The UN member states have finally agreed and reached a historic agreement to protect the high seas. The high seas begin at the border of countries’ exclusive economic zones, which extend up to 200 nautical miles from coastlines. They thus fall under the jurisdiction of no country.

Conference chair Rena Lee announced, “The ship has reached the shore”, at the UN headquarters in New York on Sunday.

The agreement will be formally adopted at a later date once it has been vetted by lawyers and translated into the United Nation’s six official languages, she added.

Further, Rena Lee said, “There will be no reopening or discussions of substance”.

The negotiators from more than 100 countries completed a UN treaty to protect the high seas after more than 15 years of discussions, including four years of formal talks.

The exact wording of the text was not immediately released but activists hailed it as a breakthrough moment for the protection of biodiversity after more than 15 years of discussions.

The treaty is seen as essential to conserving 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030, as agreed by world governments in a historic accord signed in Montreal in December.

The EU also announced $860 million for research, monitoring, and conservation of oceans in 2023 at the Our Ocean conference in Panama that ended Friday. Panama said a total of $19 billion was pledged by countries.

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