Germany joins the United Nations agreement on the protection of the high seas. That agreement had already come into force at the start of the year — without Germany. On Friday the Federal Council approved a law to implement the agreement into national law, the last hurdle in the legislative process. It is expected that by June Germany will have completed ratification — just in time to participate in the first Conference of the Parties in August.
“The high seas cover almost half of the Earth’s surface and are central to the functioning of our planet,” says Fabienne McLellan, the executive director of the international organization OceanCare. The high seas host unique ecosystems and regulate the climate by absorbing large amounts of CO2 and heat.
According to McLellan, this is where the significance of the international agreement, commonly abbreviated in policy circles as “BBNJ,” lies. It stands for “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.” “BBNJ creates for the first time a comprehensive global legal framework to protect biodiversity in the high seas,” McLellan said.
As Environment Minister in the traffic-light coalition, Steffi Lemke (Greens) has decisively advanced BBNJ on the international stage. Before the Federal Council gave its go-ahead, the Bundestag had already approved the two laws for ratification and implementation. Lemke said in the plenary that our seas are overheated, polluted, overfished, and the burden from military use is increasingly rising. In light of this, Germany’s accession to the high-seas protection agreement is overdue. Or as Mareike Hermeier (The Left) put it: “Other states have saved the agreement; we joined when it became clear it would come anyway.”
Is there additional funding for high-seas protection?
Germany’s accession is important so that the Federal Republic can have a say in the future protection of the high seas. In August the first Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UN agreement will begin. There, implementation, monitoring, and the rules of protecting the high seas will be negotiated further.
Originally, Germany had wanted to ratify BBNJ long ago. Steffi Lemke as environment minister was hampered by the rupture of the traffic-light coalition. Therefore the agreement entered into force in January without Germany, after 60 other states had ratified it. That Germany, under the Black-Red coalition, still joined in time before the first Conference of the Parties is also due to the support of the new environment minister Carsten Schneider (SPD), according to environmental groups.
Germany is a maritime trading nation and relies heavily on the high seas. The country is also a leader in marine research, says Lioba Schwarzer, head of the Marine Protection team at the German Environmental Aid (DUH). This research capacity is central to implementation. It works like this: “States establish marine protected areas on the high seas, where activities, such as those by companies, are assessed for environmental compatibility,” Schwarzer said.
Moreover, it concerns the fair distribution of genetic resources among states, for example regarding active substances from marine organisms for medicines. “And finally, the agreement provides for mutual assistance among states in implementation, for example through the exchange of knowledge or data.”
That means someone must ensure that BBNJ is coordinated and controlled as well as examined and sanctioned in line with the agreement. This task will fall to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Yet: “So far there have been no commitments for additional funds. On the contrary, the government has recently cut funding for the BfN. Without staff and financing, the implementation of the agreement is not possible,” Schwarzer says. In response to , it was stated that the BfN has not yet requested funds in the federal budget.
“Accession alone is not enough,” says Franziska Saalmann, who works on marine protection at Greenpeace. “It is important that the government brings the agreement from paper to the sea.” BBNJ is the central instrument to implement the goals of the 2022 World Nature Conference in Montreal and Kunming for the seas, Saalmann said. In that agreement, the world community committed to protecting not only land but also 30 percent of the oceans by 2030.
How strictly the contracting parties negotiate sea protection will determine the success of the agreement. “The USA and Russia have not ratified BBNJ so far. Companies will try to lobby for loopholes,” Saalmann said. Whether fishing, deep-sea mining, oil and gas extraction, or military activities in protected areas will be allowed remains negotiable. A spokesperson for the BMUKN told : “Depending on the protection area, its own rules will be developed in a management plan.” This will depend on the COP’s decisions. Germany will thus be able to participate in August.
