Following nearly 36 hours of non-stop negotiations, the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity has reached agreement on the text for a historic new maritime biodiversity treaty.

“The ship has reached the shore,” announced Rena Lee, the Intergovernmental Conference President as she announced that the conference had finished the text of the agreement on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.

After nearly two decades of talks, and fraught negotiations on the draft treaty over the past two weeks, the agreement reached by delegates creates a legal framework would place 30 per cent of the world’s oceans into protected areas, put more money into marine conservation, and covers access to and use of marine genetic resources.

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