Negotiations
In 2018, the United Nations began negotiating a new treaty for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. This proposed treaty, known as the BBNJ, was to cover marine life outside of state-controlled waters. The UN had been planning for these negotiations since the mid-2000s, and the plan was to have 4 two-week long meetings in Fall 2018, Spring and Fall 2019, and a final meeting in Spring 2020. These meetings were to be presided over by Singaporean diplomat Rena Lee, seen at left with me, and her job was to corral a number of unruly diplomats all seeking different things from the proposed treaty.
The Spring 2020 event didn’t happen due to COVID-19, and instead the 4th meeting picked up in Spring 2022, followed by a necessary 5th meeting in Fall 2022, and a humorously named “resumed 5th meeting” continued in Spring 2023, when the text was finalized. Only at the “further resumed 5th meeting” in June 2023 was the treaty adopted as final.
Our Team
In 2017, we formed a team of four scholars to attend and take notes on every BBNJ meeting. My amazing colleagues Rachel Tiller, Elizabeth Mendenhall, Elizabeth De Santo, and I attended all of the BBNJ meetings to conduct an ethnographic analysis of the negotiations. These analyses were published as a 6 part special series in Marine Policy, as well as additional work in other venues.
This involved a lot of sleepless nights, after hours drinks catching up on the various sub-meetings that we had split up for, and frantic writing to get a good analysis out as quickly as possible – preferably before the next meeting started!
Elizabeth Nyman 