For many of recent historical past, the excessive seas — the huge swath of ocean past any nation’s borders — have existed in a form of authorized limbo. Too distant to control, too immense to totally think about, the open ocean was handled as all over the place and nowhere directly.
Immediately, that begins to vary.
After almost twenty years of labor, the United Nations-backed Excessive Seas Treaty formally enters into power, marking a long-awaited turning level for the ocean — and the start of a brand new —and equally sophisticated — part of labor.
For Haydee Rodríguez, a Conservation Worldwide professional who has spent almost a decade working towards this milestone, the second is each deeply private and profoundly international.
“The ocean is one. The duty is one. That is the second,” Rodríguez stated.
In dialog with Conservation Information, she displays on what it took to get right here, what comes subsequent and why defending the excessive seas is in the end about recognizing how linked all of us are.
Conservation Information: What’s going by way of your thoughts right now, because the Excessive Seas Treaty formally takes impact?
Haydee Rodríguez: I’m giddy — it feels a bit like my birthday.
I’ve worn many hats through the negotiations. I’ve labored on this as a part of numerous delegations, together with Conservation Worldwide’s. I used to be additionally a part of the Costa Rican authorities — at one level, I used to be head of the delegation.
So I’ve been a part of the method from many angles. In a approach, this seems like the results of 9 years of my profession coming collectively. It’s an enormous diplomatic victory, by way of belief, relationships and cooperation. Nevertheless it’s additionally an enormous win for ocean conservation, as a result of for the primary time we are able to really see the ocean as one linked system. We’re lastly connecting the dots.
For folks listening to about this treaty for the primary time, what does it truly make doable?
Rodríguez: Till now, there was no international mechanism to create marine protected areas within the excessive seas — locations past any nation’s borders. We might research the excessive seas. We might discuss how essential they’re. However we couldn’t truly agree, collectively, to guard them.
This treaty modifications that.
It creates a course of for international locations to work collectively to determine marine protected areas in worldwide waters — based mostly on science, with long-term administration, monitoring and accountability. That’s an enormous shift.
There’s been a variety of celebration — however what are the challenges forward?
Rodríguez: They’re important. The whole lot about this course of is new.
However the excellent news is that Conservation Worldwide has been making ready for this second since round 2018, after we began interested by marine protected areas and the way the treaty may be applied, lengthy earlier than it existed on paper. It seems like we’ve been coaching — and the marathon is lastly beginning.
There are going to be some hills alongside the way in which. This yr alone, we have to set up the construction of the settlement, create the scientific physique that may lead key choices, and arrange financing — together with the particular fund for capability constructing, expertise switch, and monitoring.
All of that prepares us 2027, after we will start to see formal marine protected space proposals from international locations.
What are a few of the first locations you hope could possibly be protected beneath the Excessive Seas Treaty?
Rodríguez: One instance is the Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges, an enormous chain of underwater mountains within the Pacific Ocean, stretching east of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and west of the coasts of Chile and Peru. It’s invisible from the floor, however these seamounts are an oasis for marine life.
Final yr, Conservation Worldwide supported a deep-sea expedition that helped scientists discover these underwater mountains intimately for the primary time. They recognized greater than 100 species that have been beforehand unknown to science.
That form of exploration basically modifications how we perceive a spot — and why it issues. One other essential motive is political management. Chile stepped ahead as a champion. They have been the primary authorities to say, very clearly: we wish to create a marine protected space within the excessive seas.
They trusted Conservation Worldwide to assist advise and co-create a method. We introduced collectively that political management with scientific information from Chile and Peru, and with specialists working by way of worldwide fisheries our bodies, to construct a method tailor-made particularly to this place.
The excessive seas can really feel very summary. How do you assist folks perceive why they matter?
Rodríguez: Once we take into consideration the excessive seas, we think about one thing very distant — an enormous, empty blue house that doesn’t really feel linked to our lives. However once you begin to look extra intently, the connections are extraordinary.
Take locations like Salas y Gómez and Nazca, or the Emperor Seamounts close to Hawaiʻi. These underwater mountains aren’t simply essential for biodiversity — they have been additionally pathways. Polynesian voyagers used them to navigate throughout the Pacific, touring from Hawaiʻi all the way in which to Rapa Nui. They navigated by the celebs above them and by these seamounts beneath the floor.
Once you hear these tales, you notice these locations have been by no means empty. They have been pathways — not just for people, however for the whales, turtles and different species that also use these identical routes right now. These locations join ecosystems, cultures and histories over monumental distances.
What occurs within the excessive seas — even when they really feel distant — has penalties throughout your entire ocean.
If the excessive seas belong to nobody, what’s in it for the international locations who’ve signed on to guard them?
Rodríguez: Traditionally, conservation has usually been tied to very clear, very direct advantages. A rustic protects a spot inside its borders, and there’s an expectation of return — whether or not that’s tourism, fisheries, water safety, or livelihoods for native communities. These advantages matter, and so they’re nonetheless extremely essential.
The excessive seas are totally different.
No single nation can level to them and say, this belongs to us. And the advantages of defending them — whereas very actual — aren’t at all times rapid or simple to hint again to 1 place. They present up as local weather stability, as more healthy and extra resilient fisheries, as biodiversity we don’t totally perceive but — together with discoveries that would at some point inform medication or science.
In that sense, the Excessive Seas Treaty represents a shift. It’s conservation not only for nationwide curiosity, however for the worldwide good. It asks international locations to behave collectively, for one thing they might by no means immediately see or contact — however that underpins the well being of your entire ocean system all of us rely upon.
To me, that’s what makes this second so essential. For years, we stated the legislation of the ocean was fragmented — that we didn’t have the instruments to really shield the ocean. That excuse is gone now. We lastly have the connective tissue.
This will not be the simplest second for worldwide diplomacy around the globe. Nevertheless it is a second of hope.
The ocean is one. The duty is one. And that is the second.