BBNJ SYMPOSIUM 2026
Session Recordings

Biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is dynamic, interconnected, and vital to planetary health, and its conservation and sustainable use requires a coherent and collaborative approach. This panel examined what is meant when referring to biodiversity of ABNJ, how biological and ecological processes span and connect to areas within national jurisdiction and coastal ecosystems, and how biodiversity can be maintained in the present and the future.

Moderator: J. Murray Roberts, Professor of Applied Marine Biology & Ecology, University of Edinburgh / Director, Mara Consultants

This session explored how science and diverse forms of knowledge can be embedded within the BBNJ Agreement’s institutional framework. Speakers discussed the interplay between scientific research, policy-making, and treaty implementation, considering opportunities for cooperation with existing international frameworks and bodies.

Moderator: Andrei Polejack, Director of Research and Innovation, INPO

Climate change presents profound challenges for ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ. This discussion addressed: climate change modelling, monitoring, and reporting to ensure fit-for-purpose management measures; the use of environmental impact assessments and area-based management tools in shifting ecological conditions; and ways to apply precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches in uncertain futures.

Moderator: Lisa Levin, Professor Emeritus, Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Moderator: Allison Miller, Research Portfolio Senior Manager, SOI

This collection of cross-disciplinary chapters by philosophers, legal scholars, and marine scientists explores the epistemic value of varieties of local knowledges in the context of contemporary debates about ocean governance. Please learn more at Oxford Academic here.

Virtual Presentation by Co-Editors and Ch.2 Authors Michela Massimi, Marcel Jaspars, and Abbe Brown

This event positioned 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.

This satellite event presented 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 highlighted 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.

Alexander Turra, Professor, Instituto Oceanográfico - Universidade de São
Paulo (IO/USP), Cátedra UNESCO para Sustentabilidade dos Oceanos

This session examined how knowledge informs the development of domestic legal frameworks, supports the designation and adaptive management of MPAs and other ABMTs, and underpins monitoring and evidentiary standards. Contributions highlighted the importance of precaution, ecosystem-based approaches and robust environmental impact assessment processes. The discussion also addressed the role of civil society in ensuring transparency and accountability through independent scientific expertise. Drawing on the practice of other international organisations, the panel underscored the necessity of interoperable and reliable data systems for effective compliance mechanisms. It also considered how scientific evidence may shape dispute settlement under BBNJ. Finally, the panel addressed the institutional design choices likely to arise in the first Conference of the Parties (COP-1), examining how governance structures, decision-making procedures and science-policy interfaces may influence the effectiveness, legitimacy and long-term outcomes of the BBNJ regime.

Moderator: Carina Costa de Oliveira, Professor, Universidade de Brasília (UnB)

As the BBNJ Agreement moves toward implementation, the creation of its Scientific and Technical Body is a pivotal step. This session explored its potential mandate, structure, legitimacy, and working methods, drawing lessons from analogous scientific advisory mechanisms in other regimes.

Moderator: Lea-Anne Henry, Associate Professor, University of Edinburgh / Director of Mara Consultants Ltd.

The BBNJ Agreement recognises the value of traditional knowledge alongside scientific evidence. This panel brought together Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) representatives, legal experts, and practitioners to discuss how such knowledge systems can be respectfully integrated into decision-making processes.

Moderator: Leandra Gonçalves, Professor, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)

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 addressed 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 also explored participation pathways for artisanal fisheries and the integration of traditional knowledge into these processes.

This event shared the findings of the first socio-ecosystem diagnostic analysis (SEDA) for a high seas ecosystem, the Sargasso Sea. It also shared the results of supporting documents including a causal chain analysis and ecosystem valuation for the Sargasso Sea. It also shared 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.

This side event, organized by Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), focused 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 proposed 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 explored 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 was 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 underscored how regional cooperation can strengthen the science–policy interface and contribute to the successful implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.

The event highlighted 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.

Margaret Leinen, Director Emeritus, Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Examinations of the role of science and knowledge in other international frameworks can offer valuable lessons for the BBNJ community. This panel considered examples from fisheries, seabed mining, and shipping, discussing how cross-boundary cooperation, industry engagement, and adaptive governance can strengthen BBNJ implementation.

Moderator: Júlia Schütz Veiga, Researcher, NOVA School of Law

Science and knowledge-sharing require sustained resources. This session examined innovative finance mechanisms – from multilateral funds to blue finance and private sector partnerships – and explored how these can support science through capacity-building and marine technology transfer, particularly in the Global South.

Moderator: Janaina Bumbeer, Project Manager, Biodiversity Conservation, Fundação Grupo Boticário de Proteção à Natureza

Marine genetic resources (MGRs) sit at the intersection of cutting-edge science, conservation, and global equity. This panel explored how emerging tools, such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and conservation genetics, are transforming our understanding and governance of MGRs and interactions with DSI. Speakers discussed how mechanisms like the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) and benefit-sharing frameworks can promote equitable access, transparency, and capacity-building across regions.

Moderator: Janice Trotte-Duhá, Director of Infrastructure & Operations, INPO

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 convened 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 outlined 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 helped 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 gathered 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.