Overview:
The Pacific is looking beyond its exclusive economic zones as the High Seas Treaty begins a new phase of implementation. At a PIF Leaders Meeting side event in Palau, Pacific officials, conservationists and young ocean advocates discussed how the BBNJ agreement can strengthen high-seas protections while incorporating science, Indigenous knowledge and Pacific traditions of ocean stewardship.
By Elilai Rengiil
KOROR, Palau – With the High Seas Treaty now in force and its first global meeting expected by January 2027, Pacific leaders, conservation groups, and young ocean advocates gathered in Palau to discuss how the agreement can strengthen ocean management beyond national waters.
The September 2 side event at the Palau Royal Resort, held alongside the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM), focused on the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, or BBNJ.
The agreement, also known as the High Seas Treaty, establishes a framework for conserving and sustainably using marine biodiversity in waters beyond national jurisdiction.
The program included a panel discussion and a screening of Remathau, a film by marine biologist and OneReef Impact Director Dr. Nicole Yamase. Remathau is a word from the outer islands of Yap meaning “people of the ocean.”
Keobel Sakuma, executive director of The Nature Conservancy’s Micronesia and Polynesia Chapter, said the BBNJ agreement gives Pacific Island countries an opportunity to extend strong ocean stewardship beyond their exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
Pacific countries manage resources within their EEZs, which generally extend 200 nautical miles from shore. Fisheries licensing and vessel-day fees provide major revenue for many island governments, making sustainable management of tuna and other marine resources critical.
Sakuma said Pacific fisheries management has helped protect stocks of bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna in the western and central Pacific. But he said management beyond national waters has been weaker.
“The high seas” have often operated like “the wild west,” Sakuma said, with vessels able to fish under different rules from those applied inside Pacific EEZs.
He said the BBNJ can help establish stronger and more consistent management measures in the high seas, including area-based protections and environmental impact assessment processes. Such measures could reduce pressure on fish stocks and help preserve the economic value of Pacific fisheries.
Yolanda Joab Mori, chief of staff to Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) President Wesley Simina, said one of the treaty’s key achievements is its recognition that science and Indigenous knowledge are complementary.
For FSM, she said, implementation will require a review of domestic laws to identify legal gaps and determine what is needed to carry out BBNJ provisions. That includes environmental impact assessments and area-based management measures, such as marine protected areas.
Yamase said implementation should also be rooted in Indigenous values and customary ocean knowledge.
She described attending an Indigenous Law of the Sea Workshop in Alaska, where Indigenous knowledge holders and practitioners considered what an ocean-governance framework developed through an Indigenous lens could look like.
“There’s UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), and so the Indigenous Law of the Sea helps answer the question of, if we were to make one ourselves, what would it look like through an Indigenous lens?” Yamase said.
She said the framework seeks to ensure cultural values and traditions remain the foundation for ocean governance and guide decision-making.
Palau was the first country to ratify the BBNJ agreement in January 2024. FSM was the first country to sign the agreement in September 2023 and later became the seventh state to ratify it. The agreement entered into force on January 17, 2026.
The first BBNJ Conference of the Parties (COP1) is expected by January 17, 2027 and will begin work on institutional and financial arrangements, area-based management tools, marine protected areas, and environmental impact assessments.
The discussion emphasized that the high seas are not distant waters outside Pacific concern. Through BBNJ, Pacific countries are seeking to carry their long tradition of ocean stewardship beyond their borders and sustaining the ocean links that make Pacific peoples, in the spirit of Remathau, people of the ocean.