By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:A landmark United Nations (UN) treaty protecting marine diversity in international waters is due to enter into force, after eighty-one (81) Governments agreed to include it in their national laws, Aljazeera reported this week.

It has been reported that in total, one hundred and forty-eight (148) countries, representing more than three-quarters of all UN member States, have signed on to the High Seas Treaty since it was adopted in June 2023.

Countries that have fully ratified the treaty in their national laws include island Nations such as Palau, Cuba and the Maldives, as well as some of the world’s biggest economies, including China, Germany, Japan, France and Brazil.

Coming into force on Saturday and officially known as the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), the treaty offers new protections to an area covering two-thirds of the world’s oceans and as many as 10 million different species, many of which are still unidentified.

As quoted by Aljazeera, Rebecca Hubbard, the Director of the High Seas Alliance, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that supports the treaty, said the agreement seeks to protect the extraordinary part of our planet.

“The High Seas are full of life, from tiny plankton all the way up to the great whales that rely on them. We’re only just beginning to understand how important this vast, interconnected world is for the health of our entire planet,” she said in a statement released this week.