THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION

The present technical abstract is based upon the First Global Integrated Marine Assessment (first World Ocean Assessment), which was released in January 2016 and, in particular, upon the summary of that Assessment, which was approved by the General Assembly in December 2015.1 The abstract was prepared pursuant to the programme of work for the period 2017-2020 for the second cycle of the Regular Process of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole of the General Assembly on the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, which was adopted by the Working Group in August 2016 and endorsed by the Assembly in December 2016.2 The programme of work provides, inter alia, for support for other ongoing ocean-related intergovernmental processes, including the preparation of technical abstracts specifically tailored to meet the needs of, among other intergovernmental processes, the work pursuant to Assembly resolution 69/292 on the development of an international legally binding instrument 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. The purpose of the present technical abstract is to provide scientific, factual background to the issues being discussed in these processes. In this regard, the technical abstract provides a synthesis of the information presented in the first World Ocean Assessment and does not introduce any new material or interpretation of the information presented in that Assessment. The technical abstract was prepared by the Group of Experts of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the Marine Environment for the second cycle of the Regular Process, on the basis of an outline prepared by the Group of Experts and discussed by the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole. Some members of the pool of experts of the Regular Process who contributed to first World Ocean Assessment were part of the review process, together with the Group of Experts, the secretariat of the Regular Process (the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat) and the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole. The secretariat of the Regular Process also assisted in the finalization of the technical abstract by the Group of Experts. The Bureau of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole has considered an advance, unedited version of the technical abstract for presentation to delegates attending the third session of the Preparatory Committee on an international legally binding instrument 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.