Tuesday,
10 March 2026

16:00 - 17:30

This event aims to position Marine Protected Areas as a central tool for global climate and biodiversity resilience, showcasing how these areas at the high seas can fulfill commitments across multiple environmental agendas, while ensuring the sustainability of coastal livelihoods and planetary health.

As the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement enters its implementation phase, States face a defining challenge: how to translate complex scientific, legal, and governance requirements into coherent and actionable national legislation—while remaining aligned with regional frameworks and international obligations.

This satellite event will present preliminary insights and early findings from the first Rapid Response undertaken by the International Platform for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS) in its ramp-up phase. Requested by Costa Rica, this ongoing Rapid Response is piloting a science-informed legislative assessment process and exploring policy pathways for national-level implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.

The event will highlight the approach, emerging lessons, and initial pathways identified through this process, illustrating how such a framework could be designed to be replicable, regionally coherent, and globally relevant. Full results will be finalised and published ahead of BBNJ PrepCOM-3, contributing to broader learning on BBNJ implementation.

Wednesday,
11 March 2026

14:30 - 16:00

16:00 - 16:30

16:30 - 18:00

The overarching objectives of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are to promote the conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources, including fish stocks. To this end, the Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) establishes a framework for the coordination of more than 50 binding and non-binding legal instruments and over 50 Regional Fishery Bodies (RFBs)—including the 18 Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) with a regulatory remit over the high seas. As the third implementing agreement under UNCLOS, the BBNJ Agreement is mandated to further cooperation and coordination among the various legal instruments, frameworks, and relevant global, regional, subregional, and sectoral bodies (IFBs)—including RFBs—entrusted with the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of marine living resources in ABNJ. This satellite event will address the consultation processes to be established under the BBNJ to strengthen cooperation and coordination between RFBs and other IFBs with autonomous mandates over fish species in ABNJ. The session will also explore participation pathways for artisanal fisheries and the integration of traditional knowledge into these processes.

This side event, organized by Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), will focus on Part V of the BBNJ Agreement, addressing capacity building and the transfer of marine technology (CBTMT) as key enablers for the effective implementation of the treaty. The event proposes a technical dialogue aimed at identifying how science, capacity building, and marine technology transfer can concretely support Brazil’s institutional preparation for the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement, particularly with regard to Part V.

The discussion will explore practical implications for the formulation of science, technology, and innovation policies, including the identification of existing scientific capabilities in the country; institutional and intersectoral coordination gaps; potential instruments that could be mobilized for international funding and cooperation; capacity building and technology transfer models aligned with treaty obligations; and opportunities foreseen under the Agreement.

The objective is, therefore, to promote a scientific debate oriented towards government action, with a view to generating technical inputs that can support MCTI’s role during the initial phase of BBNJ implementation.

The Eastern Tropical Pacific is a region where complex oceanographic dynamics shape its physical, chemical, and biological conditions. These interactions support a rich diversity of marine species and ecological processes essential for feeding, breeding, and migration, including those of high conservation value and others important for regional fisheries.

The objective of this event is to present the region’s perspective on the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned in translating science and traditional knowledge into effective public policies and actions for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The session will underscore how regional cooperation can strengthen the science–policy interface and contribute to the successful implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.

The event will highlight regional initiatives and collaborative efforts that illustrate emerging approaches to high seas governance, emphasizing their trajectories, achievements, and the insights they offer to other regions and stakeholders engaged in implementing the BBNJ Agreement.

This event will share the findings of the first socio-ecosystem diagnostic analysis (SEDA) for a high seas ecosystem, the Sargasso Sea. It will also share the results of supporting documents including a causal chain analysis and ecosystem valuation for the Sargasso Sea. It aims to share how the SEDA framework is feeding into a strategic action programme (SAP) for the Sargasso Sea, which could inform a proposal under the BBNJ COP for area based management tools.

Thursday,
12 March 2026

14:30 - 16:00

16:00 - 16:30

16:30 - 18:00

As the BBNJ Agreement moves from adoption to implementation, critical gaps in science, data, capacity and investment must be addressed to ensure effective and equitable delivery. This side event convenes policymakers, scientists, funders and practitioners to identify priority knowledge needs and explore how the Ocean Decade can help build the enabling conditions required by 2027 and beyond.

A keynote will outline key science and knowledge priorities for BBNJ implementation, followed by a panel discussion examining ocean data systems, philanthropic investment, ocean literacy and capacity development, and synergies with UNFCCC-related knowledge and financing agendas.

With Rio de Janeiro set to host the 2027 Ocean Decade Conference, the session will help catalyse collaboration across communities, align scientific efforts with policy needs, and accelerate coordinated action towards a strong science foundation for BBNJ delivery.

The BBNJ agreement is seeking to deliver effective and sustainable spatial management of areas beyond national jurisdiction—waters beyond the 200 nm limit, covering 60% of the global ocean. Whilst the BBNJ agreement calls for improving ecosystem resilience to climate change - especially in the context of designing area-based management tools (ABMTs) - and recognizes the vital role of the ocean in regulating the global climate system, the pathways for such a “climate-smart” approach to its delivery remain unclear. How ABMTs will be designed, and whether they will include climate-change considerations, may be a key step towards that delivery.

We will gather thought leaders on climate-smart ocean management from around the world, to discuss what use lessons learned delivering climate-smart approaches in national waters may have in helping craft a climate-smart future for BBNJ, and discuss opportunities for the inclusion of climate change evidence within the BBNJ agreement delivery.

Please access the programme for this event here to view the agenda and speaker information.