公海条约终于生效

t will be a historic day when the High Seas Treaty comes into force this week on 17 January. Officially known as the United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, this new legal instrument is designed to protect and sustainably use the biodiversity in an area covering half of the Earth and two-thirds of the ocean—the water columns and deep seabeds not under any country’s control. The high seas teem with life, from migrating megafauna in surface waters to ancient deep-sea corals and sponges, which have been largely unprotected. Conversations about the high seas were historically driven by commercial interests, including shipping, industrialized fishing, and increasingly mining and prospecting. …