UN: nations reach historic accord to protect marine life on high seas

For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas - nearly half the planet's surface - concluding two weeks of talks in New York.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in 1994, before marine biodiversity was a well-established concept.

An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled. The unified agreement treaty was reached late Saturday.

The treaty also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.

“It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Many marine species - including dolphins, whales, sea turtles and many fish - make long annual migrations, crossing national borders and the high seas. Efforts to protect them - and human communities that rely on fishing or tourism related to marine life - have previously been hampered by a confusing patchwork of laws.

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“This treaty will help to knit together the different regional treaties to be able to address threats and concerns across species' ranges,” said Battle.

That protection also helps coastal biodiversity and economies, said Gladys Martínez de Lemos, executive director of the nonprofit Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense focusing on environmental issues across Latin America.