High Seas Treaty and WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement Enter Into Force, Reshaping Global Ocean Governance

United Nations, New York · 17 January 2026 — The 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 — known as the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty — officially entered into force, creating the first comprehensive legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in the two-thirds of the world's ocean that lies beyond any single nation's control.

The entry into force followed the agreement reaching its required threshold of 60 ratifications on 19 September 2025, culminating a diplomatic process that began with the agreement's adoption on 19 June 2023 after nearly two decades of negotiations at the United Nations.

The BBNJ Agreement's entry into force came just months after another landmark instrument for ocean governance: the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the first multilateral trade agreement with environmental sustainability at its core, which entered into force on 15 September 2025 after years of ratification efforts by WTO member states.

Together, these two instruments fundamentally reshape the international architecture for fisheries management and marine conservation.

The BBNJ Agreement: Governing the High Seas

The high seas — areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction — cover nearly two-thirds of the global ocean and contain some of the most biodiverse and least-protected ecosystems on Earth. Until the BBNJ Agreement, there was no comprehensive legal mechanism to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) in these waters, no mandatory process for assessing the environmental impacts of human activities on the high seas, and no framework for sharing the benefits of marine genetic resources.

The BBNJ Agreement addresses all four of these gaps through four principal pillars:

1. Area-Based Management Tools, Including Marine Protected Areas

The agreement enables the establishment of MPAs on the high seas for the first time. This is critical for meeting the global biodiversity target agreed at the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022: protecting 30 per cent of the world's ocean by 2030 (the "30x30" target). Without a mechanism to create high-seas MPAs, the 30x30 target was mathematically unachievable, since the majority of the ocean lies beyond national jurisdiction.

2. Environmental Impact Assessments

The agreement establishes mandatory processes to assess the potential impacts of human activities on the high seas. Previously, activities such as deep-sea mining, high-seas fishing, and shipping were subject to fragmented or voluntary environmental review. Under the BBNJ Agreement, activities with potential for significant adverse impacts must undergo standardised environmental impact assessments before proceeding.

3. Marine Genetic Resources

The agreement creates a system for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from marine genetic resources collected on the high seas. Marine organisms — from deep-sea sponges to extremophile bacteria — are increasingly valuable for pharmaceutical research, biotechnology, and industrial applications. The BBNJ framework ensures that the benefits of these resources are shared equitably, particularly with developing countries that may lack the capacity to conduct deep-sea research but whose waters and biodiversity are part of the global commons.

4. Capacity Building and Technology Transfer

The agreement includes mechanisms for technology transfer and support to developing countries, recognising that effective high-seas governance requires all nations to have the scientific and technical capacity to participate in decision-making, monitoring, and enforcement.

The WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement: Curbing Harmful Subsidies

While the BBNJ Agreement addresses conservation and biodiversity, the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies tackles one of the primary economic drivers of overfishing: government subsidies that lower the cost of fishing and incentivise vessels to fish longer, harder, and farther from shore.

The agreement, initially concluded at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference in June 2022, prohibits government support that contributes to three categories of harmful fishing:

1. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing — subsidies to vessels or operators engaged in fishing that violates national, regional, or international conservation and management measures.

2. Fishing of overfished stocks — subsidies that maintain or increase fishing pressure on stocks already classified as overfished, undermining recovery efforts.

3. Unregulated fishing on the high seas — subsidies for fishing in areas beyond national jurisdiction where no regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO) has conservation measures in place.

The agreement entered into force on 15 September 2025 after the required two-thirds of WTO members accepted it. However, the "missing piece" — disciplines on subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing (OCOF) — remained unresolved. WTO member states were unable to finalise these additional disciplines during the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi in February 2024, and negotiations have continued as an ongoing priority.

The Broader Fisheries Governance Architecture

The BBNJ Agreement and the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement do not operate in isolation. They join a constellation of existing instruments that together form the international architecture for sustainable fisheries:

In December 2024, the UN General Assembly reaffirmed these commitments by adopting its annual resolutions on oceans and the law of the sea and on sustainable fisheries, providing continued political mandate for implementation.

Implications for Global Food Security

Fisheries are a critical source of protein and livelihoods for billions of people. The FAO estimates that approximately 3.3 billion people rely on aquatic foods for at least 20 per cent of their animal protein intake. In many coastal and island nations — particularly in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific — fisheries are not merely an economic sector but a foundation of food security and cultural identity.

The depletion of fish stocks through overfishing and IUU fishing directly threatens this food security. The WTO agreement's prohibition on subsidies for IUU fishing is particularly significant for developing coastal states, whose domestic fleets are often outcompeted by subsidised distant-water fleets from major fishing nations. By removing the financial incentive for vessels to engage in illegal fishing, the agreement aims to level the playing field for legitimate operators and resource-dependent communities.

The Road Ahead

The entry into force of both agreements in 2025–2026 opens a new chapter in ocean governance, but it is a chapter whose outcome is not yet written. Key challenges include:

• Operationalising the BBNJ Conference of the Parties: The first COP must establish rules of procedure, financial mechanisms, and the scientific body that will inform MPA designations and environmental impact assessment standards.

• Completing the WTO OCOF disciplines: Negotiations on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing must be concluded to address the full scale of harmful fisheries subsidies.

• Strengthening RFMOs: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations remain the primary mechanism for setting fishing quotas and conservation measures on the high seas. Their effectiveness varies widely, and the BBNJ Agreement's success depends in part on stronger RFMO performance.

• Ensuring equitable benefit-sharing: The marine genetic resources provisions of the BBNJ Agreement must be implemented in a way that genuinely benefits developing countries, not just in principle but in practice.

• Addressing climate change impacts: Both agreements were negotiated before the full scale of climate change impacts on ocean ecosystems — including warming, acidification, and deoxygenation — was fully appreciated. Adaptation of governance frameworks to these accelerating changes will be essential.

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Sources

• United Nations. BBNJ Agreement. Entry into force 17 January 2026. https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en
• European Commission. "High Seas Treaty enters into force." Press release IP/25/2151. January 2026.
• French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM). "Entry into force of the BBNJ Treaty: a decisive step for biodiversity on the high seas." 2026.
• WTO. Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. Entry into force 15 September 2025.
• FAO. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024. Rome, 2024.
• IISD. "WTO Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations: Status Update." 2024.
• UN General Assembly. Resolutions on Oceans and the Law of the Sea, and Sustainable Fisheries. December 2024.
• UNEP. "The BBNJ Agreement: A New Era for Ocean Governance." 2025.