Webinar | Arctic birthday party for the High Seas Treaty

The High Seas Treaty marks its first birthday in June – we celebrated this important milestone on June 17, 2024!

The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (also known as “the High Seas Treaty” or “the BBNJ Agreement”), is highly relevant particularly in the Arctic.

The WWF Global Arctic Programme hosted a virtual party to mark the 1st anniversary of the adoption of the High Seas Treaty:

When: June, 17 2024 from 15:00-16:30 CEST
Where: online via Zoom

This virtual celebration aims to gather all friends of good environmental stewardship of the Arctic to delve into the practical application of the Treaty in the region and jointly explore steps towards its ratification and (anticipated) implementation.

The party will commence with an insightful overview presentation to the relevance and potential of the Treaty for the high seas in the Arctic Ocean, with a special focus on the roles of existing multilateral governance frameworks operating in the Arctic, by Erik J. Molenaar, Deputy Director, Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea, Utrecht University.

Several members of the family of the Arctic institutions have promised to share with us how they will help the one-year-old to flourish. We will hear from:

• Sara Olsvig, International Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council
• Katrine Nissen, Chair of the Arctic Council Working Group Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment
• Dominic Pattinson, Executive Secretary, OSPAR Commission
• Fredrik Haag, Head of the Office for London Convention/Protocol and Ocean Affairs, International Maritime Organization
• Nadia Bouffard, Chair of the Conference of Parties of the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOFA)

And of course, what’s a celebration without a surprise finale?