broad ratification, with 83 countries including China and Japan on board.

Its main goals include creating marine protected areas in international waters, requiring environmental impact assessments for activities that harm ecosystems, promoting sustainable use of ocean resources, and enabling sharing of research, technology, and benefits from ocean genetic resources.

While the United States has signed the treaty, it has not ratified it and can participate only as an observer without voting rights, though supporters urge rapid implementation regardless of the U.S. status.

Significant challenges ahead include defining scientific, institutional, and financial frameworks to operate MPAs, manage high seas activities, and balance conservation with short-term economic interests.

The current process is just the start; effectiveness will rely on robust implementation, strong institutions, and active management, including on-site research, monitoring, and enforcement with satellites and drones.

Practical hurdles include monitoring and enforcement and determining which body can impose protections for shipping, deep-sea mining, and fishing, given these sectors are governed by other organizations.

Notes to editors outline EJF’s mission and call for collaboration with Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, and ongoing advocacy for environmental justice.

Portugal underscores the importance of well-implemented high seas governance for its own conservation efforts, while acknowledging no current plan to create high seas protected areas from its exclusive economic zone.

Researchers highlight the High Seas as a scientifically rich habitat that also regulates climate through currents and CO2 uptake, underscoring the need for strong protections.

Experts emphasize global cooperation and the ongoing need to translate the agreement into concrete protections and governance reforms.