The countries of the world failed to reach a final agreement on the protection of biodiversity in the high seas, and the fifth round of negotiations that took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 15 to 26 August ended with great regret over this failure, after hopes for concluding the first global agreement to protect water International is great.

The interests of the major powers

Rena Lee from Singapore - who chaired the negotiations sessions for the "International Conference on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction" - said in a statement to the French news agency, Al Jazeera English, that the negotiations have made great progress, but we need more time to reach a final agreement. without mentioning the reasons for this failure.

But Greenpeace, known for its environmental activism, accused the United States and the High Ambition Coalition - which includes about 50 countries, led by the European Union and Canada - of obstructing the negotiations and torpedoing the efforts made by the negotiators.

The organization said in a statement on its website today, Saturday, that "the countries of the High Ambition Alliance did not fulfill their duty and turned around some basic issues, especially with regard to funding issues, causing the failure of this round, and therefore today we have to wait for another round, perhaps this year."

The Greenpeace organization had called in a post on Twitter - the day before yesterday, Thursday - the countries of the High Ambition Alliance and the United States to stop the mess and work to find a solution to the deterioration of the marine environment from which billions of people live.

Hey USA, EU and the Global North,


It's time to stop being greedy, stop wasting time and get ocean protection done.


Billions of lives are on the line and more delay will mean more destruction.


Oceans are life!#ProtectTheOceans #IGC5 #BBNJ pic.twitter.com/lQeNVVPQhq

— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) August 25, 2022

5 rounds without tangible results

Interest in the issue of protection and management of the areas of the high seas began several years ago, and it was not easy for marine environment experts and countries that expressed their desire to prepare the first international agreement in this regard to sit at the negotiating table only in 2018.

The negotiations on this agreement, which was hosted by the United Nations Headquarters in New York, took about 3 years, as the first round started on September 4, 2018, and extended to the 17th of the same month, then the second phase came from March 25 to April 05, 2019. Then the third stage from August 19-30, 2019.

After a pause due to the Corona pandemic, negotiations resumed in March 2022 in its fourth round, then the fifth round came, and the decisive round was supposed to be from 15 to 26 August.

In turn, the Lebanese scientist Jalal Al-Halawani, director of the Environmental and Water Sciences Laboratory at the Lebanese University, told Al Jazeera Net via e-mail, "In fact, this international treaty should have seen the light at the beginning of this year, that is, during the fourth round of negotiations that took place last March, Unfortunately, it was not conclusive, and negotiators requested a fifth session this August."

Al-Halawani added, "The fourth round was more important than the previous rounds, as it was in a constructive atmosphere with a real desire to move forward on the part of some countries. Other countries also showed flexibility after they were taking strict positions, such as Iceland, Norway and Japan."

5 rounds of negotiations over 3 years without a final agreement to protect the biodiversity of the high seas (UNESCO)

Why an international agreement to run the high seas?

According to the draft agreement on the high seas, the waters under negotiation are those located outside the territorial waters of countries, which are about 370 km from the coasts of each country, which constitutes more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface, or about 64% of it.

Despite the importance of these areas, these waters remained unprotected by any international agreement, which made them vulnerable to violations and violations - especially in the field of overfishing - without any supervision or accountability.

The oceans also provide the equivalent of 80% of the world’s oxygen, absorb between 20 and 30% of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and about 90% of the excess heat above the Earth’s surface.

Therefore, the draft agreement focused on protecting biodiversity by restricting overfishing and overfishing, preventing pollution and punishing its practitioners. In its aspect related to the protection of biodiversity, the draft agreement focused on establishing model marine reserves, as well as creating coordination mechanisms between countries and exchanging experiences and technologies. In this area.

The draft agreement focused on protecting biodiversity by restricting overfishing professionals (Al-Jazeera)

"The issue of sharing genetic resources remained the most controversial topic, which took a lot of negotiations to find common ground so that access to these resources could be shared without hampering scientific research," says Jalal Al-Halawani.

The issue of marine reserves also witnessed a stumble in some stages of the negotiations on the role that should be assigned to the Convention of the Parties, as some countries want to reduce the mandate of the Conference of the Parties on the establishment of protected areas, but in the end a consensus was reached.

As for the Arab role in these negotiations, it seems that the governments of the Arab countries were absent from the beginning, which was confirmed by Al-Halawani, "Unfortunately, the Arab countries, as usual, are directly absent, and the majority of them are affiliated with the High Seas Alliance (HSA), which is a partnership that includes more than 40 NGOs, and the negotiations were between the powerful countries that are dragging them to their side, such as France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China, and the conflict still exists between them over the issue of fishing, as well as exploration for oil, gas and minerals.