Background and purpose: Since 2011, the United Nations has held meetings to negotiate the possibility of creating a new international treaty to protect marine biodiversity. UN working group called the High Seas Alliance, with the participation of 27 non-governmental organizations, plus the International :union: for Conservation of Nature, is creating a new treaty to provide additional protection measures and improve the sustainable use of marine resources. The creation of an updated and binding legal framework to protect marine life in areas beyond national boundaries, known as the high seas, has been discussed for more than a decade, but previous efforts to reach an agreement have repeatedly stalled when Finally, for the first time, United Nations members agreed on Saturday, March 4, 2023, on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas - nearly half of the planet's surface.
Methods: In this research, the international responsibility of governments and non-governmental organizations protection and sustainable exploitation of the environment and biodiversity in the sea beyond the exclusive economic zone was investigated using the descriptive-analytical method.
Findings: High seas and the seabed surface make up 45% of the earth's surface and make it a valuable resource. However, this valuable resource and all its organisms are now severely threatened by habitat loss, climate change, ocean acidification, pollution, and overexploitation in commercial fisheries.
Conclusion: As of 2023, there is no binding legal mechanism to establish marine protected areas outside the jurisdiction and sovereignty of countries, or to conduct environmental impact assessments. However, increasing impacts from overfishing, climate change, deep-sea mining, and shipping continue to impact biodiversity on the high seas negatively. Establishing a legal order from a different normative and structural perspective the High Sea, the ocean area that lies beyond the waters under the national jurisdiction of countries is the largest habitat on Earth and home to millions of species.
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