Protecting the Environment of ABNJ through Marine Protected Areas and Area-based Management Tools

Abstract

Existing political commitments and the current negotiation on an 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 (bbnj Agreement) indicate that there is widespread support for using marine protected areas (mpas) and areabased management tools (abmts) to protect the environment of abnj. In drafts of the bbnj Agreement that have been presented thus far, mpas and abmts are closely related. Reference is generally made to ‘areabased management tools, including marine protected areas’. However, abmts and mpas are two distinct terms that differ conceptually – one is a tool applicable to a specific area and the other characterizes the nature of a specific area – and their purpose is not the same.1 abmts are primarily intended to regulate specific activities at a