High Seas Treaty: SEA Faces Devastating Impact?! What Happens Next!

BANGKOK: The High Seas, those vast stretches of ocean beyond any nation's direct control, just got a new rulebook. A landmark United Nations treaty governing these international waters entered into force on Saturday, January 17th, promising to reshape how they're protected and managed. This development presents both significant opportunities and potential challenges for Southeast Asia, a region deeply intertwined with the health of the ocean.

High Seas Treaty: SEA Faces Devastating Impact?! W...

For too long, these deepest, darkest, and most mysterious corners of our planet have existed in a legal twilight zone. Think about it: the biodiversity and resources of the High Seas – from migratory fish stocks we rely on to largely unexplored deep-sea ecosystems teeming with undiscovered life – have been vulnerable to exploitation, lacking the kind of robust protection they desperately need. We're talking about nearly half the Earth's surface, and two-thirds of the entire ocean, just floating out there beyond consistent legal oversight.

Now, after nearly two decades of campaigning and often painstaking negotiations, a treaty – officially the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement, but more commonly known as the High Seas Treaty – aims to finally safeguard the deep blue. Ratified by 60 nations as of September, it marks a turning point. But how does it impact Southeast Asia specifically?

Well, seven countries in the region are already parties to the treaty: Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste. Malaysia, Thailand, and Brunei have signed it, signaling their intent, while Myanmar has, as yet, not agreed to the terms. This mixed bag highlights the varying priorities and capacities within the region when it comes to ocean governance. The treaty promises to fundamentally rewrite ocean protections; before its legal enforcement, less than 1 per cent of the high seas was fully or highly protected under existing laws. That's an abysmal number. Major governance gaps have extended across most of the globe, a problem the agreement now addresses by applying to all high seas and deep seabeds worldwide.

“It is, in itself, globally, a landmark moment for ocean protection,” Maeve Nightingale, the regional coordinator for the coastal and marine programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Asia, told CNA recently. “This kind of global outlook now allows us to have a framework that can serve global oceans.” This framework is expected to translate years of diplomacy into practical rules: legal pathways to protect international waters, a new approach to environmental impact assessments for activities in these areas, mechanisms for sharing benefits derived from ocean discovery and marine genetic resources, and, crucially, assistance to countries in building the skills and technology needed to effectively manage the oceans.

Importantly, the High Seas Treaty will intersect with and complement a range of existing international frameworks and agreements related to maritime issues. A key overarching goal is to build momentum towards a global commitment to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030, as outlined in the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Without robust rules for the high seas, achieving that ambitious target would be, quite simply, practically impossible.

One of the treaty's groundbreaking provisions allows countries to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters for the very first time. An MPA is a designated section... (article truncated)