Members of the United Nations have agreed on an international treaty to protect biodiversity in international waters, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean.
It is also referred to as the ‘Paris Agreement for the Ocean’.
In 1982, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS was adopted.
The Convention delineated rules to govern the oceans and the use of its resources.
But there was no comprehensive legal framework that covered the high seas.
Parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial waters or the internal waters of a country are known as the high seas, according to the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas.
It is the area beyond a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone which extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline.
No country is responsible for the management and protection of resources on the high seas.
The high seas account for more than 60% of the world’s ocean area and cover about half of the Earth’s surface.
At the COP of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), countries agreed to protect 30% of oceans by 2030.
It is a part of the ’30 x 30 pledge’ made by the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).