Agreement 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 (BBNJ Agreement) United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Bucharest Convention) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean (Barcelona Convention)
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  5. Agreement 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 (BBNJ Agreement)
Agreement 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 (BBNJ Agreement)

Areas beyond national jurisdiction, namely the high seas and the international seabed area, amount to over two-thirds of the ocean, and they house more than 90 percent of all biodiversity on Earth. In order to address the ever-increasing loss to the health and resilience of the ocean ecosystems, the BBNJ Agreement sets out provisions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a primary focus on marine genetic resources, including the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and capacity-building and the transfer of technology.

The BBNJ Agreement was adopted on 19 June 2023 and it entered into force on 17 January 2026. Türkiye became a Party to the BBNJ Agreement on 16 January 2026. The Republic of Türkiye’s declarations regarding the Agreement, including legal status of the Republic of Türkiye as a non-party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) and other related instruments, were deposited to the United Nations both upon signature and ratification of the Agreement. These declarations are made without prejudice to any additional declarations and/or reservations that may be made in the future by the Republic of Türkiye and the signature and ratification of the BBNJ Agreement by the Republic of Türkiye does not prejudice any declarations and/or reservations submitted/deposited to the United Nations.