Blue Leaders High Level Meeting Brussels March 2024

Vanessa Lopes and Sheena Talma, two Fellows from the Nippon Foundation-University of Edinburgh Ocean Voices Programme’s first Fellowship cohort, had the pleasure of participating in the Blue Leaders High Level meeting in Brussels on March 7th, 2024.  “The Blue Leaders are an ambitious group of countries calling for urgent action to save the global ocean in the face of the climate crisis, overfishing, pollution, and other threats”. This year’s focus was on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement with more than 100 attendees ranging from Ambassadors, to ministers including Belgium Prime Minister and participation of the Prince of Monaco.  

The meeting focused on key aspects of next stages of the BBNJ agreement- Ratification and implementation of the treaty. Both Vanessa Lopes and Sheena Talma represented Small Island Developing States (SIDS) youth, speaking boldly about the next steps towards the ratification and domestication of the BBNJ agreement.

Sheena Talma, was a presenter on the panel on the importance of investing in not just ratification but also domestication. Saying “ratification, in my country, is a high-level process, and is not a process that is complex as it requires political will and an agreement amongst the political bodies. Domestication on the other hand - requires an intense legislative process that requires extensive financial and capacity support”. Sheena also spoke about access to research and the difficulty in accessing areas beyond national jurisdiction. She highlighted the research work that has been done in the jointly managed area between Seychelles and Mauritius and how this region could be a potential site for a high seas Marine Protected Area.  

Vanessa Lopes participated in the high level interventions and ocean commitment ceremony as a youth representative where she highlighted the importance of SIDS maintaining leadership towards an equitable ratification and implementation of the BBNJ agreement. 

“The ocean provides revenue, nutrition, employment, well-being, and livelihoods, but it is also at the core of ocean-dependent nations' identities and part of each individual's future. Yet, there are challenges and gaps that SIDS face in maintaining leadership in marine conservation. They range from scientific capacity and financial resources to having a seat at the table. Every stakeholder has a potential role to ensure that SIDS maintain leadership towards an equitable ratification and implementation of the BBNJ treaty covering biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. It is important that all countries are able to participate in this historic treaty because everyone is needed - no country can implement it alone. SIDS cover vast areas of the ocean that border the high seas and are ecologically and culturally connected to them.” She also highlighted scientific gaps in SIDS, and how the “Declaration for the enhancement of marine scientific knowledge, research capacity, and transfer of marine technology to SIDS” AOSIS Marine Science Declaration by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) can be a stepping stone in efforts to close many of these gaps faced by SIDS. 

Stay tuned to hear more from each of the Fellows by following Ocean Voices on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. 

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