Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which sites she plans to designate as high seas marine protected areas.

Under the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, the Conference of the Parties can establish area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas, in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Once we have ratified the Agreement, as a Party the UK will be able to participate fully in decisions on the establishment of such tools. The UK has been working proactively to support global efforts to consider where future ABMTs under the Agreement may be proposed, including through the publication of Defra-funded research which produced a shortlist of ABMTs that could be considered for development into future proposals.

The UK has a long-standing interest in the Sargasso Sea, with Bermuda – an overseas territory – being the only land territory within it. Together with the Government of Bermuda, we support science-led conservation of the Sargasso Sea, including as signatories to the Hamilton Declaration (2014) which established the Sargasso Sea Commission. We have recently circulated (to BBNJ signatories) a draft Hamilton II Declaration, which acknowledges the global importance of conserving the Sargasso Sea and provides a mechanism to signal political support for developing a collective ABMT proposal under the BBNJ Agreement.

Separate to the BBNJ Agreement, as a Contracting Party to the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) the UK works collaboratively with the other 15 Contracting Parties to designate marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction in the OSPAR maritime area.