JAMAICA WELCOMES ENTRY INTO FORCE OF ‘UN HIGH SEAS TREATY’

Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, is welcoming the entry into force of the UN High Seas Treaty also known as the BBNJ Agreement, which seeks to protect the ocean and its biodiversity, while ensuring fair access to its resources.

“Entry into force of the ‘UN High Seas Treaty’ is a milestone for multilateralism, ocean governance, and particularly for small-island developing states (SIDS) like Jamaica, who rely on the ocean for food security, socio-economic development, and our well-being. Jamaica is pleased that the number of ratifications required to trigger entry into force, has now been achieved. We look forward to the critical date of 17th January 2026, when the Treaty will begin to help achieve international biodiversity targets, including the pledge to protect 30 per cent of land and sea areas by 2030”, Minister Johnson Smith said.

At the third United Nations (UN) Oceans Conference held in Europe earlier this year, Jamaica was among 18 countries to ratify the Treaty. This followed the country’s initial signing of the BBNJ Agreement in September 2024, on the margins of the 79th UN General Assembly, where Minister Johnson Smith signed on the country’s behalf.

“Jamaica remains firmly committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 14, which focuses on protecting life below water. We continue to make strategic decisions to protect our marine environment, having already protected 15% of our territorial waters. The work focused on development of our blue economy will also include coastal zone management, marine and coastal ecosystem restoration and the designation of new marine protected areas”, Minister Johnson Smith further explained.

It was fitting that Jamaica led the CARICOM negotiating team for the 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), as Jamaica also played an active role in the negotiation of the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was signed in Montego Bay in 1982, and continues to champion ocean governance in multilateral fora, including as host country of the International Seabed Authority.

Jamaica is also the only small-island developing state from the Caribbean represented on the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel), which comprises 18 world leaders, including Prime Minister Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness. The Panel collaborates across the five pillars of the Ocean Panel’s Transformations Agenda, namely: ocean health; ocean wealth; ocean equity; ocean knowledge; and ocean finance.