From 1-3 December 2011, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the IUCN Environmental Law Centre (ELC) jointly organized an international seminar on the “Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction”.
Bringing together government representatives from 16 states, representatives from intergovernmental organizations, as well as external experts (including the IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme), the objective of this informal meeting was to make substantive progress in the further development of ideas and concepts with regard to three main issues which, amongst others, play a key role in the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) process:
– Possible ways of sharing benefits from the utilization of marine genetic resources accessed in areas beyond national jurisdiction;
– Possible governance frameworks for the establishment and management of a network of Marine Protected Areas on the High Seas; and
– Possible role of and consequences for an UNCLOS implementing agreement.
The workshop report, written by Thomas Greiber, is downloadable at: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn_bfn_bbnj_seminar_report___final.pdf
